CEV Champions League 2019

Quote from saishuu

Is St. Petersburg really that much better than Skra? I wouldn't be surprised if Skra ended up advancing.

EDIT: oops, thought this was the CL thread lol

If Pankov can rediscover his form, he can singlehandedly serve Skra out of the game.

Lube smoked Moscow in the first set 25-10. Yikes!

you can definitely tell it's time for an Italian team to win CL here after years of Russian dominance!

bruno's setting is trash as always. even leal sets better than him.

Quote from beri

you can definitely tell it's time for an Italian team to win CL here after years of Russian dominance!

Moscow is not even part of the Top 5 teams in Russian SL lol so I don't know if this is a good indicator of Italian teams' performance relative to their Russian counterparts

With that said, we all know Kazan is the biggest hurdle, and if Perugia (read: Leon) manages to beat his former teammates in SF, then most likely we will see an all-Italian affair in the gold medal match.

Quote from inc0gnito

Moscow is not even part of the Top 5 teams in Russian SL lol so I don't know if this is a good indicator of Italian teams' performance relative to their Russian counterparts

With that said, we all know Kazan is the biggest hurdle, and if Perugia (read: Leon) manages to beat his former teammates in SF, then most likely we will see an all-Italian affair in the gold medal match.

Yea it was actually not based just on Moscow, there are for sure better teams in Russian league, but I have been saying this for months. The Italian victory has been coming mainly because they are all playing so well and Kazan is struggling compared to their usual + now obv they got the Leon factor, the Italians

Scherbinin is the best blocking Russian MB nowadays, even better than Muserskiy I would say. Hope he gets called back to NT and take Vlasov's spot

bruno on his own gifted the set to moscow.

edit:it was a little harsh to say on his own. lube also fell apart in reception.

So Moscow managed to steal 1 set from Lube. Let's see if this will add to their confidence and have a closer game

Bruno setting super fast and short sets to Juantorena and Leal Is he ok?

Lube is on the verge of throwing the season away.

Quote from scarpetta

Bruno setting super fast and short sets to Juantorena and Leal Is he ok?

Juantorena seems to like it (he is Bruno's N'gapeth replacement lol) , and that generally seems to dictate the outside attack. To be fair to Juantorena he makes it work most of the time. Leal is a bit of a nightmare because it seems to take a lot to get him into the game - fast set, low set, high set ,etc - He seems quite mentally fragile so its not so much about the setting it is about how he feels. I guess this is the problem Bruno also faces with him (together with Bruno's tendency towards manic style setting.

In this team there are few too many unstable people - Bruno with his setting, Leal with passing and hitting, Balaso with his passing and defence... this is why it takes them so much effort to win against consistent teams - because the other team doesn't need to do much more than keep being consistent - case in point whats hppening today.

Omg what just happened, Moscow is leading 2-1

But Juantorena is much more successful than Ngapeth with high balls. That is the part Bruno is missing.

So Lube barely managed to win the match against the current #7 team in Russian SL. Assuming Lube wins the next return match, they have to play better to beat Zenit Spb in probably the SF match in their bracket.

It was really good that Dynamo gave their fans a good show -after that first set they just continued playing their game. Berezhko and Kooy together with the libero seemed to really be enjoying this game. so close. For Lube I guess they will draw on the positive that yet again this season they have fought their way out of a hole they shouldn't have been in the first place. It seems from what they say these days that they are believing themselves to be very determined - and that is helping them. This will have to do for this season..

They also have the advantage of playing next time at home.

Of course there is a reason why Dynamo are ranked as they are- it means they haven't been able to make the important points as often. Lube would not have been so lucky against another high ranked team..

Lube 3:2 Moscow

An ugly win. Leal was the worst both at reception and attacking. Bruno's bad setting was also an issue. Simon had a great game. Simon's blocking, attacking and serve are all great in this game.

Moscow's defense was amazing. They played a good game even if their OHs/OPP are not as strong as Lube's. Lube's serve caused a big trouble on Moscow's reception. Berezhko played a great game and scored a few tough shots.

Quote from Agguerro

Juantorena seems to like it (he is Bruno's N'gapeth replacement lol) , and that generally seems to dictate the outside attack. To be fair to Juantorena he makes it work most of the time. Leal is a bit of a nightmare because it seems to take a lot to get him into the game - fast set, low set, high set ,etc - He seems quite mentally fragile so its not so much about the setting it is about how he feels. I guess this is the problem Bruno also faces with him (together with Bruno's tendency towards manic style setting.

In this team there are few too many unstable people - Bruno with his setting, Leal with passing and hitting, Balaso with his passing and defence... this is why it takes them so much effort to win against consistent teams - because the other team doesn't need to do much more than keep being consistent - case in point whats hppening today.

I agree with you. I think some of Bruno's setting to Juantorena is even faster than last year Christenson's setting. Juantorena did a good job to kill those spikes. However, sometimes the balls are a bit too low.

Since Leal's passing is a nightmare, Bruno's consistency is really crucial for Lube. They need to score as long as the passing is okay during first tempo and seize the chances during transition.