Russia - Superliga 2018/2019

    Moscow had to defend at least one match ball of Minsk and won finally the tie-break 20:18.


    Meanwhile Kazan leads in third set against Kaliningrad, being 0:2 sets behind.

    Moscow win 20-18 in the TB. Minsk defended really well, but in the end Goncharova had too much quality.

    Kazan told in a press coverage, that they have major issues on opposite position (not only, but mainly) and couldn't study/prepare well for Lokomotiv ("we came under the locomotive") Kaliningrad, because they were playing for the first time in this lineup.

    Quote from Sisko95

    Moscow win 20-18 in the TB. Minsk defended really well, but in the end Goncharova had too much quality.

    Was not able to watch the game, but was curious if Goncharova played the entire game or as a substitute? Guess her injury was a minor one aftet all good news for Russian NT.

    Quote from inc0gnito

    Was not able to watch the game, but was curious if Goncharova played the entire game or as a substitute? Guess her injury was a minor one aftet all good news for Russian NT.

    She played the entire game and had 34 pts overall. Havelkova scored a lot as well, 22 pts in total for her.


    Moscows "soft spot" seems to be their libero-position right now.

    Kaliningrad vs Kazan was a good game. Zivkovic actually played a good game, she did not use the middle a lot but when she did it was good sets. I really like Cleger-Voronkova...but I was really impressed with their libero as she was digging a lot of balls, she plays great defense.

    Quote from hakin12

    She played the entire game and had 34 pts overall. Havelkova scored a lot as well, 22 pts in total for her.


    Moscows "soft spot" seems to be their libero-position right now

    I think the soft spot is reception, but not just libero's. All receivers failed at it today.


    First libero played bad, but Talysheva was pretty good. Defence got much better when she started playing.

    Kaliningrad's libero, Galkina is good. Speaking of liberos, does anyone know if Malova will play this season?

    Today draw was made for Final Four of the Russian Cup in Kaliningrad (!):


    Semis on 13. December 2018:


    Dynamo Moscow vs. Lokomotiv Kaliningrad (hosts)

    Dynamo Kazan vs. Yenisey Krasnoyarsk


    Final will be on 14. December at the same location and the winner is as usual eligible to take part in CEV Cup 2020 - not that Moscow nor Kazan would be very interested in this; at least those two are interested only in CL :) .

    Some remarks to the first round:


    Uralochka 2 - 3 Krasnodar: unexpected result. Podkopaeva (former Malova) helped Uralochka in reception which was pretty bad last season but Parubets didn't have a good day and Uralochka doesn't have good substitutes. Then again Uralochka had set points in the third set, so it could have been 3:0...Unlike other teams Uralochka's team is not really stronger than last season. Good comebacks from Krasnodar in 3rd and 5th set. Krasnodar has the best team since the financial difficulties (Rusakova, Sperskayte are pretty good OH's, Matienko an experienced setter and Khaletskaya showed her former team that she deserves to be a starter).


    Moscow 3 - 2 Minsk: Goncharova is back (played whole match, looked good). Minsk was better then expected. They came back form several points down in sets 3, 4 and 5, but was not enough in the end. Moscow is obviously stronger but without the injured Khodunova lacking options on OH position (the only change they made was Talysheva for Raevskaya on libero position, after she missed like for receptions in a row). Minsk works well as a team and has a good block/defense. The 18 years old Hryshkevich looks promising (made like 6 points on serve in a row in 4th set, some problems in reception).
    Natalia Malykh was watching the game...


    Kazan 1 - 3 Kaliningrad: The new team from Kaliningrad works already really well. There is still some fine tuning to do but there were less misscommunications than expected. On the other hand Kazan needs time to find the best formation. Bavykina and Kotikova (first season as a starter for the 19 year old) have both some problems in reception. Malygina did surprisingly better than Mikiskova. Don't know why Pasynkova was not used (but at least now her season is already longer than last...).

    I agree with the predicted winners but I think there might be fewer sets. I think Moscow could even win 3:0 if the reception is a bit better than last week.

    Minsk should be winning if they play the same level they played last week. But maybe Kazan makes some changes (Pasynkova, Malygina?)...

    Kazan vs Minsk will be interesting. I guess Kazan will try to recruit an opposite as soon as possible but as of now, when they still lack a great alternative on that position, they are vulnarable against teams such as Minsk for sure. The 18-year old Hanna Hryshkevich played very good against Moscow, will be interesting to see whether she can keep up this standard against high-level opposition during a prolonged amount of time, i.e an entire Superleague-season.


    I wonder about Krasnoyarsk as well - will the ukrainian Kraiduba be able to fill the vaccum that has arised after the departure of the explosive, high jumping Malykh? During the last two-three seasons of the superleague nobady except for Goncharova, and perhaps Vasileva, has been attacking with such high ratio of killed balls/attempt as her and I have some doubts of Kraiduba, since she didnt impress me whatsoever during the EL this summer, which was a massive failure for Ukraine as a whole though. For me Kraiduba, although tall at 195 cm, is not reliable given her very clumsy movement and poor ball controll, I guess she´s even slower and worse coordinated than Diouf, consequently I dont think better teams should need to struggle excessively with keeping her in check. Apart from that Efimova, Bodar/Naumova and Rusakova have left as well, and I am not sure whether the fresh ones (Kurillo/Nazarova) will be able to cover the holes that have emerged. I presume Krasnoyarsk might be a bit worse this season therefore and hence have a hard time with the best teams even this year.

    Malykh is a very pretty young woman - but I don't expect her already to give up on her volleyball career. Likely a program to fill the time...