Challenge Cup 2020

    Askö LINZ-STEG - THY ISTANBUL


    AO THIRAS Santorini - DRESDNER SC


    Ladies in Black AACHEN - BEZIERS VB


    Swietelsky BÉKÉSCSABA - Olympiacos PIRAEUS


    2 teams from Germany and Greece

    1 team from France, Turkey, Hungary, Austria

    Odds


    Linz Steg - THY 8.50 -1.05


    Swietelsky - Olympiakos 2.15 - 1.65


    AO Thiras - Dresdner 2.65 - 1.44


    Aachen - Beziers 1.42 - 2.72

    olympiakos lost the first set in hungary from 24-21 but finally won 3-1.


    Klaric and Hippe took 26 points


    Very good game from the MBs of Olympiakos


    Zakhaiou 9/10 at., 6 blocks

    Lambrousi 8/9 at.


    Collar and Jerkov should play better in the 2nd game.

    I wasn't a big fan of Seliger-Swenson when she played for Minnesota. I found her verry unstable. I'm watching her now against Aachen and she impresses me a lot! She is able to play fast and she is more precise with her sets. Hope she will play in a better league next year.

    AO Thiras - Dresdner 3-1


    Drsedner took the first set and they were leading 24-20 in the second. But after that AO Thiras destroyed the reception of Dresdner and took 6 points in a row and quite easy the next sets. In the 3rd and 4th set Dresdner had 5% excellent reception. Their libero had 0% in the 3rd and 13% in the 4th.


    Big difference in the opposites of the teams. Mendaro had 17/30, Kubura 2/11, Korhonen 3/11.


    I think Dresdner were tired but AO Thiras also played a very difficult set in weekend which ended in 5 sets.

    Dresden concentrated and focused everything to the German national cup, they are now again down the way in performance, I think.

    Weitzel missed the match due to stomach flu, plus Dresden as a team had literally no time to recover from that Cup final. I expect them to win rather clearly next week in the regular match, but in Golden set everything can happen...

    Some foreign members of AO Thiras made some strange statements. Especially the coach, the setter was just very optimistic.


    The setter from Puerto Rico said before the game: "We dont need to do something that we havent done so far in order to win that game. We just need to play with more energy. If we manage to do that, we will win. The responsibility of our fans is to support us and our responsibility is to show to the german team what is the greek volleyball"


    Her last sentence 😂


    The Serbian coach of AO Thiras said after the match: "After the 20-24 we just started played in our level. This is our level, this is the level of greek players and this is the level of greek volleyball. They should respect us more."


    Drama 🤗


    Personally i think that Dresdner continues to be the favorite. A big advantage for Dresdner is that they have many players to use. They have even in their bench foreign players. AO Thiras uses only 7 players. In the first round of greek league they had the same points with olympiakos but now olympiakos has two points more and the main reason is that the players have not time to rest.


    Before and after the first game against Drsedner AO Thiras had two of the most difficult matches and after their match in germany they have to travel to athens to play against olympiakos. I guess that they are going to do at least one bad performance.

    So, I'am in the train back to Hamburg from Aachen. Very nice Game from Beziers. What a offensive Power. Johnson play fantastic.


    Aachen has many Problems with the Service from Beziers.


    The Reason of my Visit was SSS. I like her so. Would like to see her in German. Dresden as Example 😎

    To be honest, Olympiacos Piraeus is the only team from Greece I really respect and for good reason. They won this competition already several times in the past years... they are on another level than the other teams of the Greek league.

    Quote from StefanS

    To be honest, Olympiacos Piraeus is the only team from Greece I really respect and for good reason. They won this competition already several times in the past years... they are on another level than the other teams of the Greek league.

    *1 time ..but they have won men cev top teams cup (currently cev cup)

    I'm dead at Beylikdüzü just tapping out from challenge cup bcs they knew they could probably still beat Linz and the management was just over it :rolll:


    Challenge Cup and Cev Cup must be fused for a great secondary level euro tournament! It would do much for growth of countries with actual potential like the ex-Yugos, Greece, France etc.

    Its time for the 2nd matches 🤗




    I think that Beziers and THY will qualify very easy.


    Thy has by far the most famous and experienced players in the competition.


    Beziers have many foreigners, almost all of them are not from europe so i dont know them. They have good results in french league so i think that they can be very competitive.




    Today Olympiakos is playing against Swietelsky.



    The Hungarians arent bad but they lost two sets 25-23 in their home due to silly mistakes and now maybe its too late for them.




    About the match between AO thiras and Dresdner: I think that if dresdner manage to have good reception they can win without problems.They have a good and fast setter and the block of AO Thiras is very weak.


    Considering that the coach of Potsdam said to a greek site that Dresdner is not a team with good reception i think that the service will play a big role. AO Thiras is the team with the most aces in challenge cup+greek league.



    Mendaro (OPP) and Brinkmann (OH) have nice services, but (especially) Mendaro risks too much and she is an error machine.


    The other oh (merteki) has also some nice moments in service. Against Olympiakos Thira took 8 points in a row and a set ended 25-16 from 17-16. Against Dredner Thira took 6 points in a row and a set ended 26-24 from 20-24. I ve read that she did something similar the summer against Finland NT.



    AO Thiras hasnt lost so far any game 3-0 or 3-1 and they hope that this tradition will not stop tommorow. They have played 6 tie breaks and they have lost 2 of them. The one was against Olympiakos (they lost from 14-11👅) and the other against Kanti (they lost from 9-6).



    According to betting sites Dresdner has more chances to win and AO Thiras has more chances to qualify.






    😂😂😂





    Some highlights from the first match


    https://m.facebook.com/story.p…727307&id=1260443223&_rdr