French LNV league 2010/2011

6th day results:

St-Quentin 0/3 Montpellier 20-25 19-25 15-25 P2
Sète 3/1 Tourcoing 21-25 25-14 25-19 31-29 P2
Toulouse 1/3 Tours 25-19 17-25 21-25 19-25 P2
AS Cannes 3/1 Ajaccio 25-21 22-25 25-21 26-24 P2
Poitiers 3/1 Nice 21-25 25-23 25-18 25-22 P2
Rennes 3/0 Beauvais 25-23 25-14 25-18 P2
Paris 3/2 Nantes Rezé 25-19 31-29 23-25 20-25 16-14 P2

7th day results:

Montpellier 3/2 Sète 22-25 20-25 25-17 25-20 15-13 P2
Tourcoing 3/2 Toulouse 21-25 25-18 22-25 25-20 15-11 P2
Tours 3/1 AS Cannes 25-21 29-27 22-25 25-18 P2
Ajaccio 3/0 Paris 25-17 25-19 25-20 P2
Nice 2/3 St-Quentin 19-25 26-28 26-24 25-15 10-15 P2
Beauvais 1/3 Poitiers 24-26 25-21 17-25 17-25 P2
Nantes Rezé 3/0 Rennes 25-11 25-21 25-22 P2

Ranking:

1. Tours 17
2. AS Cannes 15
3. Poitiers 14
4. Sète 14
5. Montpellier 13
6. Paris 12
7. Nantes Rezé 12
8. Ajaccio 11
9. Tourcoing 11
10. Toulouse 8
11. Rennes 6
12. Nice 6
13. Beauvais 5
14. St-Quentin 3

Thanx for stats. I always like the French league.

Notes on last five days:
After 2 months of championship what can we see ?
- Top teams are toping the ranking! The four team that went to 1/2 finals last season are the best 4 teams so far.
- Two teams are doing surprisingly well: Nantes (newcomer in ligue A) and Ajaccio (almost get down to ligue B last season). No real stars in these teams but well oiled teamplay. I've not been able to see Nantes playing so far (maybe next week against Poitiers) but I'm very glad they are doing so well , and telling by the stats I will enjoy the way they are playing. (plus I like Ales Holubec and he's playing big )
- Two teams are doing surprisingly bad: Rennes and Beauvais. Beauvais is surely missing Gaumont-Casias a lot (he won't be back until a couple of months now after surgery this summer), but Pavel Bartik is nothing close from the best opposite of the championship he had been last two seasons. He falled from a ridiculous 37% efficiency (points - blocked shot and faults) last season to a weak 23% so far! About Rennes I'm wondering what the problem is. They did well last season, had almost only add up to the team this summer, and yet they can't play well? I'm really confused about them, and my only guess is they are lacking confidence so far.
- Paris is doing good (defeated Cannes and Sète) and not so good (losing 1 point to Nantes and a straight set defeat in Ajaccio). Their opposite (Hicham Essddyq) is out until the end of the season (right shoulder injury) and they had Todor Skrimov (20) replace him. He's a tremendous server (9 aces), but only 1.87 m. So far he's struggling, but so was Esseddyq. Maybe they will try to hire a new opposite, but I'm not sure they can afford it...
- With a great lineup, Montpellier is showing more and more good things. (great come-back and victory against neighbour city Sète). The yare currently ranking 5th and I wonder if they can get a little higher ...
- With only 1true outside hitter, Tourcoing is fighting well. It's not going to be an easy season for them but they are definitely brave.
- Nice and St Quentin were supposed to fight with Nantes and Ajaccio to avoid ligue B. Since Ajaccio and Nantes are looking better than expected, they are now in great danger. Maybe Nice will be able to win more points with their opposite Damiao back in play, but St Quentin is in big trouble.
- So far Toulouse looksa bit short to be a playoff contender, but able to avoid relegation stress.

Back to the top teams. Despite all having issues with missing players, they are toping the ranking:

- Tours had problems with their setters. Both De Kergret and Redwtiz get injured at the same time. De Kergret played even if suffering, and the result was a defeat at home against Sète, and an other in IECL against Fenerbahce (Olteanu eventually being ill the same evening). The problem is that out of Earvin Ngapeth, other players did not fight enough to try to win these games, and Tours could not defend its chances if their were any left. In Toulouse, the scenario was going to be the same and after 1 set and a half, De Kergret had to left the team. So Tours had to play with Lachaise (20) the setter of B team, a first year law student who had had only one training session with the pro team due to exams... And yet the players fight enough to win the game 3-1. Against Cannes, Lachaise started the game (with Redwitz not even warming up, and De Kergret unavailable) and Tours clinched an other 3-1 victory. Redwtiz will be back against Paris for next game but Tours now knows that the third setter can handle things if needed, and that the team can fight its way out of injury troubles. Also Loïc Geiler is back in the team and now Tours will have 3 great outside hitters when Earvin Ngapeth and Olteanu were the only real choices so far.
- Cannes lost its first setter Takaniko against Sofia. Kruyneer is now in charge, but so far the team is not playing as well with him. Yet they have enough players to keep scoring points. Could be tough for them in IECL still...
- Sète lost in Montpellier what they had gain in Tours. The players look exhausted against Montepllier and CEV cup might be a problem for them. Baptiste Geiller (Loïc's brother) is back after an injury and will help them. Overall the team is back on last season tracks and will keep play as a title contender.
- Poitiers is playing without Kieffer and Maréchal. They lost a few points here and then (defeat in Tours and Montpellier) had a tough time in CEV cup (but managed to qualify for next round) but still are ranking 3rd. If they keep playing like they are, they won't lose many points until Kieffer (january) and Maréchal (february) are back.

Quote from HeeelMooi

Wow I noticed that a lot of Frnech players are quite small. There's more than a few outside hitters below 190cm.

Yeah, we have a lot of "small" guys here. I think that's because tall men more often chose basketball than volleyball here. So there is really few 2m young players...
In french league A we have a 1,75 m starting setter (Brice Donat in St Quentin), a 1.83m starting outside hitter (Kilama in Beauvais, ex french NT), a 1.93 m middle blocker (Tonemassa in St Quentin) and now a 1.87 opposite (Skrimov in Paris).

Great post and great information, thank you Armel!

8th day results:

Toulouse 2/3 Montpellier 25-17 20-25 25-20 19-25 11-15 P2
AS Cannes 2/3 Tourcoing 22-25 17-25 25-18 25-16 10-15 P2
Paris 1/3 Tours 19-25 23-25 25-23 19-25 P2
Sète 3/1 Nice 30-28 20-25 25-23 25-23 P2
St-Quentin 0/3 Beauvais 20-25 18-25 15-25 P2
Poitiers 0/3 Rennes 21-25 22-25 24-26 P2
Ajaccio 3/1 Nantes Rezé 15-25 25-18 25-16 25-23 P2

Ranking:

1. Tours 20
2. Sète 17
3. AS Cannes 16
4. Montpellier 15
5. Ajaccio 14
6. Poitiers 14
7. Tourcoing 13
8. Paris 12
9. Nantes Rezé 12
10. Rennes 9
11. Toulouse 9
12. Beauvais 8
13. Nice 6
14. St-Quentin 3

Interesting facts:

- Surprising home defeats for Cannes against Tourcoing and Poitiers against Rennes. That's the 5th defeat for the last 6 games for Cannes ( two of them in IECL) who is still playing without Takaniko. Poitiers on the other hand had a bad game, the team unable to reconver from a bad start and André Lopes's back injury in the first set. Rennes played its best game so far, and once again got a good result in Poitiers.
- Tours got 3 points in Paris, with Lachaise starting the game. Redwitz entered the game in the end of 2nd set to help the team securing it, and Lachaise was back at the begining of the 3rd. Yet despite Redwitz back at the end of the 3rd, Paris was able to get this one, and Rafael stayed on court for the 4th (4-0 start on his own serves) an Tours took the 3 points quite easily.
- As expected , Beauvais took 3 points against neighbor city St Quentin which looks more and more in trouble. Nice played a great game in Sète (defeat 3-1 with only close sets) but could not get any point out of it. So even if they're back at the 13th spot in the ranking, they showed they had weapons to win points and fight for their place in league A.
- Ajaccio keep winning at home (against Nantes) and is now 5th in the ranking, right behind Montpellier who got 2 points in Toulouse.

Armel: Do you have any information about Bojidar Slavev? He's not mentioned anywhere in any of the teams' lists.. I am curious what happened to him, as far as I know he hasn't left France..

I heard Bojidar is playin in Lausanne in swiss.

Quote from MAR

I heard Bojidar is playin in Lausanne in swiss.

Hmm.. that's strange! I couldn't find him in either of the two professional teams in Lausanne.. I really don't know what happened with Slavev...

Quote from YavorD

Armel: Do you have any information about Bojidar Slavev? He's not mentioned anywhere in any of the teams' lists.. I am curious what happened to him, as far as I know he hasn't left France..

In fact he left France only for training session !
He was indeed in Switzerland, but only signed a contract very recently since its official since today !
After leaving Tourcoing he moved back near his family in Alps. While he was looking for a new team, he was training with the swiss team of Chênois, and eventually signed a contract with them.

9th day:

Montpellier 3/0 AS Cannes 25-16 25-18 25-17 P2
Tourcoing 2/3 Paris 25-21 25-18 21-25 22-25 13-15 P2
Tours 3/0 Ajaccio 25-18 25-20 25-18 P2
Nice 3/0 Toulouse 25-23 25-19 25-22 P2
Rennes 3/0 St-Quentin 25-19 25-23 25-20 P2
Nantes Rezé 0/3 Poitiers 20-25 18-25 20-25 P2

The game Sète vs Beauvais is delayed due to European cup schedule of both teams. (Teams should have 48 hours between a European cup game and a championship game, and due to complicated travel plans it would have been either too early for Sète or too late for Beauvais to play this week-end).

Ranking:

1. Tours 23
2. Montpellier 18
3. Sète * 17
4. Poitiers 17
5. AS Cannes 16
6. Paris 14
7. Tourcoing 14
8. Ajaccio 14
9. Nantes Rezé 12
10. Rennes 12
11. Nice 9
12. Toulouse 9
13. Beauvais * 8
14. St-Quentin 3

* one game less.

About the 9th day:

- An other defeat for Cannes (now 7 defeats in the last 8 games) completely crushed in Montpellier. The worst of it being that Cannes is only missing one player (Takaniko) and that the deafeat streak started with him still being healthy.
- Good comeback for Paris in Tourcoing (from 2-0 to an away victory 2-3) . I read on some boards that the level of play wasn't really good, and than more than a Paris comeback it was more of a failure of Tourcoing suddenly forgetting you had to win 3 sets to win a VB game. Anyway, Paris and Tourcoing will probably not be title contender this season, but both team can make it to the playoff.
- Nice clinched an other victory in Toulouse with brazilian opposite Damiao back in the team. Rennes easily defeated St Quentin and got its 4th victory (3 in the last 4 games). It will take more than a victory over St Quentin (currently appearing the weakest team of ligue A) to say that Rennes finally launched its season and is going to climb the ranking, but the team's finally scoring points and this will probably give them the confidence they lacked.
- Tours got an easy win over Ajaccio and is still cruising at the top of the ranking. Tours won the game without Bogdan Olteanu (death in his family) , and was replaced by Loïc Geiler who played pretty well (12/19 spiking).
- I attended the games Nantes vs Poitiers. Since Nantes had won all 3 first homes games, and Poitiers (without many starters) had being severely defeated by Lennik in CEV cup this week, I was wondering whether they might be able to keep pace with Rouzier and Co. Well, Poitiers got a 5-0 start in the first set, and Nantes never recover from the whole game. The opposites in Nantes could simply not score against trong block-defense from Poitiers, and almost only middle spiker were able to make points. In Poitiers, Rouzier played without mistakes, and the 0-3 loss was certain despite some good saves in Nantes.
To me, Nantes looked like they were afraid to play a team like Poitiers at home. On the other side, Poitiers played a clean game without much of fantasy. I think they would have to show something more creative against better teams, but they did not need it against Nantes, and playing straight efficient VB was a way to get a 3-0 win without risking to get Nantes in the game.

I would take Earvin Ngapeth in any team
Is there any chance Todor Skrimov to play so brilliantly in receiver's role? Bulgarian NT is already full of opposites...

Quote from raylight

Is there any chance Todor Skrimov to play so brilliantly in receiver's role? Bulgarian NT is already full of opposites...

Problem for Skrimov is that he's far from being a good receiver (50.3% excellent reception last season and this season, he's not been a starter as outside hitter despite being the best spiker of the team) . On the other side, even if he's a really capable spiker (30 /56 last friday) and an excellent server, he's 1.87m and I don't think Bulgarian NT will ever dare to play with such a small opposite! And of course he's a weak blocker (not a single block in the last 5 games)

He's 20, so with a lot of work and some time, he may improve as a receiver (tough to figure out if he's playing as an opposite with Paris) but currently, he's simply not good enough.

10th day:

Paris 3/0 Montpellier 25-23 25-22 25-22 P2
Ajaccio 3/0 Tourcoing 25-22 25-21 25-20 P2
AS Cannes 1/3 Nice 25-21 18-25 22-25 22-25 P2
Toulouse 3/2 Beauvais 27-29 24-26 25-16 25-17 15-13 116-101
Sète 3/2 Rennes 25-19 23-25 23-25 27-25 15-12 P2
St-Quentin 0/3 Poitiers 26-28 21-25 21-25
Tours 3/2 Nantes Rezé 20-25 19-25 28-26 26-24 15-13 P2

Ranking:

1. Tours 25
2. Poitiers 20
3. Sète * 19
4. Montpellier 18
5. Paris 17
6. Ajaccio 17
7. AS Cannes 16
8. Tourcoing 14
9. Nantes Rezé 13
10. Rennes 13
11. Nice 12
12. Toulouse 11
13. Beauvais * 9
14. St-Quentin 3

* one game less

About this day:
- Many surprises last week-end.
First the straight sets defeat of Montpellier in Paris. I think that's telling a lot about how close the teams are in this championship.
Then the near defeat of Tours against Nantes. Tours was able to win this game in the end, but Nantes was close from wining the game in straight sets ( they had 2 match point at 25-24 and 26-25 in the third) . The game was broadcast on internet and Nantes played a great game after the poor one I witnessed last week against Poitiers. I was really surprised to see that their wing spikers (especially Linz and Rybnicek) played really well after being poor against Poitiers. The setter Martin Repak also played extremely well. With good serves Nantes put Tours's reception in great trouble. I think that Tours's players were not enough concentrated at the beginning of the game and Nantes was playing without any pressure. In the end Tours lost only one point to Nantes, and even if they might have claim more, I think they were pretty satisfied with that.
Next surprise Sète struggling against Rennes. Like the game Tours vs Nantes, Sète was close from a 1-3 loss, but managed to win the game in 5 sets. Like Tours, Sète had a tough game in CEV cup this week (3-2 victory over Lokomotiv Kharkiv + a golden set) and were probably a bit tired. But it's also a proof of Rennes playing better than in the beginning of the season.
Last surprise (but is it really still one) an other defeat for Cannes against neighbour Nice. I think Cannes really need Takaniko back ... And some holidays !
Ajaccio is still playing well (especially at home) and Poitiers had an easy win over St Quentin despite Rouzier not playing really well. Last season, when Rouzier was not good, Poitiers always had tough games (even with unexpected defeats). Now they can win even when he's not good. I think that's good for them because it's proof that they improve collectively.
Toulouse had a very important win against Beauvais. Toulouse had lost their 4 last games, and with Nice geting pace with Damiao back in the team, they really needed points. Beauvais is still not playing good enough, but I think Gaumont-Casias is coming back, and Granvorka will join the team for return games (starting january the 15th) . Hopefully that should give them enough power to get out of trouble

Quote from Kaziyski

Cannes is in big hole but even with Takaniko would happen this. They lost almost all starters from last year and started very well into season but Cannes don't have enough depth.

Maybe you're right.
In fact that's more or less what I believed about Cannes before the season start. But their great start made me change my mind, and I figure maybe Tillie had built a good team like past seasons even if I wasn't really confident in the level of Krou, Bengolea or Cundy.
We'll see if the team can recover confidence and efficiency later and what Takaniko's return will change ...

11th day:

Montpellier 3/1 Ajaccio 18-25 25-20 25-21 25-21 P2
Tourcoing 3/2 Tours 22-25 25-22 25-23 26-28 20-18 P2
Nice 3/0 Paris 25-0 25-0 25-0 (Paris forfeit)
Beauvais 3/2 AS Cannes 25-12 25-19 19-25 18-25 15-9
Rennes 2/3 Toulouse 25-22 23-25 25-21 22-25 13-15 P2
Poitiers 3/0 Sète 25-23 25-18 25-20 P2
Nantes Rezé 3/1 St-Quentin 25-16 25-17 24-26 25-21 P2

12th day:

Tours 3/0 Montpellier 25-22 25-20 25-19 P2
Ajaccio 3/1 Nice 25-15 15-25 25-23 25-22 P2
Paris 3/1 Beauvais 25-16 25-21 25-27 30-28 P2
AS Cannes 3/2 Rennes 25-22 22-25 25-15 22-25 19-17 P2
Toulouse vs Poitiers to be played 01/04
Sètevs St-Quentin to be played 01/18
Tourcoing vs Nantes Rezé to be played 01/04

Ranking:

1. Tours 29
2. Poitiers * 23
3. Montpellier 21
4. Paris 20
5. Ajaccio 20
6. Sète ** 19
7. AS Cannes 19
8. Tourcoing * 16
9. Nantes Rezé * 16
10. Nice 15
11. Rennes 15
12. Toulouse * 13
13. Beauvais * 11
14. St-Quentin * 3

*one game less
** two games less

News from France:

Many troubles in the championship last days:
- The first one was Paris's forfeit against Nice. Paris's flight was canceled because of the bad weather and the team could not reach Nice in due time. Since Paris somehow did not take every mesure to make sure to be in Nice in time (for exemple, Cannes traveled one day before to go to Beauvais) , the league called it a forfeit, and victory is given to the hometeam. According to the rule, Paris should also be given a 3 points penalty (not appearing in the ranking since the team can appeal from the decision).
- The second one is a decision from the DNACG of the league (management control) that give a 1 point penalty to Cannes and St Quentin and a 2 points penalty to Poitiers and Tourcoing. All these team got this sanction because of a gap between their previsionnal budget in April (that got them the Ligue A agreement and the right to recruit players) and their actual budget in november. In addition, these teams will not have the right to recruit other players until the end of the season. (like Paris, because of appeal possbilities, these penalty do not appear in the ranking so far)
It looks like Poitiers will not appeal the penalty (which can go up to 10 points)
In addition there are trouble with the french NT (I'll write a post later), so the mood is quite strange right now...

About the results:
- Surprising defeat from Tours in Tourcoing. Despite a monster game from Ngapeth (33 points - 28/40 spiking, 44/75 receiving ! ) , a tired Tours lost its first tie-break of the season. Yet, the first full week rest since a long time enabled them to play a very good game against Montpellier. David Konecny (not really good since a few weeks) got a great game. This was the first time this season that all players were available for Tours.
- Otherwise, not many news: Cannes strugling, Ajaccio scoring points, Nice as well. Poitiers got the better of Sète in straight sets (Like Tours, Sète was very tired after long European Cup games), and St Quentin lost to Nantes the kind of game they can't afford to lose. As a result, Tours and St Quentin are both far from the other teams (each in its own way), and everything can happen in between.

My pronostic for the final ranking:

1. Tours (best team)
2. Poitiers (with Kieffer and Maréchal back, they should secure this second place pretty easily)
3. Sète (very consistent team. Few bad surprises to expect from them)
4. Montpellier (good team, but a bit unconsistent)
5. Ajaccio (consistent team scoring a lot of points at home. They have the confidence to keep a good spot in the ranking)
6. Paris (fighting despite the lack of a good opposite. They should play the play-off)
7. Cannes (a lot of difficulties right now. I think they will be able to focus on the championship after IECL elimination. Yet they are currently lacking so much confidence, it's hard to exepect more than a close qualification to play-off)
8. Beauvais (with Granvorka in the team, and Gaumont-Casias back after injury, they should be able to make a come-back in the ranking. If they achieve Play-off qualification, I'm even considering them as a title contender)
9. Rennes (they play better, probably enough to remain in ligue A, but they still have to step up if they want to be in the play-off)
10. Nice (doing well with Damiao back, they should avoid further trouble)
11. Nantes-Rezé (a tough team that will earn points from their relentless fight)
12. Tourcoing (yes they can defeat Tours, but they lack too many outside hitters to be consistent on a regular basis. They can't afford any injury and with so few turnover there is a lot of risk they happen)
13. Toulouse (with Ajaccio and Nantes playing better than, expected, Toulouse's level might prove too short to remain in ligue A. If they improve they will probably let an other team fall down.)
14. St Quentin (well... almost nothing to expect from them. They are the weakest, and can't even sign new players now!)

Quote from Kaziyski

Toulouse is just above St.Quentin and I see them as St.Quentin companion in Ligue B next season

So we agree.
What's giving me some hope for Toulouse is that they have a very good coach (Josef Smolka), they have been in this kind of situation before and knows how to deal with it, and I think that Ojansivu has not shown the best of him so far. Since the team is so close from Rennes , Nantes, Nice and Tourcoing , (and obviously Beauvais but the situation is different) a small improvement of their game could result in precious points won.