Bulgarian Superleague 2010-2011

Tomorrow is the official start of the new season in the Bulgarian Superleague. The federation took a bit of a strange decision for the first time in many years to increase the number of participants to 12. The absurdity comes from the fact that some of the teams are not even professional, they were promoted automatically from the second league, the official reason is that there are many clubs registered to play in the lower divisions, so an increase in the number of participants in the Superleague would ease the financial travel expenses of the lower-division clubs and would, moreover, provide many more official games for the relatively young Superleague players we have. We'll see whether that's a good decision. The 12 teams are:

CSKA (Sofia)
Levski Volley (Sofia)
Pirin Balkanstroy (Razlog)
Lukoil Neftochimik (Bourgas)
Marek Union-Ivkoni (Dupnitsa)
Arda (Kardzhali)
Slavia (Sofia)
Montana (Montana)
Coco Volley Club Gabrovo (Gabrovo)
Kaliakra (Kavarna)
Cherno more BASK (Varna)
University Of National And World Economy (Sofia) - abbreviated UNWE

The rosters are not officially announced yet, most of the teams are making last minute signings, I'll do my best to upload the complete list of players once the league starts. I've had an agreement with the guys from the Volleyball Manager that they could even use the rosters for the game database, this summer I could only send the complete rosters of the last season.

The first round draw:

29-October 2010

Lukoil Neftochimik - Pirin Balkanstroy
Marek Union-Ivkoni - Slavia
Coco Volley Club Gabrovo - Cherno more BASK

30-October 2010

Montana - CSKA
Kaliakra - Levski Volley
UNWE - Arda

1st round:

29-October

Lukoil Neftochimik - Pirin Balkanstroy 0-3 (19-25, 23-25, 24-26)
Marek Union-Ivkoni - Slavia 3-0 (31-29, 25-13, 25-22)
Coco Volley Club Gabrovo - Cherno more BASK 3-1 (25-14, 25-17, 22-25, 25-12)

30-October

Montana - CSKA 0-3 (20-25, 22-25, 19-25)
Kaliakra - Levski Volley 0-3 (19-25, 23-25, 21-25)
UNWE - Arda 0-3 (17-25, 24-26, 16-25)

Quote from much

Hi YavorD

yesterday I tried watch CSKA Sofia vs. Lukoil Neftochimik.

They have a very interesting new player, Yasser Portuondo from Cuba.

Also they last-minute singned with Valters Ramma from Latvia.

Problem is, the game was transmitted only via satellite and not online.
Do you know of somebody who recorded this game by chance ?

Thanks.

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Hi, the guys above gave you some links, they told you that BNT Sat is showing games from the league every Friday, if you can't catch it via satellite, it'd be more difficult online though, I've experienced it myself during the time I was abroad. In the next days I'll upload rosters of all the teams in the league, so you'll get the information about players you need.

Unfortunately, I don't know anyone from Bulgaria here (or even in other forums and torrents) who records volleyball games from our league, so I can't really help you with that...

PS. they're showing CSKA again next Friday, until then I'll try to find a working link!

2nd round:

05-November

CSKA - Lukoil Neftochimik 3-1 (23-25, 25-21, 25-22, 25-23)

CSKA:Nikolay Ivanov 2, Philip Maiyo 28, Yasser Portuondo 16, Ivaylo Stefanov 11, Stoyan Samunev 14, Svetozar Ivanov 6, Teodor Salparov - libero, Georgi Manchev.

Neftochimik: Milos Stefanovic 6, Venelin Kadunkov 10, Andrey Nikolov 16, Simeon Alexandrov 16, Georgi Dimitrov 8, Teodor Bogdanov 14, Dobromir Ivanov - libero, Kostadin Nikolov 1.

Arda - Coco Volley Club Gabrovo 3-0 (25-22, 25-13, 25-21)
Cherno more BASK - Montana 0-3 (22-25, 17-25, 21-25)

06-November

Slavia - UNWE 3-0 (25-22, 25-16, 25-23)
Kaliakra - Marek Union-Ivkoni 0-3 (19-25, 14-25, 14-25)
Levski Volley - Pirin Balkanstroy 0-3 (19-25, 19-25, 19-25)

Standings:

1 - Marek Union-Ivkoni 6
2 - Arda 6
3 - Pirin Balkanstroy 6
4 - CSKA 6
5 - Montana 3
6 - Slavia 3
7 - Levski Volley 3
8 - Coco Volley Club Gabrovo 3
9 - Lukoil Neftochimik 0
10- Cherno more BASK 0
11- UNWE 0
12- Kaliakra 0

Quote

CSKA - Lukoil Neftochimik 3-1 (23-25, 25-21, 25-22, 25-23)

CSKA:Nikolay Ivanov 2, Philip Maiyo 28, Yasser Portuondo 16, Ivaylo Stefanov 11, Stoyan Samunev 14, Svetozar Ivanov 6, Teodor Salparov - libero, Georgi Manchev.

Neftochimik: Milos Stefanovic 6, Venelin Kadunkov 10, Andrey Nikolov 16, Simeon Alexandrov 16, Georgi Dimitrov 8, Teodor Bogdanov 14, Dobromir Ivanov - libero, Kostadin Nikolov 1.

CSKA and Neftochimik made a relatively good game in the derby match of the second round. All of the 4 sets were intense, but the reason for that could be explained with the weak start of the game for CSKA and the high motivation from Neftochimik. After all, two of the new signings in Neftochimik (Alexandrov and Bogdanov) came during the summer from CSKA's rival Levski. CSKA didn't impress much in this game, it's obvious they need more time to find the right rhythm, the coach Popov started with the veteran Stefanov instead of the new attacker Ramma and Svetozar Ivanov instead of Evgeni Ivanov in the middle. I think they underestimated their opponents a bit, after losing the first set they had to speed up their game to close it 3-1, even though they were 21-23 behind in the 4th set, which CSKA won only because of bad reception from Neftochimik. Lukoil showed some progress compared to last week's failure at home against Pirin, the new Serbian setter Stefanovic is quite good for our championship despite his young age of 22. However, the main problem seems to be the opposite position, Kadunkov is young, but IMO he doesn't possess the class to be a regular starter in a team with high ambitions. To highlight the game of CSKA, they won because of their routine, not because they were spectacular, they surely need to improve in the coming 2 weeks to surprise Unterhaching away.

He took part for a while in the first game against Montana, he is still gaining stamina for a full match, our NT and CSKA surely need him, let's hope he will be fine for the IECL start.

BULGARIAN SUPERLEAGUE
2010-2011
TEAM ROSTERS

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CSKA Sofia
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Setters: Nikolay Ivanov, Georgi Manchev
Opposites: Philip Maiyo (Kenya), Ivan Krachev
Attackers: Valters Ramma (Latvia), Vladislav Aleksandrov, Ivaylo Stefanov, Yasser Portuondo (Cuba)
Middle-blockers: Teodor Todorov, Evgeni Ivanov, Svetozar Ivanov, Stoyan Samunev, Andrey Nikolov
Liberos: Teodor Salparov, Anton Vasiliev

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Levski Volley Sofia
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Setters: Borislav Georgiev, Dimitar Nedelchev
Opposites: Zhani Zhelyazkov
Attackers: Petar Atanasov, Deyan Ninov, Tsvetan Petrov, Georgi Petrov
Middle-blockers: Ivan Latunov, Grigor Vasilev, Ventsislav Trifonov, Ventsislav Ragin, Denis Chavdarov
Liberos: Vladislav Ivanov, Ivaylo Lalov

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Lukoil Neftochimik Bourgas
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Setters: Stefan Stoyanov, Milos Stefanovic (Serbia), Alexander Petkov
Opposites: Venelin Kadunkov, Kostadin Nikolov
Attackers: Simeon Aleksandrov, Andrey Nikolov, Nikolay Antonov, Stoyan Zlatev
Middle-blockers: Teodor Bogdanov, Ivan Vlasev, Georgi Dimitrov
Libero: Dobromir Ivanov

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Pirin Balkanstroy Razlog
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Setters: Konstantin Mitev, Dobromir Dimitrov
Opposites: Yordan Zhelyazkov, Kostadin Stoykov
Attackers: Nikolay Penchev, Blagovest Katrandzhiev, Stoyko Stoyanov, Valentin Dimov
Middle-blockers: Kostadin Gadzhanov, Svetoslav Gotsev, Ivaylo Filipov, Petar Nenkov
Liberos: Atanas Mitrev, Petar Karakashev

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Marek Union-Ivkoni Dupnitsa
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Setters: Gjorgi Gjorgiev (Macedonia), Dayan Ivanov
Opposites: Mincho Minchev, Georgi Terziyski
Attackers: Todor Valchev, Zlatan Yordanov, Georgi Elchinov, Mihail Stoev
Middle-blockers: Ivo Kenderov, Martin Ivanov, Pavel Dushkov, Martin Anastasov
Liberos: Lyubomir Georgiev, Martin Bozhilov

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Arda Kardzhali
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Setters: Delcho Raev, Georgi Topalov, Nikola Kovachevski
Opposites: Neven Neshev, Petar Karagyaurov
Attackers: Zapryan Donikyan, Hristo Ginev, Kiril Hadzhiev, Nikolay Kolev, Georgi Ivanov
Middle-blockers: Mladen Kavaldzhiev, Petar Uzunov
Liberos: Teodor Marinov, Desislav Iliev

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Coco Volley Club Gabrovo
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Setters: Georgi Kavardzhiev, Nikolay Kichukov
Opposites: Krasimir Stefanov, Ventsislav Georgiev, Kalin Dimitrov
Attackers: Stanislav Petkov, Hristo Zapryanov, Stoyan Vuldzhev, Teodor Bodurov, Iliyan Georgiev
Middle-blockers: Georgi Lazarov, Georgi Mihov, Martin Paliyski
Libero: Atanas Mitev

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Montana
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Setters: Denislav Alexandrov, Vladislav Stoyanov
Opposites: Mladen Mladenov, Tihomir Georgiev, Radostin Denkov
Attackers: Branimir Baev, Ivan Dimitrov, Kamen Kamenov, Daniel Tsvetanov
Middle-blockers: Liubomir Yotov, Zhivko Ivanov
Libero: Georgi Georgiev

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Slavia Sofia
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Setters: Yanko Delchev, Dimitar Dimitrov
Opposites: Alexander Gorbatkov, Ivan Damyanov, Georgi Rizov
Attackers: Nikolay Kostadinov, Kiril Petrov, Dimitar Nikov, Silvester Ivanov, Alexander Kordev
Middle-blockers: Yordan Linev, Vasiliy Petrov
Libero: Martin Ivanov

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Cherno more BASK Varna
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Setters: Stefan Georgiev, Stefan Gendov
Opposites: Kaloyan Kanev, Georgi Yovchev
Attackers: Ivaylo Ivanov, Yavor Rashev, Yavor Genov, Petar Milushev, Zhulien Zhekov
Middle-blockers: Ivaylo Velikov, Ismail Djevdet, Ventsislav Chakurov, Velichko Dimitrov
Libero: Kaloyan Kunev

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Kaliakra Kavarna
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Setters: Hristo Enkov, Lyubomir Agontsev
Opposites: Tsanko Tsankov, Vangel Velinov
Attackers: Vassil Stoyanov, Dimitar Ivanov, Dimitar Bejandolski, Mihail Mihaylov
Middle-blockers: Georgi Toshkov, Konstantin Mihaylov, Svetoslav Arnaudov
Liberos: Diyan Boyukliev, Teodor Georgiev

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UNWE Sofia
------------
Setters: Veselin Dimchev, Dimitar Stamenov
Opposites: Milen Marinov, Emil Georgiev
Attackers: Yordan Vasilev, Vladislav Bojikov, Stefan Mladenov
Middle-blockers: Ivan Kovachev, Svetozar Dimov, Georgi Todorov, Tancho Ivanov
Liberos: Viktor Zhechev, Ivo Kotsakov

Some of the squads still have names missing such as back-up players for some positions, the reason for that is the total lack of statistics in our league. I will gradually try and fill out what is missing

Quote from nadejda

much, aren't you able to watch BNT SAT online?

Can you try this links?

mms://showbg.bnt.bg/bntsat ; mms://showww.bnt.bg/bntsat - BNT Sat

olso here:
http://tv.free.bg/bntsportonline.html

It was announced that they are reachable otside Bulgaria...

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Tomorrow CSKA is visiting Pirin away. Starts at 17:30 BG time, that makes it 16:30 in Germany. The only other links I could find are these:

mms://208.53.138.139/510122518

Try any from those given here and above and if nothing works, then I guess watching the game online would be impossible!

Quote from much

Thank you all for your support.

YavorD: the first Link does not work for me. The second one (ATTENTION to others) tries to install a virus-like add-on.

Anyway: I found out that one can watch BNT Sat on German digital cable TV bouqet. This is what I am going to do (sometimes things are easier than expected ).

Thanks again.

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That's great! I wish I knew about the cable TV options when I was in Germany btw, I am sorry for the second link, I didn't know about it because I've blocked pop-ups on my computer, I wouldn't put it if I knew, even though I've successfully used that website several times before! I am gonna delete it from the previous post so that no one is tempted by the pop-ups!