2014 CEV DenizBank Champions League

    Cev must kick Glatasaray out of competition. :wall: It is a torture to watch them.
    What a poor match between Constanta-Halkbank . It is sad to watch that despite everything, there wasnt match difference between this teams. Halkbank's reception and defense is joke. They barely won against mediocre teams in Turkish league.If they continue to play this way, Fenerbahçe will beat them in the next match. I know Djuric isn't enough for this level as an opposite but I can't understand Kaziyski and Juantorena's ordinary performances.

    Yes, the game in Constanta was a relatively weak one. However, if there is something very positive that was notable, that was Zhekov's game. I've never seen him set so often, so well and with such a variety in the middle! It looks like something new or totally forgotten after so many years. It was probably back in the days in Levski when I last saw him doing it. I am really glad he's coming back to routine, but let's avoid pointless NT/Bratoev/Best setter discussions right now.


    I caught only the last set of Olympiacos vs. Belogorie and I can't explain how this back-up setter Maroulis plays in the CL. He practically gave away the third set to Belogorie with his awful sets when Olympiacos could've clearly gone to a fourth one. In the last 7 or 8 points maybe he didn't even set once properly. Yordanov was passing the ball over with two hands.


    A great Budva! The pleasant surprise of the CL so far this season. They look like a different team with Falaschi. Marko Bojic's return to Montenegro also helps the team a lot. I was really astonished how well they started against Resovia and won neutral spectators' liking. It's a dream campaign for them so far, hope they finish it in style.


    Friedrichshafen needs to wake up as soon as possible while they still have a chance to make it to the next round. I don't know what's wrong with these guys, their Bundesliga season didn't commence perfectly either. One of the most interesting teams in terms of summer selection, let's see how long it would take Moculescu to make use of it.

    I watched first 2 sets of Olympiakos-Belgorie. Russians are stronger, no way to compare, but Travica is their weak link as usual: he used to set to Muserskyi (218 cm) just over the net and he couldn't spike really hard the ball many times, but killed it anyway. They had some wrong connection between Travica and Tetyukhin as well. Travica may destroy the team, I'm sure.


    Then I watched second and third set of Contanta-Halkbank. Halkbank reminds me female Galatasary. The team plays without heart and passion. They have the weakest libero I ever watched in a Champions League match: he didn't have a dig for the whole time and his reception was totally shaky. They have to look for an international level libero as soon as possible (Lambourne should be still free). The stars from the team were really nervous and pissed. I couldn't see the soul of the team, they just were 6 people playing together. Raphael didn't play his best, he didn't run to the middles. Problably they have no feeling or he just doesn't trust them. Matey had his usual troubles in reception. Osmany was very nervous, he even told to the referee "f**k you" in italian (referee had 2 wrong calls against Halkbank, Osmany was actually right to protest, but referee showed him yellow card soon). Second set was present by referee for Tomis. The romenians played quite good IMHO. Zhekov was brilliant, he runned so many times to the middles. Rodriguez is still very solid receiver, he let Zhekov set with ball ahead all the times.


    The I watched Sovia from the second set untill the end. They are playing very poor. Fabian is totally instable and forgot his middles. Konarski is not a CL player, he misses too much technical skills and all he does is spike hard the whole time. Schops helped the team much more, but was blocked too many times, he needs to play better anyway. Kosok touched a lot on block, for sure better than Nowakowski. Akhrem again very bad (I started thinking he needs to feel like the star of this team, this season he's terrible with Veres, Lotman and Penchev fighting for the spots. Penchev was bad too, he was quite good as passer but bad as spiker, another weak link when he was in the first row. Veres is underperforming: he plays very bad the hot balls, too much crucial mistakes. Igla was the best from his team, he took many hard serves (Budva served very very well) and made many miracles in difense. For Budva Falaschi and the opposite were semply amazing. As I told last week it is incredible watch Falaschi playing as a veteran in his first Champions League.

    Resovia needed their annual kick in the butt, they should be fine. Three concerns though:
    - Fabian really tries to be witty and smart but overdoes it sometimes
    - Konarski needs to improve A LOT (I still don't get how the hell should this guy be a better choice than Bartman)
    - Achrem doesn't get enough playing time, he needs to spend a solid amount of minutes on the court in order to get back to his game.
    Normally serving would bother me as well, but I think the floats were supposed to be tactical.


    Oh, and is it just me or is Veres' apologetic smile (the one right after he makes a mistake) really irritating?

    I honestly don't really like Galatasaray's male volleyball team. Ahmed Salah was someone that I extremely disliked last season and they transffered him?! Henry Bell looks like a dissapointment with all other new transfers. However, today Galatasaray will sign a sponsorhip aggreement with "Tacirler...". I don't know if the transfer season is over yet (which I guess not), but I'm sure we will see some new good transfers in the next couple of weeks. :box:

    Quote from YavorD

    Folks, Falaschi is 26, a year older than me, for example. Do you consider him a veteran already? I'm getting nervous :D


    No, he is impressive to me becuase he plays like a veteran in his first Champions League. Of course he's not veteran because of his age. :win:

    Quote

    I watched first 2 sets of Olympiakos-Belgorie. Russians are stronger, no way to compare, but Travica is their weak link as usual: he used to set to Muserskyi (218 cm) just over the net and he couldn't spike really hard the ball many times, but killed it anyway. They had some wrong connection between Travica and Tetyukhin as well. Travica may destroy the team, I'm sure.

    Travica is under serious pressure as he knows very well what happened to practically every foreign setter of Belogorie for last 5-ish years, i.e. they were kicked out by Christmas. Believe it or not, but everyone (Kampa, Sintini, Storozhilov and even Kournetas) had problems playing with Muserskiy. What he needs is just two meters over the net and every decent setter wants to improvise. The voices against Travica were actually already well heard before his arrival to Belgorod as apparently he's been saying "wrong" things about Russian NT and Belgorod has a very conservative management.


    What seriously speaks for Travica is his very good interaction with Ilinykh and Panteleymonenko. It is these two and not Tetyukhin who are the main firepower from four in Belgorod. Belogorie has accumulated three pairs of OHs that displayed all signs of brilliance at some point in their careers but Ilinykh is clearly the most promising at the moment, due to his young age. Secondly, Belogorie had never had a setter with good block and serve, like Travica. He impressed instantly here. Lastly, the guy behind Travica's back (Sergei Bagrei) is known to be very shaky, he is not Makarov whom they had last year alongside Kampa. The setters market has slightly shrunk in Russia. I think that Travica is overall safe.


    Belogorie's problem is second MB and replacement MB. The last person able to balance Muserskiy visible in Muserskiy's shadow was Lukasz Kadziewicz in 2009-2010 (in some games Kadziewicz managed to score more points than Muserskiy). A clever opponent would put maximal power into the three rotations when Dima is not on the pitch and opt for a simple side-out when he is in.

    Very nice match between Ljubiana and Tours. Both teams fought hard. Tours won 3-1 after losing first set. They were ahead in first and then they lost when Ljubiana came back. In the second Lubjana had some set point and the Tours played its heart out and won the set. The thirs set was very balanced, but in the end franch players were better. In the fourth Ljabiana gave up in the end. Both opposite were dominant. Konecny is so strong, much more better than Stokr. And I'm glad Cuk is playing as good as he used to in South Korea even in Europe.

    About Travica. I dont doubt he is a setter who is above the average in blocking and serving. However, like Ravens#/ pointed, he seems the weak link in his club team. Also in Italian NT he has matches where he is a mess and he isnt replaced. What a pity that in Italy NT one cant know who is the second setter. In this season, first Baranowicz, then Falaschi and in the last ECH, Saitta...
    So far, Falaschi and Baranowicz has been qutie impressive in this CL. And both are younger than Travica and less experienced.



    I dont know how many times Kooy has been blocked today

    ZAKSA played ridiculus. They spent half of the match protesting. If I was ZAKSA president I wouldn't have esitation to kick Zagumni's ass out from this team. What is wrong with whis guy? In third set Swiderski was so pissed with him and he stayed there like nothing was going on. He really gave third set to Knack. I don't know how many times his spikers had against 3 men on block. And please tell how does it possible Bociek took Bartman's place in the ECH? He is so damn weak. He looks like Konarski's twin: they nothing else to spike hard all the balls they got, no technal skills, no smart choices and aviously they got blocked half of the times. Even the libero was very shaky today. The only one I really liked was Ruciak: he's the soul of this team and fighted as usual untill the end, having just some mistakes. The difference today was shown in a rally of the fourth set: Zagumni goes 3 times to Kooy with 3 balls just terrible, the other setter touches just a ball in that rally going perfectly to opposite, who scores.

    Quote from Leonardo.D

    About Travica. I dont doubt he is a setter who is above the average in blocking and serving. However, like Ravens#/ pointed, he seems the weak link in his club team. Also in Italian NT he has matches where he is a mess and he isnt replaced. What a pity that in Italy NT one cant know who is the second setter. In this season, first Baranowicz, then Falaschi and in the last ECH, Saitta...
    So far, Falaschi and Baranowicz has been qutie impressive in this CL. And both are younger than Travica and less experienced.



    I dont know how many times Kooy has been blocked today


    It is the same of female NT. And we already know how bossy Lo Bianco is. It is not about who's Travica's back up, it's different: Travica, as setter, doesn't have any real talent to be a NT player!


    Baranowicz is a little bit instable, but he's the biggest talent we have. One the other hand we have Falaschi, who's totally different from all the other setters: he is very stable and lucid during the whole match, I can remember he played bad just once last season. Both these guys are clearly better than Travica, but totally unexperienced because they always got the door closed in front of them. And Berruto really bored me changing the second setter tournament by tournament. It looks like Travica is like protected by the CT this way. To me the problem is not the back up setter, but the main one. Falaschi and Baranowicz all the way.

    Quote from ravens#7

    ZAKSA played ridiculus. They spent half of the match protesting. If I was ZAKSA president I wouldn't have esitation to kick Zagumni's ass out from this team. What is wrong with whis guy? In third set Swiderski was so pissed with him and he stayed there like nothing was going on. He really gave third set to Knack. I don't know how many times his spikers had against 3 men on block.

    Zagumny just looks seriously bored. He's the best Polish setter that I've seen.


    Quote from ravens#7

    And please tell how does it possible Bociek took Bartman's place in the ECH? He is so damn weak. He looks like Konarski's twin: they nothing else to spike hard all the balls they got, no technal skills, no smart choices and aviously they got blocked half of the times.

    To be frank when I hear "no technical skills, no smart choices", Bartman is the first one on my mind. Highly dubious player with the temper of Spiridonov, relying heavily on adrenaline. Should have never been on the NT roster. The advantage of Bociek is his height.... There seems to be no decent opposite in Poland, except Wlazly and possibly Kurek.


    Quote from ravens#7

    Even the libero was very shaky today. The only one I really liked was Ruciak: he's the soul of this team and fighted as usual untill the end, having just some mistakes. The difference today was shown in a rally of the fourth set: Zagumni goes 3 times to Kooy with 3 balls just terrible, the other setter touches just a ball in that rally going perfectly to opposite, who scores.

    I think the Belgian side was very seriously inspired tonight. They defended like crazy. The Polish team indeed needed more fire, you're right. But this would be only for the sake of their fans as they have a very easy group. There was no "tournament motivation" at all.

    Quote from ravens#7

    Baranowicz is a little bit instable, but he's the biggest talent we have. One the other hand we have Falaschi, who's totally different from all the other setters: he is very stable and lucid during the whole match, I can remember he played bad just once last season. Both these guys are clearly better than Travica, but totally unexperienced because they always got the door closed in front of them. And Berruto really bored me changing the second setter tournament by tournament. It looks like Travica is like protected by the CT this way. To me the problem is not the back up setter, but the main one. Falaschi and Baranowicz all the way.

    You know, I thought so too. But Travica had some good matches too during the ECh this year... I think there is a bit of a "second Lloy Ball" expectation for every coach who comes across of a capable tall setter.

    Knack played vey well. I can't see a real star, they play like a real team, helping hech other. Not the same on ZAKSA side.


    I have no doubt about Zagumni: he was the best polish setter, but right now he has a terrible attitude and he plays worse and worse the important matches.


    I hate the team attitude against the referees: do you remeber Supercoup? :down:


    About Bartman I disagree. He is not that kind of opposite who just scores; he helps from behind, he diggs a lot, he serves well. He's not that tall, but how many times spikes over the block. I watched him 9 days ago live, he helps in every aspect of the game, he had even to receive for some rotations to let Quesque free to spike. Very fast opposite. And most of all he watches the block and spikes between the blockers of between the hands. He's even able to change timing to use the block. I watched Bociek last season and he was pretty good, but at this level I din't like him a lot. All he does is spike hard. Nothing more. He got blocked too many times. Konarski the same, but he looks a little bit better.


    About Wlazly I hope he change his mind and coming back to the NT. Kurek has to play OH and improve his pass skills. ^^

    Quote from powsoff

    You know, I thought so too. But Travica had some good matches too during the ECh this year... I think there is a bit of a "second Lloy Ball" expectation for every coach who comes across of a capable tall setter.


    Lloy Ball! :obey:


    Dragan Travica... :aww:


    Where the hell do they find these expectation? It is so sad to watch such a setter in NT. Please give me back Tofoli, Meoni or Vullo! ;(


    Bartman looks like an OH to me but not like an Opp. Technically he is miles away from e.g. Pavlov and physically he is not that strong to spike against an organized block. Bartman looks pretty miserably from the back court. Having said that, he might be a better player in the league games but what I see in the NT looks pretty innocuous. Plus lots of nerve - he wastes his emotions pretty needlessly. Kurek is a stronger spiker, especially from the back court. I can recall his star performance as opposite against Zenit Kazan at a funny World Club Championship in Qatar some years ago. He can do it. Obviously, every right-handed person would prefer to spike from four :).


    Wlazly may actually have a point in declining the NT offers. Opposites "wear out" very significantly by the age of 30. The examples I'm aware of are Sergei Baranov (permanent shoulder problems by the age of 27), then Poltavskiy (whole bunch of issues by 31), Mikhaylov (25). Not everyone can afford spending the whole season recovering from the summer games for the NT.


    The "star" status never helped players to be very polite to the refs.

    Quote from ravens#7

    Lloy Ball! :obey:


    Dragan Travica... :aww:


    Where the hell do they find these expectation? It is so sad to watch such a setter in NT. Please give me back Tofoli, Meoni or Vullo! ;(

    Travica is very young as for a setter so many things can happen. Interestingly enough, he didn't play for Belogorie in their last two matches... so something may have already happened :).

    Trento is rocking!! they are smashing Izmir, playing a very concrete volley, good defenses, effective block and attack. I really like this new young team: humble guys that want to show what they're made of together with experienced players. Simple but concrete game! go guys :super: :super:


    Izmir is really poor anyway.