2019 FIVB Men's Club World Championship | Betim, Brazil

Is there a confirmation on the supposed new format?

Brazilian press is saying that the championship might be held in Brazil from Dec 3rd to Dec 8th. Wasn't it supposed to be a one-match thing?

fivb confirmed on its site the tournment will take place in Betim (BRA) with just 4 teams (Sada Cruzeiro, Zenit Kazan, Civitanova and Al-rayyan)

1st phase round robin system

2nd phase semi-final and final (1st x 4th ; 2nd x 3rd )

Why there is only 4 teams?

This is terrible, they will be playing friendlies until the semifinals.

We will wait till semifinals, no problem.

Sada 2:0 Kazan

Kazan played an ugly match so far. Kazan had better OH/OPPs than Sada, but Sada's reception and serves outplayed Kazan in every way. This season Maxim's position was awkward. His reception was shaky, and his attack at pos 4 was not convincing too, partially because of bad pass from Butko. I did not know what NG is doing so far. Looks like he's invisible on court quite often. Only Soko is a solid attacker.

After Verbov retired, Kazan still can not find a good libero to cover the back row. Golu's reception was a nightmare. Sada had 6-round jump serves, while Kazan only had 3-4 (Soko's jump serves did no count. His jump serve has been a joke since 2018). NG's showoff in clutch time failed not only once, but many times. I really doubt how far Kazan can achieve this season, both at Russia League and CL.

one more set, same plot. Sada 3:0 Kaza

Another horrible match from Kazan this season.

I can't believe how a team with Ngapeth, Mikhailov and Sokolov manages to lose 3:0 to a team with Perrin, Conte and Evandro

Cuz Cruzeiro is better coached.

Quote from Sidney

I can't believe how a team with Ngapeth, Mikhailov and Sokolov manages to lose 3:0 to a team with Perrin, Conte and Evandro

Isn't it the first game? Changing 2 continents; Asia to Europe to South America hurts them. Maybe still jetlag. (At least 2 transfer flights, 30-35 h on the plane)

Quote from Sidney

I can't believe how a team with Ngapeth, Mikhailov and Sokolov manages to lose 3:0 to a team with Perrin, Conte and Evandro

Last season Kazan had NG, Anderson and Verbov to cover reception. This season the reception line was NG, Golu and Maxim. You can imagine the level of reception dropped dramatically.

Kazan 3:1 Al-Rayyan

Kazan even lost one set to a team that literally visited Brazil as a tour trip. Look at Kazan's starting OH/OPPs, horrible.

Maxim 5/13

Soko 7/17

NG 4/10

It's time for Butko to take a long break. After the injury, Butko never came back to his peak. Loran should take his chance to step up.

Maxim still can not find his rhythm this season. NG must go.

Lube is such in another level. I think they will finally win this time.

I am trying to become morr excited with this tournament but this a big step down from last year.

I really don't understand why they didn't invite more teams.

We are already lucky that the tournament still exists. FIVB wanted to make a single-match with the champion of South American and the European champion.

Quote from LDvolley

I really don't understand why they didn't invite more teams.

It's ultimately FIVB's fault. We had too many NT competitions this year and the men's world cup in Japan started way too late that most players only came back to their associated clubs in Mid-october. There's also another roadblock with the continental olympic qualifications that I guess played into strong clubs like Perugia and the defending champion, Trentino into missing this year's CWC.

What's going on with Zenit? Lube won the first set 25-12. Now Lube is playing with bench players but despite this Zenit is unable to win.

Quote from LDvolley

I really don't understand why they didn't invite more teams.

I think the competitions schedule are too tight and the title of club's world champion not that attractive. Thanks Brazil, they're still willing to invest money to hold this tournament.

Super spike from Sokolov