Bulgarian Superleague 2010-2011

17th round (postponed game due to CEV Cup participation of CSKA):

11-March

CSKA - Arda 3-0 (25-16, 25-20, 25-15) http://bgvolleyball.com/files/volleyball/stats/2710.htm

20th round:

11-March

Coco Volley Club Gabrovo - Lukoil Neftochimik 0-3 (23-25, 21-25, 14-25)

12-March

Marek Union-Ivkoni - CSKA 1-3 (16-25, 25-19, 23-25, 23-25)
Kaliakra - Cherno more BASK 3-0 (25-19, 25-18, 25-11)
UNWE - Pirin Balkanstroy 0-3 (15-25, 21-25, 19-25)
Levski Volley - Montana 3-0 (25-23, 26-24, 29-27)
Slavia - Arda 1-3 (18-25, 22-25, 25-21, 20-25)

Standings:

1 - CSKA (-1) 56
2 - Pirin Balkanstroy (-1) 55
3 - Lukoil Neftochimik (-1) 42
4 - Marek Union-Ivkoni 39
5 - Montana 37
6 - Levski Volley 32
7 - Coco Volley Club Gabrovo 29
8 - Arda 23
9 - Kaliakra 18
10- Slavia 11
11- Cherno more BASK 10
12- UNWE (+1) 5

21th round:

15-March

Pirin Balkanstroy - Coco Volley Club Gabrovo 3-1 (25-18, 25-22, 22-25, 25-23) http://bgvolleyball.com/files/volleyball/stats/2736.html
Cherno more BASK - Marek Union-Ivkoni 0-3 (28-30, 25-27, 12-25)
Arda - Kaliakra 0-3 (20-25, 23-25, 19-25)
Lukoil Neftochimik - Montana 3-0 (25-20, 25-14, 25-19)
Slavia - Levski Volley 0-3 (18-25, 19-25, 20-25)

Standings:

1 - Pirin Balkanstroy (-1) 58
2 - CSKA (-2) 56
3 - Lukoil Neftochimik (-1) 45
4 - Marek Union-Ivkoni 42
5 - Montana 37
6 - Levski Volley 35
7 - Coco Volley Club Gabrovo 29
8 - Arda 23
9 - Kaliakra 21
10- Slavia 11
11- Cherno more BASK 10
12- UNWE 5

The last but one round of the league still left some unanswered questions before the play-off phase. After taking an easy and important win in Gabrovo Lukoil Neftochimik played today at home its last home game of the season against Montana. In the previous round Levski Volley took a clean victory against Montana, which should help them in their attempts to overtake Montana's 5th position. Montana were expected to come in Bourgas and fight for something since they lost against Levski in Sofia and because they are facing Pirin at home in the last round. Theoretically, they had chances to reach 4th place, but now they can only hope to remain 5th. There was no derby today in Bourgas, I attended the game, Montana played really without any kind of motivation, Neftochimik totally demolished the visitors. Only Mladen Maldenov showed some desire, the rest were just waiting for the game to finish. I've watched the setter Vladislav Stoyanov (Montana) in his younger years when he played with Kaziyski, Tsankov, Svetozar Ivanov in Slavia, he was a different player back then, nothing similar to what he shows nowadays. He was even substituted by the younger Denislav Aleksandrov who performed better, but ther was nothing Montana could offer to surprise their hosts. Such a pity, their coach Severin Dimitrov is one of the best young coaches in Bulgaria, but I guess he can't find the right motivation for his team yet, they have a good selection of players and we know that he is a capable coach since he made exactly Neftochimik champions some years ago..

With the consecutive victories against Gabrovo and Montana Neftochimik practically secured the 3rd place. They made the rarely stupid decision to decline the home advantage in the postponed game against CSKA, so they are going to visit CSKA in Sofia again, just as happened during the autumn in the first half of the season. In the last round they will try to take something from Levski even though Levski Volley could move one place up in case of a victory over Neftochimik and an extremely possible defeat of Montana against Pirin.

Down in the table, Kaliakra took two consecutive 3-0 against Cherno more and Arda, and since I already explained the very difficult situation in Arda, Kaliakra seem to be the favourite for getting the last play-off spot. As a matter of fact, they would totally deserve it. Arda would most surely lose in Dupnitsa against the in-form Marek, which, by the way, might still have some theoretic chances of getting a position higher than Neftochimik, whereas Kaliakra await Slavia in their last home game. So, Kaliakra certainly have better chances of reaching the 8th place compared to Arda and will probably meet CSKA in the play-offs.

Last, the postponed games Lukoil Neftochimik vs. CSKA and CSKA vs. Pirin Balkanstroy will be played on 20 and 22nd March respectively both in Sofia in the sports hall of CSKA. The official reason announced by Neftochimik for the change of venues is the approaching annual gymnastics festival taking place in the sports hall of the town, but surely there are other sports halls in the area where they could have hosted CSKA.

At the moment he is applying for a Bulgarian citizenship. In case he gets it he would need to wait 2 years until 2013 before he takes the chance to play for our NT, which would be OK since he is only 18 now. He is demonstrating ups and downs this season, alternating very good and mediocre games, but I think he might be an option for our NT in the future if coaches help him develop. The weird thing is that his bother - Nikola Gjorgiev, is a part of the F.Y.R. of Macedonia's NT, so the two brothers might end up playing for two different countries at the end.

Quote from raylight

There are a lot of Bulgarian people with relatives in Macedonia, even cousins, so that's not that weird

We all know this is not one of these cases..

22nd round:

18-March

Montana - Pirin Balkanstroy 0-3 (20-25, 26-28, 18-25)
UNWE - Cherno more BASK 3-2 (25-19, 18-25, 25-23, 24-26, 15-11)
Marek Union-Ivkoni - Arda 3-0 (26-24, 25-17, 27-25)
Kaliakra - Slavia 3-0 (26-24, 25-14, 25-20)
Coco Volley Club Gabrovo - CSKA 0-3 (20-25, 14-25, 22-25) http://bgvolleyball.com/files/volleyball/stats/2740.htm

19-March

Levski Volley - Lukoil Neftochimik 3-0 (25-20, 25-17, 25-18 )

13th round (postponed game):

20-March

Lukoil Neftochimik - CSKA 1-3 (18-25, 19-25, 25-20, 28-30) http://bgvolleyball.com/files/volleyball/stats/2685.htm

Standings:

1 - CSKA (-1) 62
2 - Pirin Balkanstroy (-1) 61
3 - Lukoil Neftochimik 45 (set ratio 50-26, 1.9231)
4 - Marek Union-Ivkoni 45 (set ratio 51-29, 1.7586)
5 - Levski Volley 38
6 - Montana 37
7 - Coco Volley Club Gabrovo 29
8 - Kaliakra 24
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9 - Arda 23
10- Cherno more BASK 11 (set ratio 20-59, 0.3390)
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11- Slavia 11 (set ratio 18-56, 0.3214)
12- UNWE 7

The last round of the regular season was played this weekend. It offered both some interesting and disputable games. Pirin took all the three points as expected in their visit to Montana. Pirin are still chasing CSKA, so the victory was crucial for them. Montana lost three games in a row after being defeated already by Levski and Neftochimik. They lost too many points and as a result went one place down in the final standings.

The most disputable game happened in Sofia between Levski and Neftochimik. Levski needed the win to move one place up, but then they would be facing Marek and CSKA eventually in the play-off bracket. Lukoil, on the other hand, secured the third place already in the last round, so they played in Sofia with their second roster, giving some play minutes to most of the team's youngsters. The match was extremely boring, Neftochimik just waited for the final whistle and for the postponed derby against CSKA in Sofia the next day. By losing against Levski they chose Montana as an opponent in the quarterfinal play-offs and eventually Pirin in the semis.

It was interesting at the second half of the table as well. Kaliakra won expectedly against visiting Slavia and since Arda got defeated in Dupnitsa, Kaliakra took the last play-off spot, which is a great result for a newcomer in the league even though they will probable face CSKA.

UNWE and Cherno more played a tough game. The tie-break helped BASK remain in the Superleague for the next season, whereas Slavia will need to go through play-down games versus the 2nd team from the second division. UNWE will relegate despite finishing the season with a home win.

The most discussed name in this last round is that of Lukoil Neftochimik without any doubts. First, they truly mocked with volleyball by using bench players and no moral versus the younger Levski squad, but also showed some great spirit on the next day by pushing CSKA away. I say away because the game was again played in the sports hall of CSKA, just as was the case in the autumn. Then again it ended 3-1. It's a pity that after being 0-2 down, Neftochimik came back to win the third and even missed the chance to enter a tie-break by losing several set points. It would have been great to see them push CSKA into a tie-break and be the second team after Pirin to do so this season in Bulgaria, but on the other side they didn't deserve it because of what they did on the previous day versus Levski.

Anyway, they chose Montana as an opponent for the quarterfinals and eventually might play with Pirin in the semis. Neftochimik vs. Montana, however, will not be that easy, I guess, since Montana may try and look for revenge after what happened this weekend. Also, I am not sure whether Pirin or CSKA will be the better choice for an opponent in the semis, we already saw that Neftochimik play more successfully against CSKA than Pirin. But let's see if they can beat Montana that easily..

Last, it was announced this week by the sports director of Lukoil Bulgaria that as of the next season the name of the club will be Neftochimik 2010. The name Lukoil will be dropped, but this doesn't mean the Russian brand will stop paying the team, they just decided to withdraw the name from the club's profile. Whether this would affect seriously the team we can only say next year.