Germany - VBL 1. Bundesliga 2023/24

    While there were the expected defeats in the Champions League, there was an upset win by VC Wiesbaden in the Challenge Cup, so four German teams are still represented in European competition. The German clubs were able to achieve the following results:


    Champions League

    • A. Carraro Imoco Comegliano vs. Allianz MTV Stuttgart 3:0 (25:19, 25:15, 25:23)
    • Fenerbahce Opet Istanbul vs. SC Potsdam 3:0 (25:13, 25:19, 25:15)


    CEV Cup

    • SSC Palmberg Schwerin vs. Dresdner SC 1:3 (25:16, 22:25, 21:25, 20:25)


    Challenge Cup

    • VC Wiesbaden vs. Galatasaray Daikin Istanbul 2:3 (20:25, 25:22, 25:21, 18:25, 14:16) → due to the first leg result, the Golden Set had to decide whether to advance: 15:11 for VC Wiesbaden


    After the two convincing victories against SSC Palmberg Schwerin, Dresdner SC will next year go into the quarter-final playoffs, or playoffs for short, against the Swiss top team Viteos Neuchâtel UC. The team from Neuchâtel was able to win the Swiss Supercup this year and are currently tied for second place in the league with the league leaders from Pfeffingen. So far only the game in Dresden has been scheduled, which will be played on January 17, 2024 in the Margon Arena. However, based on the general schedule, it can be said that the game in Neuchâtel will take place a week earlier. Exactly when remains to be determined.


    VC Wiesbaden's journey in the Challenge Cup continues in the next round against the Greek team AC PAOK Thessaloniki. Things aren't really going well for the team from Thessaloniki in the league at the moment; with only two wins from eight games, the team is currently in second-to-last place in the table. The two games beetween VC Wiesbaden and AC PAOK Thessaloniki has not yet been scheduled as to when exactly the games will take place.


    Link: Wiesbaden und Dresden weiter in internationalen Wettbewerben dabei

    Quote from Marisaala

    Dresden deals with some infections in the team. Jimerson and Jegdic are definitely missing today.

    Aleksandra's failure can certainly be dealt with again, but the fact that Tia is now also out is of course very unfortunate, especially since they couldn't bring anyone up from the VCO team at such short notice in order to at least have an opportunity to change.

    Quote from Gymnicus

    Aleksandra's failure can certainly be dealt with again, but the fact that Tia is now also out is of course very unfortunate, especially since we couldn't bring anyone up from the VCO team at such short notice in order to at least have an opportunity to change.

    Yep....Combined with the fact that Dresden played 3 matches more than Schwerin and Waibl said the girls are very exhausted, I expect a clear win for Schwerin today.

    Honestly, Neuwied should be glad not to be forced to play against second pro leader Erfurt, the former first league team, because I guess, that Erfurt would win.

    Schwerin - Dresden 3:0 (25:13 25:17 25:14)

    https://live.volleyball-bundesliga.de/2023-24/Women/2044.pdf

    MVP: Elles Dambrink / Hester Jasper


    Aachen - Neuwied 3:0 (25:14 25:12 25:19)

    https://live.volleyball-bundesliga.de/2023-24/Women/2045.pdf

    MVP: Annie Cesar / Laura Broekstra


    Wiesbaden - Suhl 1:3 (18:25 24:26 25:18 23:25)

    https://live.volleyball-bundesliga.de/2023-24/Women/2042.pdf

    MVP: Rachel Anderson / Roosa Laakkonen


    Potsdam - Stuttgart 0:3 (26:28 15:25 23:25)

    https://live.volleyball-bundesliga.de/2023-24/Women/2043.pdf

    MVP: Antonia Stautz / Maria Segura


    Münster - Vilsbiburg 3:1 (25:17 25:20 15:25 25:22)

    https://live.volleyball-bundesliga.de/2023-24/Women/2041.pdf

    MVP: Gloria Mutiri / Britte Stuut


    Ranking:

    1 SSC Palmberg Schwerin 8 8 24:2 23

    2 Dresdner SC 9 7 21:11 20

    3 Allianz MTV Stuttgart 8 7 22:8 19

    4 SC Potsdam 9 6 20:10 19

    5 VfB Suhl LOTTO Thüringen 9 5 21:15 17

    6 VC Wiesbaden 8 3 15:16 11

    7 USC Münster 9 3 10:19 9

    8 Rote Raben Vilsbiburg 8 3 11:18 8

    9 Ladies in Black Aachen 9 1 6:24 3

    10 VC Neuwied 77 9 0 0:27 0


    First half of regular season is over except for Stuttgart-Schwerin (played on 19 December) and Vilsbiburg-Wiesbaden (postponed due to weather conditions). Neuwied hasn't managed to win even a single set and hardly ever even reached 20 points :aww:

    Quote from Matthias

    Neuwied hasn't managed to win even a single set and hardly ever even reached 20 points :aww:

    I don't know what this club is even looking for in the Bundesliga. There doesn't seem to be any financial development at Neuwied. Spectators hardly come to the home games either. And I don't think it's a good thing for players if they lose every game 3-0.

    If you correctly divide points by matches, Stuttgart is ahead of Dresden now. And due to better set ratio the same is true regarding Vilsbiburg, still being ahead of Münster. So far it was a non-factor, because all teams had until begin of December the same number of matches, now it became relevant again.

    Quote from StefanS

    The men's league, overall lacking money and being less professional compared to womens league, introduce video challenge in February 2024 for all league matches ( https://www.volleyball-bundesl…page=0#a_185901_768540619 ). Therefore I expect the same in womens league at least for next season 2024/25.

    I also no longer enjoy watching games without a challenge system. I can definitely do without all the discussions with the referees. That makes me tired.

    Quote from Ricky89

    I don't know what this club is even looking for in the Bundesliga. There doesn't seem to be any financial development at Neuwied. Spectators hardly come to the home games either. And I don't think it's a good thing for players if they lose every game 3-0.

    Some more truth can be seen in the ball point ratio, because all other statistics of Neuwied are still exactly zero: they have just 0.66. Now compare with the only three other teams with a ratio below 1 currently, they have values ranging from 0.82 to 0.95. This is another huge gap.

    Quote from StefanS

    Some more truth can be seen in the ball point ratio, because all other statistics of Neuwied are still exactly zero: they have just 0.66. Now compare with the only three other teams with a ratio below 1 currently, they have values ranging from 0.82 to 0.95. This is another huge gap.

    And Konstantin Bitter would like to have more teams like Neuwied in the Bundesliga. So that the substitute players get more match practice. But in my opinion that cannot be the solution

    Quote from StefanS

    Some more truth can be seen in the ball point ratio, because all other statistics of Neuwied are still exactly zero: they have just 0.66. Now compare with the only three other teams with a ratio below 1 currently, they have values ranging from 0.82 to 0.95. This is another huge gap.

    The truth is also that VC Neuwied has a significantly smaller budget than all other clubs. According to their own information, the team's budget is between 500,000 and 600,000 euros and, in my opinion, comparable to the budget of the second division promoted team VC Bitterfeld-Wolfen in the men's division. I know these comparisons are not very welcome and I have said myself that I no longer want to bring them up. But in this case the comparison fits.


    Because the top 6 teams in the men's Bundesliga have a significantly higher budget than the VC Bitterfeld-Wolfen team. If you only look at the games between the top 6 teams and VC Bitterfeld-Wolfen, even if there were only four games, then Bitterfeld only has a ball quotient of 0.74 there. Clearly the ball quotient is higher at VC Bitterfeld-Wolfen than at VC Neuwied, which may also be because the team from Bitterfeld-Wolfen has already won a set against one of the top 6 teams.


    Nevertheless, this simple comparison shows to me that it is very difficult for clear underdogs, which is what Neuwied is, to win points or sets against a team that has a significantly higher budget than their own team. And Neuwied, according to their own information, only has a budget of between 500,000 and 600,000 euros, while the other Bundesliga teams have an estimated budget of between 1.0 and 1.5 million.

    Quote from Ricky89

    And Konstantin Bitter would like to have more teams like Neuwied in the Bundesliga. So that the substitute players get more match practice. But in my opinion that cannot be the solution

    Is it “the” solution? I would probably lean towards no. But it is still “a” solution and in the current situation, solutions or attempted solutions are needed. Stagnation brings even less! Or should the league permanently become a small league with perhaps nine teams and a league where the teams have a very small proportion of local players? For me that would be a stab in the back for German volleyball. The league might survive, but the national team would fade into insignificance.

    Quote from StefanS

    [...] as well the other current top teams Cologne (Köln), which had most fear regarding a suitable place to play (believe it or not, but there is no suitable hall currently in the right size in the one million inhabitants city now in between the university (DSHS means Deutsche Sporthochschule) with less than 1.000 and the giant Lanxxess with more than 18.000 seats) [...]

    Because I just came across it by chance in the press review. Here are a few informative links on the topic: