CEV Champions League 2017

  • How many teams are progressing from group round? I think 1st and 2nd placed but also two the best 3rd placed teams will advance in Playoff12 ?(

    Well, actually the 3 best third-placed teams should advance because one of the remaining 12 should be elected as host of the F4. 13 teams out of 20 advancing to the next round is a bit too much indeed. But it is not that bad at least because the quality of the group phase should be improved this year and, apart from Pool D, 3rd-placed teams should be decent eventually, to say the least.


    The competition starts today, don't forget, guys :)

  • The competition starts today, don't forget, guys :)


    :super:
    I am curious on what will happen in Berlin tonight. Playing five sets on sunday evening and then an away match already on tuesday could become a problem for Lube. So i hope Berlin can deliver a good fight. If they want to advance, whether as second or one of the best third placed teams, they need to take points from Lube/Resovia on their home court. Maybe tonight is already a good chance....

  • Is volleyball much more demanding than Basketball? Because in the NBA they play 3-4 games every week, during the whole season, making it 82 games, and that includes back-to-back games. One night they play in NY and the next night they play in LA for example.


    The only thing in the NBA is that, EVERYONE in the team gets to play basically, is based on minutes, All starters dont play a full match, mostly all the bench players comes in to play.
    I just wish in volleyball was more like that, teams would rotate everyone and let everybody in the roster play during a game.

  • And a huge upset in the opening match already 8o :cheesy: I will surely rewatch it, I just saw the last few points, it looked like a very determined Romanian side.

  • Wow, what a pleasant surprise. Skra fans might see this differently, of course. :D

  • Wouter ter Maat is playing a hell of a game so far :super:
    After a bad start in first set, berlin is playing really well now and finally they got Lube out of their comfort zone. I hope they can keep on playing like this :teach:

  • :what: :what: Osmany clearly can't jump. I mean I've never seen him like this. He is trying to get block-outs because he can't jump to hit the ball. He can't hit jump-serve effectively either because he can't jump :what:
    Without him I think Berlin has clear chances today

  • Osmany clearly can't jump.


    At the moment, he seems to be the only wing spiker, who is able to score for Lube......
    And another great service streak by ter Maat :super:

  • And a huge upset in the opening match already 8o :cheesy: I will surely rewatch it, I just saw the last few points, it looked like a very determined Romanian side.


    Yep huuge surprise as Craiova is having difficult time in Romanian championship.


    Craiova played the best match not this season but also in last few. Sometimes SKRA looked totally hopeless, especially OH's Szalpuk and Penchev. Horrible match by them. SKRA had 21:18 in 1st set, looked comfortable but then Craiova OPP Lica had run on serve and SKRA didnt recover from that. Kurek is culprit for losing 2nd set as he got blocked by Stulenkov for 24:23 and then by Lica in one on one situation. Blain was like a mummy on a bench, simply didnt know how to respond on Craiova's "all in" strategy. After the first set he had to put Kurek on reception and Wlazly on OPP in order to gain some firepower as Penchev and Szalpuk were hopeless in attack. Blain's biggest mistake is that SKRA accepted "all in" approach and took huge risk on serve without the need for that instead playing much "safer" in some situations. He had similar problem as a French head coach, during his mandate France was the most unstable NT in the world. Klos had 0 blocks in 4 sets (!!) while monster Gladyr was unused sub.


    This loss opens the door to Modena to easily win the first place as I don't see how SKRA can cope with Italians while Craiova gains huge advantage over ACH in the battle for 3rd place.

  • Just great for Kühner to finish game and match. He had a difficult start to the match and had the balls to just keep on playing . His "second balls" kept berlin in play in the last set. :thumbup:


    And, by the way, hello Volleyball world, my name is Wouter Ter Maat :obey:

  • I will repeat myself but I'm very happy for Serniotti. He is a very underrated coach, former CL champion, better coach than Blengini.
    I can't imagine being Grebennikov's place right now. He is there only for CL and it looks like his team will likely eliminated at the group stage.
    Christenson was just terrible
    Lube is just hopeless.

  • And Friedrichshafen still puts the cherry on top of the ice with a nice comeback win in Paris. Truly a pleasant night for german teams. :box:


    Still forgott to praise the best receiver on court tonight in Berlin, which is : ROBERT KROMM :white: .
    While this great, generally speaking, it raises some questions on Lube`s serve quality/strategy too.

  • Yep huuge surprise as Craiova is having difficult time in Romanian championship.


    Craiova played the best match not this season but also in last few. Sometimes SKRA looked totally hopeless, especially OH's Szalpuk and Penchev. Horrible match by them. SKRA had 21:18 in 1st set, looked comfortable but then Craiova OPP Lica had run on serve and SKRA didnt recover from that. Kurek is culprit for losing 2nd set as he got blocked by Stulenkov for 24:23 and then by Lica in one on one situation. Blain was like a mummy on a bench, simply didnt know how to respond on Craiova's "all in" strategy. After the first set he had to put Kurek on reception and Wlazly on OPP in order to gain some firepower as Penchev and Szalpuk were hopeless in attack. Blain's biggest mistake is that SKRA accepted "all in" approach and took huge risk on serve without the need for that instead playing much "safer" in some situations. He had similar problem as a French head coach, during his mandate France was the most unstable NT in the world. Klos had 0 blocks in 4 sets (!!) while monster Gladyr was unused sub.


    This loss opens the door to Modena to easily win the first place as I don't see how SKRA can cope with Italians while Craiova gains huge advantage over ACH in the battle for 3rd place.

    Well, based on ACH's score in Modena, I would not be that sure anymore ;) I also wrote earlier that this had been expected to be the most uninteresting group and yet it turned out to be the most interesting thanks to these results. I was totally wrong and didn't predict such battles from either Craiova or ACH. What I am mostly happy about is that the new formula is working perfectly, this thread is alive again, and the tournament finally looks as it should after some waiting :)

  • The last few months there is no debate on forum. I can remember good old times when CL thread had 30+ posts just in one day. Pity as you could learn sth from the debate


    Regarding Modena - ACH match I couldnt avoid impression that Italians doesnt care much of CL, just like last season, although Piazza started only without N'Gapeth. Orduna had a terrible match, simply he is waaay below Bruno in every aspect. Petrić was a top scorer but disappointed as well. On other side ACH OH Žiga Štern had a great match, I'm feeling very sad for this guy as he have knees made of "glass" and it's quite injury prone. Buculjević also with great performance.

  • The last few months there is no debate on forum. I can remember good old times when CL thread had 30+ posts just in one day. Pity as you could learn sth from the debate


    Regarding Modena - ACH match I couldnt avoid impression that Italians doesnt care much of CL, just like last season, although Piazza started only without N'Gapeth. Orduna had a terrible match, simply he is waaay below Bruno in every aspect. Petrić was a top scorer but disappointed as well. On other side ACH OH Žiga Štern had a great match, I'm feeling very sad for this guy as he have knees made of "glass" and it's quite injury prone. Buculjević also with great performance.

    Absolutely, but based on the relative silence in the past few years, I am happy with the little discussion on day 1 already. This is what I meant, I consider it a small step forward. The big step forward, I hope, will be the tournament itself. I miss those old times, too, and not only here. Cleaning and rearranging the forum sometimes, I stumble upon old numbers of thread views and discussions we used to have. Not only the CL but also certain leagues and international tournaments suffer from a decreasing popularity. Quite in contrast to women's volleyball, unfortunately.


    I will try to watch also Modena's game, I read about some experiments from Piazza, maybe they didn't take it seriously or underestimated the Slovenians, but we shouldn't undermine their work and the fact that they stole a point.

  • Regarding Modena - ACH match I couldnt avoid impression that Italians doesnt care much of CL, just like last season, although Piazza started only without N'Gapeth.

    They also left out Le Roux. Generally i think that they just have a very thin roster and that playing with or without Ngapeth makes a massive difference for them. Then add their 5 sets against Lube on Sunday evening and a pumped up opponent and we have all ingredients for a tight match.


    By the way, seeing Pokersnik's great numbers makes me a bit sad as he was supposed to play for Herrsching in Bundesliga but resolved the contract prior to the season.....


    OFF TOPIC

    The last few months there is no debate on forum. I can remember good old times when CL thread had 30+ posts just in one day. Pity as you could learn sth from the debate

    The general downward trend in participation in the men's section is steady and evident, i agree with you and Yavor.


    Honestly saying i was thinking about giving up too, mainly due to the general lack of feedback. But posting here and keeping the Bundesliga thread alive has become a kind of a habit and so i decided to remain active and still give it a try. And i truly think it is worth to keep on trying, as I have learned so much on international volleyball (and seriously improved my written english!), since i entered here. It would really be sad to give up the men's section on this board. There is so much potential..... :teach: :super:

  • Super disappointment by the Turkish clubs. I watched Halkbank, one of the worst performances they have delivered since the influx of money to the club and the start of the project. The biggest problem of all - they don't have a proper setter. Mustafa Ramazanoglu is simply not good enough for the ambitions of the club, I don't even know where they got him from. Burutay was way more reliable than Lipe, the latter was relied on unreasonably much in some situations by the otherwise weak setter. Watch the end of the third set and you will see an example of Halkbank's inadequacy.


    I couldn't watch Arkas Izmir's game but the score confirmed what I wanted to say. I remember Arkas being so poor only in last year's playoffs versus Lube. Istanbul BB at least tried to play volleyball and were decent for 2 sets in Poland. They would surely rely on Rouzier who is still not in his best form.

  • Same people are discussing all the time, I mean you, Tim and me :) others are concentracted on Italian league and women volley in general. CEV and Challenge Cup topics are empty, there is no single review about matches (I'll write later). What's the reason for lack of interest for discussion I don't know.


    @Tim


    Pokeršnik is a "heavy" character, as I know he is quite stubborn and conflict person. Maybe that's the reason POkeršnik never played offical match fo Herrsching :win:


    P.S. Why Zhukouski missed match vs Lube? I didnt find any info regarding injury

  • Super disappointment by the Turkish clubs. I watched Halkbank, one of the worst performances they have delivered since the influx of money to the club and the start of the project. The biggest problem of all - they don't have a proper setter. Mustafa Ramazanoglu is simply not good enough for the ambitions of the club, I don't even know where they got him from. Burutay was way more reliable than Lipe, the latter was relied on unreasonably much in some situations by the otherwise weak setter. Watch the end of the third set and you will see an example of Halkbank's inadequacy.


    I couldn't watch Arkas Izmir's game but the score confirmed what I wanted to say. I remember Arkas being so poor only in last year's playoffs versus Lube. Istanbul BB at least tried to play volleyball and were decent for 2 sets in Poland. They would surely rely on Rouzier who is still not in his best form.


    Fully agree with everything you wrote but there are some mitigating circumstances if I can say that. Halkbank lost Demian Gonzalez last week, ARG setter returned in homeland only 2 months in Halkbank. Reasons for that move are mysterious to me. Ramazanoglu is the best setter they have. Miljković become vicepresident of Serbian Volleyball Federation, he missed couple of days during elections. Beside that Kooy is having problems with knee and missed yday's match. In short Halkbank doesnt look like a serious team to me...


    Arkas is huge disappointment, Zenit trashed them bad so it was painful to watch massacre. Even Hoag lost his mind in 3rd set, probably he was influenced by poor display of this team.


    IBBSK 1st setter and captain Eksi is injured so he missed match in Poland. Without him they arent the same team as Peksen doesnt posses quality for high level.