2015 CEV DenizBank Champions League

    Both coaches should stop listening to their players for the challenges. :roll:

    Quote from TimHH

    Both coaches should stop listening to their players for the challenges. :roll:


    This is yes, but then ignorance destroys confidence. That is let us waste a challenge to let Leon have his "out" checked for the sake of Leon feeling support from his coach. That said, Alekno was awfully late with time-out in set 2.

    2:1 for kazan. Leon is far from perfect tonight but saved Kazans ass in the end of third. Blocking became better too...

    Good sub by Alekno. The use of Anderson-Leon duo weakens reception and block-defense. Kobzar's composure is impressive. I wonder if he is going to serve his tough serve. On the other side of the net, Kromm looks very determined... While writing this I see Kobzar serving properly. The host keeps calling him "Kaz-bar" :)

    Felix Fischer is coolest looking dude on earth. Legend 8)

    I can spot Ukrainian flags on the slogans of Polish fans. What a great support for multitalented Igor Kobzar who writes poetry in Ukrainian whilst spending his life on the bench! These chaps are just hopeless...

    user Kaziyski mentioned it earlier, the deep bench of Kazan was an important advantage for them.


    But hats off to berlin, very good match over large parts :thumbup:

    What a great match by Leon and Salparov! I really cant believe he is just 21. It seems ages when he played the world grand champions cup in 2009. What a pity some fans just keep that behaviour. I thought that after WCH they could change...But they keep same path.

    Quote from redlokh

    So 1:1 Go Berlin. The Biggest problem of Zenit is their coach - Alekno :whistle:


    Sorry but :rolll:


    As I thought depth of Zenit squad was decisive. Marouf poor match indeed, he completely forgot on his MB's so Berlin block could focus on wing spikers. Apalikov was disastrous, didn't do nothing any area. Alekno felt Marouf is out of match in crucial moment, if Berlin won 3rd set I doubt Zenit could come back. Kobzar setted few balls to Ashchev and strechted Berlin's block. I see the most of users speaking about Leon, Mikhaylov but Salparov had epic match :obey: maybe I saw this because I'm playing libero :rolll: some crucial defenses in 3rd and 4th set, excellent field defense... forgto to mention Sivozhelez and great serves in 4th set


    I can only bow to Berlin :obey: great match indeed, Carroll was simply briliant, K. Shoji was also good in first 3 sets... unfortunately short bench and lack of solutions led to this defeat. But I'm sure they can win match for bronze medal, surely won't lack motive :whistle:

    I need to give a credit to Berlin: we saw three very close sets... and things could have gone very differently had that block touch before the 2nd TTO in set 3 not been spotted (or "touch" and "spotted" - whatever). Hard to say anything definite about the German team as I don't follow them. I think they needed some more young (and hungry) blood in their squad. They defended very well and received (despite those 10 aces) fairly well too, which actually kept them running for first three sets. Their bench looks a bit sad though as I fail to understand the reason behind employing Duennes and De Marchi at this level of competition. Again, I may be a bit harsh here as I don't follow the team on a daily basis. On the positive side, Berlin should have clearly been given an extra-point for the flying Mullwagen. I hope it won't go down on someone's head thereby creating needless allusions...


    Having said that, I must admit that Zenit were largely fighting vs themselves. I mean plenty of unforced errors, awful block-defense and some stellar percentage in attack of usually mediocre modest Carroll. Apalikov looked seriously unwell today; he acquired an injury in the last game vs Dinamo Moscow in the semis of the national championship, which may be the reason for this. A positive surprise was Kobzar's performance. Igor is definitely a good blocker and server but today he managed to outshine Marouf as for the sets to the MBs. I'm talking about five points of Ashev (five out of five) from Kobzar's sets. Leon and Mikhailov both looked more confident spiking from the (still predictable!) sets of the (still wooden!) Kobzar. There is a good chance that we see both Anderson and Marouf on the bench in the final.

    Excellent game in the all-Polish semi so far. Conte is just a "wow" but so are Ivovic and Schoeps. A very entertaining game with plenty of cool mid attacks - nothing like the first semi. Rzeszow is indeed a positive surprise of this CL. Not sure why Falasca brought in (clearly sick) Winiarski for Marechal. (Or should we say "MareKKKal" now? )


    Although for historical reasons one would expect Skra to play Zenit in the final and Rzeszow meet Berlin in the meaningless 3rd place game, I still hope that it goes the other way round as I perceive a clear conflict of interest. Yet another energetic derby PGE vs Gazprom smells a bit funny, not saying about the hearts of the lucky inhabitants of the wojewodztwo podkarpackie that would once again get split between their team and their potential employer.

    I saw you forgot to mention Salparov, powsof ;)


    I told you Resovia was on the final before it was cool :)

    I studied all day long (about 10 hours) because I had to watch this derby. I knew Sovia was going straight to final and they did it. I shiver. The best supporters ever. I love them. Sovia is always at home. I love polish volleyball. So Sovia, go. You can do it once again tomorrow! :cheesy: :super:

    Such a poor battle by polish teams. Countless mistakes, no fighting spirit, i really expected more.


    In Skra side, just Conte and Lisinac did justice to the importance of the match, while Resovia just controlled the game and did and was necessary to win, but they didn't impressed me at all. Dyrzda distribution and accurancy were not there, Schops is just a avarage opp, but they play good as a team, and have a fair bench.


    Berlin played as good as they could, but it would be hard to do more with this team. Kazan on the paper is a wow team but their performance doesn't reflect it. Middles are not top level, and the block-defense was poor, just improved with Sivozheles in. Leon and Anderson toghether in the backline is not a best option, not that is bad, but work better with Sivcozheles or Spiridonov. Regarding setter, i really liked Marouf, it is not thei fault Apalikov is a ghost on the court,

    Quote from raylight

    I saw you forgot to mention Salparov, powsof ;)


    I told you Resovia was on the final before it was cool :)

    There have been two Salparovs in the game: a lazy Bulgarian dug in the sand at the Black Sea in the first two sets and a world-class national team libero in the last two. I hope the latter one to be on the pitch tomorrow so the former one can enjoy himself this summer :).


    Rzeszow plays excellent team volleyball (which e.g. Kazan strictly speaking does not) and they clearly did plenty of homework after being eliminated last season. What truly surprises me is not the progress of Penchev (he is still a young guy) or the mere phenomenon of Ivovic but the condition of Jochen Schoeps. I haven't seen him performing at this level since 2008/09 season when he played alongside the now-retired Giba and Abramov for now retired Iskra Odintsovo. Secondly (or maybe it is actually firstly?), the Rzeszow setter has much added in confidence: he is doing lots of risky, nominally "no-no" things (e.g. middle set for a side-out at 24:23) and they work. The q is of course whether these maneuvers will fly against a better serving/better blocking Zenit.


    To console the Skra fans, I need to say that they had a problem with the second OH today, i.e. the one to play in diagonal with excellent Conte. Had this issue been resolved, the result could have been different. Secondly, let us remember that this was the first time Skra qualified for the Final 4, wasn't it :)? A great success for the beginner coach by the way.