CEV Champions League 2019

Quote from Rains

Chemistry is nothing if it means not having any healthy players.

Lube beat Perugia without Juantorena or Sokolov as titulars. I think it's entirely possible they can beat any team without Juantorena atleast.

World Club matches and CEV are coming soon. It's not easy for an "old" team like Lube. Juan 33, Stan 33, Leal 30, Cester 30, Simon 31, Bruno 32. If you rest Juan, whom are you gonna put on court, Barnes, Massari or Brenden? As long as Lube's starters are not injuried that bad, Medei will keep them on court, like what he did in previous seasons.

Lube can beat Perugia for sure, but they lost in all clutch games in last season. That's why they got 3 runner-ups in Italian League. With Leon in Perugia, the chances of Lube beating Pegugia look slim in this season. The last game Perugia beating Lube was a slaughter. Let's see how they adjust in the future.

Quote from kyle7in1

World Club matches and CEV are coming soon. It's not easy for an "old" team like Lube. Juan 33, Stan 33, Leal 30, Cester 30, Simon 31, Bruno 32. If you rest Juan, whom are you gonna put on court, Barnes, Massari or Brenden? As long as Lube's starters are not injuried that bad, Medei will keep them on court, like what he did in previous seasons.

Lube can beat Perugia for sure, but they lost in all clutch games in last season. That's why they got 3 runner-ups in Italian League. With Leon in Perugia, the chances of Lube beating Pegugia look slim in this season. The last game Perugia beating Lube was a slaughter. Let's see how they adjust in the future.

Barnes got injured before WCH, and Brenden replaced him. If Juan rest, they need an italian OH to keep a foreign MB on court. So it should be Massari. However, it's definitely not the best option. Another option is to sign Kovar back after the suspension which ends at the end of Novermber.

Brenden Sander is just like Milan in the last season. He will rarely be on court, or maybe just serving substitution.

Quote from Helios

Barnes got injured before WCH, and Brenden replaced him. If Juan rest, they need an italian OH to keep a foreign MB on court. So it should be Massari. However, it's definitely not the best option. Another option is to sign Kovar back after the suspension which ends at the end of Novermber.

Brenden Sander is just like Milan in the last season. He will rarely be on court, or maybe just serving substitution.

Someone said Perugia might sign Kovar as a substitute for Lanza.

Quote from kyle7in1

Someone said Perugia might sign Kovar as a substitute for Lanza.

I heard the rumors. We can only wait and see which club he signs in the end.

I hope Lube's sports director sees the problems. The whole team is built by him. If Lube keeps loosing, Medei might got fired first, and then it will be him.

Great game by United Volleys, even without Krick. Karlitzek had a good night in attack.

Tzourits didnt play well, only 5/27.

I thought the greek team was favorite before the game start. But now i think that the german team has all the chances to go to the group phase .

Quote from B. Moreira

Great game by United Volleys, even without Krick. Karlitzek had a good night in attack.

Tzourits didnt play well, only 5/27.

I thought the greek team was favorite before the game start. But now i think that the german team has all the chances to go to the group phase .

Did United Volleys already lose the 1st and 2nd round both in a 2:3 game? Now they won 3:0 in the 3rd round. The chances for them to advance to 4th final was slim?

Quote from kyle7in1

Did United Volleys already lose the 1st and 2nd round both in a 2:3 game? Now they won 3:0 in the 3rd round. The chances for them to advance to 4th final was slim?

What do you mean? They only need to win 2 sets in the away match to advance to 4th round. That's what they did in the previous two rounds.

Congrats to Frankfurt and Chaumont for advancing to pool stage.

Paok was very weak today. They lacked of almost everything, from organization to individual class. Djuric played a bit better than in the first match, but there was no way he could lift his team to a win.

Three teams in CL is a nice achievement for Bundesliga but I dont think Frankfurt can have much of an impact in their group. They have a decent first 7 but there is a lack of individual class behind. Maybe they can sneek a point or a home win here or there but the fight for place 2 will probebly between Halkbank and Roeselare. For players like Karlitzek, Kocian, Henning and Zenger this will of course be a good experience which should help them grow.

It also may help the club to attract new attention.. So far, they are still dependant on one investor and if they can't add new financial sources soon, their story could have an early end.

CL round 4 will start on Nov 20th, 2018. Here is the bracket.

There are two games we can focus on. Lube vs Modena. Since Zaksa is also in Pool B, one of the three teams will be eliminated in group match. So every game in Pool B is crucial. Another game would be Dinamo vs Perugia. The winner most likely nails the 1st place in Pool E.

So it really looks like Laola is out of CL business. We will have Eurovolley TV instead.

It is going to be 7,99 Euro/30 days "only" for CL. I wonder why CEV cup isn't included?! While thats probably the way it has to go, coming up with such a major change only a couple of days before the competition starts doesn't seem to be overly professional. Anyway, i will think about subscribing but rather wait for experience reports coming in. Will miss Laola for sure.......

Time for pronostics today:

Halkbank - Roeselare 3-1 (the turkish team is stronger than belgium)

Zenit St Peterbourg - Chaumont 3-0 France have no chance here.

Belchatow - Gdansk 3-1 (Polish derby can be interesting but i think home team will win without problems)

Tomorrow:

Arkasspor - Tours 3-1

Zenit Kazan - Frankfurt 3-0

Kozle - Karlovarsko 3-0

Friedrichshafen - ACH 3-1

Perugia - Dinamo Moscow 3-1 (this is the most interestint match, i think perugia is a seriuosly candidate to remove the scepter to Kazan this year...)

22/11/2018

Berlin Volleys - Noliko Maaseik 3-0

Lube Macerata - Modena 3-1 (very interesting Italian derby...in season Modena - Macerata was 2-3 but very fighting match...i think Lube can win again but Modena will be on Fire.)

Yours ?

Halkbank's receiving libero is so bad during the defensive rallies and Baranowicz is imprecise with his sets but still the libero responsible for reception should be doing better in chance ball situations.

Halkbank's serve and reception is not good as expected. Even in Efeler Ligi, they are having a hard time probably because they are a new team compared to Roeselare.

Roeselare is the better team on paper but the middle attackers are defended very well by Halkbank. There's not many pipe coming from them as well.

Notably, Roeselare doesn't have an attacking OH among the starters.

I watched the match, Halkbank was better from the beginning and led each set... Gosh, they make many mistakes and errors though. Congrats on the 3-2 win still, it was very comfortable sets after 1-2.

I dont know how well he's liked here and if this will be offensive to some but jesus Pieter Coolman must be the most annoying, disrespectful and rude player ever. I get that guys in volleyball can be angry, but even making faces and getting angry at the young ball boys and girls.... Smh no respect from me to him, he was also screaming and making faces to everyone else throughout the match. I was so happy that Halkbank kept blocking him easily after a while

I'd rather have 10 screaming players then seeing him with his annoyed and impatient face one more time oh and at least keep your bitterness away from children.

Definitely PM'ing him on this, usually volleyball players respond to PMs

Such a great performance by Chaumont... too bad they lost 2-3 but against Zenit St. Petersburg on away game, it's a good result anyway.

Remember last season, Zenit Saint Petersburg gave Kazan a double kill in the regular season. But they are a bit disappointing this season. I am not sure if Camejo got injured. He's not on court in several games.

Recently, ZenitH lost to Kuzbass in a regular game, and then lost to Kazan in Russia super cup. At least two sets in each game were blowout. Today they struggled to win Chaumont by 3:2 in CL.

In Russian's league, ZenitH is gonna face the challenge from Kazan, Kuzbass, Dinamo and Torch. And in CL, the chances that ZenitH makes final 4 are very slim.

Sir Safety Perugia - VC Dynamo Moskova is on.

Perugia leads 1:0. The first set is a bit lucky for Perugia. Dynamo almost came back with great serves, but they missed the last one.

Perugia won 3:0 Dynamo

It's a tight game in each set. But Dynamo's unforced errors in clutch time cost the game. Grankin did not set well in set 3.

There is another good match of Lube vs Modena within an hour. No one's gonna watch it?

I will watch it, I see Lube as big fave