Posts by powsoff

Quote from hakin12

Great win for Moscow of course, but Berezhko had to go off the court in the second set because of an injury. I dont know about the seriousness though. Grozer did not play for Novosibirsk against Yaroslavl, anybody knows if he is injured again or just a security measure due to some exhaustion/fatigue or so?

Berezhko was able to walk after the game although the condition is not absolutely clear. Grozer (and Eksi) practiced together with the rest of the team although had personalised physio session. Grozer was holding his shoulder, Eksi has issues with his knee. I think Loko kept Grozer off the pitch in view of the Belgorod and ChL games.

Quote from Rains_of_Castamere

Belogorie showing class tonight.

I still feel they are lacking something to compete against a Zenit team at their best but the serve is fantastic. That campfire in the third set was very funny. Just too many mistakes for Zenit.

Butko-Mikhailov connection is not looking great. I don't think Alekno trusts his son to do the job either so he's stuck with Butko.

Belgorod were clearly practicing the serves instead of celebrating, which sounds a bit cruel :). I also like the moment when Panteleymonenko and Alexeev emerge onto the pitch - together with Verbov's shaved head looks like a new episode of Prison Break. Alexeev is a peculiar character, looks absolutely organic in his Lonsdale Errea trackies.

The tie-breaker is hot... Alekno's moderately angry. I like how Belgorod plays against Leon. Bogomolov-coach growing on me. But this is not over yet.

Quote from Kk15

Ps apparently Kazan made a huge offer, so if Leon won't stay in his team, it would probably be for not-economical reasons (rumors said his wife doesn't won't to live in Russia anymore).
It seems Perugia can't offer more than 900.000 at the moment, but it's not official. Anyway Sirci openly said they're trying to make a deal with him (since the last CL Final4, btw), but that it's normal that with a player like him it's difficult to have an immediate ok. He also said he doesn't know if it's true he refused Kazan offer.

The goss is that Kazan' was granted a 10% increase in budget early December - this is for the next year though, unclear whether this would span over 2019. Thus, the big offer to Leon is believable but if the offer is more than a one year extension is unclear. Given Leon leaves, there's going to be a massive recruitment campaign and the losing side in the end might be Fakel Novy Urengoy.

One more point is that Rus has a flat 13% tax rate whereas Italy has a progressive ladder. Which means that the transition from Kazan (with rumoured 1.2M) to 0.9M in Perugia would almost halve the income. Unless obviously there are special clauses.

Quote from Rains_of_Castamere

Kemerovo could probably still win but that's a bit unfair for other teams.

I have to say financial difficulties like this are very horrible in Russia because of the geographical and logistical factors involved in the league. Teams from away must buy airline tickets unlike in Italy,Turkey or Poland. You probably just need a club-owned bus vehicle while the bigger teams can always afford to travel through airports. Maybe there's something that can be done to fix it. Playing in Russia is like playing in a european tournament. That's not cheap when it's gameday every week and I believe the league should atleast try helping Yugra for the sake of fairness and humanity.

Kemerovo has roster in top 5 of the league - yes, they could have won indeed. Driving from Nizhnevartovsk to Kemerovo is equivalent to a commute from Vienna to Lisbon - but this is at -20C, in the middle of nowhere. Trust me, no matter how big your team is, you have to fly, in Russia. A way out is to move all teams to Moscow and play in there :).

Re help from the league: the trouble is that volleyball life is overall much more short-sighted than in any other sport. You get quite a bit of support from local bosses that can be withdrawn at will, and this is the state of the situation in every club. Now, would e.g. Belgorod authorities be OK with Belogorie paying for Nizhnevartovsk plane tickets? What perhaps matters here is that Nizhnevartovsk as a city is doing very well economically, this is where the oil comes from.

Quote from Rains_of_Castamere

So what's going to happen to the match between Kemerovo and Yugra? Win by default for Kemerovo or just postponed powsoff?

Win by default afaic.

Quote from Rains_of_Castamere

Can we call Novosibirsk Team Grozer? This is so bad. He's now gets blocked more often.

They desperately need to diversify their attack. Very readable and hence very blockable.

Some Xmas news coming from Rus.

Yenisey got fed up with their progress (or rather the lack of that) this season and sacked their head coach, Yuri Cherednik. Kuzbass sacked Nicola Giolito, possibly due to the serious off-the-pitch muscle injury of the OH Nikitin. Rumours are arising that Surgut sacked setter Mitic - god knows what the reasons are, usual business for Surgut.

Of this trio, Cherednik is the most interesting case as he is regarded as a good coach of the Superleague level. He was doing overall OK with Yenisey but then they really failed to jump over their head with their very average roster. They hired Rouzier and Kritskiy this season but it hasn't paid off really hence the outcome. Now I'm reading the intense goss from Belgorod ("our coaches are a bunch of donkeys, why not hire Cherednik?") and I have to say I largely agree with their logic.

But another side of this saga is quite palpable, as I am watching Novosibirsk pretty helplessly losing to Kazan in straight sets. I don't know if the railway bosses are busy with the new year festivities but I bet they may decide that Loko should have at least grabbed a set in the home game and introduce some point replacements within the coaching squad. One may argue though that there are Shlyapnikov and Voronkov who are formally half-employed and thus the liberation of Cherednik is not a prerequisite for this move. Re the match itself, I think Konstantinov made some dubious choices and focused much on eliminating Leon with targeted float serve. Can't read the stats yet but visually Kazan has outdefended and outblocked Novosibirsk. Pavlov wasn't bad at all as he brought some smart work against the block but that was clearly not enough. They needed to be more aggressive with their middle attack and serve better too.

Quote from Rains_of_Castamere

Thanks for the insight powsoff. I would like however to ask about the near-scruffle between the two teams in the tie break. I think that was 12-13 and at the end of the match. A conflict between Kurkaev/maybe with Grozer and Camejo happened which Pavlov from the bench suddenly been a part of(he even pushed Grozer away .) I don't even understand the yellow card to the other Zenit(Was it issued? I'm not sure). It felt like Novosibirsk started the fight. I think that resulted to their own demise however. Seems like the fight affected them more than it did to SPb.

To me, it looked as something has been said from the SPb side straight after Grozer had been stuffed by three men to give 13:12. Presumably the author was Pankov. Kurkaev raised the issue across the net immediately and the answer arrived from Sivozhelez and Camejo. The former has a track record of small provocations (e.g. against Zaytsev vs Macerata in ChL back in I think 2013) so he was quick to push Kurkaev through the net. Camejo I think is the biggest guy on court and he played for both teams so it was natural that he gets his views to be heard. Pavlov is the captain who is bored on the bench and therefore he decided to help his team as much as he could :). All he could do was getting Sivozhelez see the yellow, which I think he fully deserved. In brief, all was done so that Sivozhelez would screw up his next serve but very he served an ace instead!

Quote from Rains_of_Castamere

It was an intense match between Zenit St Petersburg and Novosibirsk decided by service and a very good substitution.

In all practical reason... Novosibirsk should've won the game. Horrendous reception as like all games of the Other Zenit including all of liberos and the seemingly lack of reliable outside hitters to play better than Sivozhelez or Camejo.

Still I found out they used at last another player than Shipotko.

Boldyrev managed to play well. Not bad. I just didn't think he was that good but he was able to mend the reception of St. Petersburg and play more air battles against Novosibirsk. The reception just was zero for Petersburg. The fact he raised the ball was enough to get some rally going.

Kurkaev should've been the MVP of the match. He was the one who broke the reception of SPb. Martynuk played also very well. Eksi who was also great however turned very predictable and the attack suffered in a big way for Novosibirsk although the pipe set he made for Divis was amazing but not enough for a win. It was just that you know when it's coming to Grozer or his middle blockers which caused enough momentum for the other Kazan to wage a come back.

For the last points of the game. I was shocked when Klimkin decided to bench Volkov for Sivozhelez to serve. At the first moment... I thought it was a bad decision with how great Volkov's serve is then I remembered the olympic champion doing so badly in defense after he serves.

I'm glad Sivozhelez proved everyone wrong on that. Still the passing was just unacceptable so Boldyrev has to be the MVP of this match for me. He saved Zenit SPb when everyone thought they have no one in the bench.

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A decent game indeed, almost followed by a decent fight :).
I agree that Novosibirsk lost this in many was miraculously but I don't think it is the Volkov-Sivozhelez sub that was the key for winning - to me, it was a difference in the ability to recycle the ball after poor reception and first touch during long rallies.

Lokomotiv could have won set 1 (that was very equal) and certainly should have been grabbing set 4, from the transition ball on their service at 21:18. Don't want to be negative but Loko did remind me of Bulgarian NT - an excellent in many ways but a bit careless outfit. In set 4 there were simply no objective reason for them not to go 23:18 when they'd wasted a free ball but likewise there was no serving magician on the other side. Things were tough but doable - yet, they've screwed up. They then managed to waste a three-breakpoint lead on the tiebreaker in one rotation (from 7:3 to 7:7) due to bizarre attacking, the service was nothing special. Their coach would inevitably get under attack but what needs to be corrected is their offensive strategy. These nervous breakdowns by Konstantinov during the game were annoying but somehow they all were timed well for the opponent's service.

Sivozhelez has a reputation of a strong server/acer and a good defender. He's also very good off-the-bench server too so nothing special that he subs the MB Volkov. The latter may serve tough and claim an ocassional ace due to a poor positioning of the receivers but he certainly can't bruteforce a breakpoint from the service line. Note though that first two breakpoints on Sivozhelez's serve (12:12, 13:12) were won thanks to the team performance (and poor decisions from Loko).

Quote from Andre Marquim

This is just ridiculous. Sada has prove it not only one, but 3 times, they were the best. And those excuses to “prove” Sada didn’t deserve their titles is just ridiculous. Just doesn’t make sense. Zenit can be better right now, but this doesn’t erase Sada’s achievements (and 2 of them over Zenit).

I am not in a position to debate which league is stronger etc as I don't have time to follow these leagues THB. But the fact is that winning the domestic cup this season was a more complex task for Kazan than grabbing the CWC title. Some of you have seen the F4 in which Zenit was bruised and bleeding. At CWC, we had a very close final indeed but at the same time Kazan clearly had a poor serving game whilst Macerata-or-whatever was very lucky with all those micro touches, carries "power tips" etc. I doubt there are many games in their home league in which both OHs would kill like 70% of balls in most improbable way. Well, I bet the truth was that breaking Sokolov's back was clearly the main task for Kazan. At the TO in set 2, Alekno was pretty open about that. And yes, the kind-of-Italian team needed a TO after that 1-on-1 block on Sokolov in set 2... That was the point of no return. Btw, struggle to understand why their coach speaks Italian to his team of labour migrants non-Italians :).

Regarding to which club is historically best, I do not think this competition can resolve this q fairly. I understand the apologists of Sada greatness but let us face the fact, a pre-season tourney on a different planet continent is not going to be taken seriously by definition. Do admit that the overall level of CWCs won by Sada was pretty poor. From this perspective, the CWCs won by Belgorod and Kazan may look far more valuable. But then the caveat here is that Belgorod had domestic finals rearranged for them back in 2014 (and in fact given those away to Kazan) in order to prepare for the CWC - I doubt their opponents had such a liberty. This year, let's face it, Kazan needed this most - due to some domestic funding risks imposed by their doppelgänger from St Petersburg. I am not aware of any special pressure on Sada... and many other teams seemed as if they arrived mostly to enjoy themselves. I wouldn't say the venues were packed... and all the finals ending in straight sets tell a very clear tale.

Quote

So Poland won 2014 FIVB WCH because they hosted it? And had the advantage of time zone over Brazil? So Brazil won 2016 Olympics just because they were in their home?

Yes, those were home wins, very similar to e.g. the "miraculous" win of ChL by Novosibirsk in 2013. And we all should thank Deutschland that the 2014 football World Cup went off this beaten track.

Quote from Rains_of_Castamere

And Kemerovo gets it done! Is this their first ever final? I have no idea really.

Second. They've lost a final in December 2011 to Novosibirsk.
Ye-reshenko not Te-reshenko

Quote from YavorD

Well, I also won't rule out some backstage games, especially when one company has a few teams in the league, but facts are facts. Zenit's rejects beat Zenit

We've discussed Dinamo Moscow's problems, now they seem to have scored some important wins in a row and to approach the top 4 spots. And they still used an OH (Kooy) as a MB until recently! Fakel and Kuzbass are obvious, Nova has been indeed the team to talk about lately. However, I would like to briefly discuss Lokomotiv Novosibirsk with powsoff (because he might have some information). I would normally start with one of the biggest problems in any team, Plamen Konstantinov, but given his successful record in the Russian league (and a very decent last season with the same team) and the early stage of the championship, I will leave this argument for now. Lokomotiv is in a possession of a great team. They had Pavlov when Grozer wasn't available, so the latter's absence should not be an excuse. Yet Novosibirsk's only important win so far has been away in Kemerovo. Apart from the surprise package Nova and namely Kuzbass, Novosibirsk played and lost already against most teams with ambitions and quality. Which must be the most negative series they have had in years.

I agree that by looking in the table, Dinamo and Lokomotiv seem to be in a similar position but I have to say, Konstantinov can bring several serious excuses to the table. Firstly, there was only one game in which Novosibirsk seriously screwed up (vs Zenit Spb). Dinamo had some awful time against Fakel and Kuzbass and they won very narrowly against Nova and Ugra. Secondly, Lokomotiv has progressed on three fronts (domestic cup and champions league), whereas Moscow failed the cup campaign pretty badly and didn't need to qualify to ChL.

Thirdly, and perhaps, most importantly, Loko looks as if it has a better potential this season. They've done a by far better summer selection, which purely theoretically may take them further this season. All roster-related stuff goes here: they brought in several key players, who may take time to start playing their best volleyball in Novosibirsk; some of them had injuries too. Of note, Konstantinov played a major role in bringing some (Rodichev) in to Novosibirsk. Dinamo doesn't sound that ambitious and so far it looks like they've screwed up the summer selection. They've lost a first-choice setter and opp and got a third-choice OH and a sick MB instead, not talking about Biryukov and Ilinykh who left them. At the same time, the key people have been there for some time, so they can't say that Antipkin struggles with his MBs because they're all new. Now, let us not forget that the ex-coach was one of the reasons behind the summer changes.

Quote from TimHH

I am not watching very attentively but i somehow have impression too that Kazan completely lacks focus and body language. They probably can afford the loss and Gazprom may be happy too that their team 2 can do some advertisement for themselves....

Have to say, this Gazprom moment does sound a bit crappy as I can't completely rule out that certain words were said before the game. Gazprom has their HQ in SPb so the local Zenit gains some unwritten priority and there are all kind of rumours of a massive recruitment next season "if things go well". What goes along this narrative fairly well is the fact that Fakel (a formally independent but still very much run-on-gas team) lost to SPb somehow very easily and that was essentially a week before their very good game in Kazan.

We need to be fair to SPb, there were clearly people on the pitch and next to that who have had their gorgeous bottoms kicked by the big bosses within the last month or so. Pankov has played several very good games and so did Luburic. Camejo has visually scored much more against Kazan, some pretty superb ball control against three-men block. Not talking about the coaching brigade who seems to have had some sleepless nights before the game.

Quote from YavorD

What is going on in Moscow? This is the weakest Dinamo I can remember. Not on paper, but in terms of form and results. I refuse to believe it is only due to Grankin's departure, they still have enough quality to have avoided some of the home defeats in the league. And on top of that came the 3 defeats for the Cup

I would argue of course that Dinamo had a difficult group in the Cup semis but feels like the KGB glorious owners of Dinamo Moscow read your posts. They've kicked out Marichev and invited Kolchin instead. Most importantly, they've appointed a chap who runs an independent agency, Kastornov, a de facto club director. Which kind of assumes that Moscow is prepared to spend cash on players - but the real beauty of this appointment is that Kastornov is Grankin's agent who helped the latter up to move out of Dinamo in the summer. This sounds like a good idea overall from Dinamo bosses. The club's summer shopping, D*ck Kooy (absolutely useless so far), Kevin Le Roux (pretty much sick so far) and Denis Kalinin (forgot who this guy is) reflects anything but a strategy. Also, apparently half of the team is sick or injured... umm, just realised these guys are due to play in ChL this season.

The interesting thing is that in some of the league games Dinamo looked like the best serving team of the championship. All six players were serving tough spike-serves. The official version of the reasons behind the disaster is that "the contact is lost between the coach and the players", i.e. the old song from last season is still there. What is very noticeably however is the lack of the bench. Yakovlev Jr is a poor sub for Kruglov so far, Antipkin is very nervy, there is a void behind Berezhko and Markin's backs and last game they had to use an OH in the middle. I still think they'll manage to climb up eventually.

What is really surprising this season is the performance from Nova and Ural. Nova (5th spot after 7 games) is above Zenit Spb (7th spot) in the table - and I've heard it was Zenit who recruited Nova's coach Klimkin in a very immediate manner (the guy left Nova during the play-out tourney - "good luck with your qualification, chaps"). Have to say, Nova has bought the right people in the summer, as both Skrimov and Skulevicus are doing really well. With Ural - I don't know - but it looks like Bagnoli is not bad in the end.

Quote from TimHH

I do repeat myself, but man, whats going on with Maxim? Again hitting 80% (16/20) and finishing match with 23 points in a 3-setter

Any news on Grozer? He hasn't been on the roster for Lokomotiv lately...

Apparently Grozer is being repariert in D-land at the moment.

Quote from Rains_of_Castamere

Gotta love Kemerovo's middles. Very alert. Helps give more opportunities by being active. Seems like everyone in Kemerovo are playing beach volleyball with that kind of defense.

I have to say Evgeny and the libero are the holes of SPb and the coaches as well. It is a strong team on paper but they are lacking maturity as a whole.

Where I agree is that Klimkin is not necessarily the best coach for a team with the budget of Zenit SPb. Have to say though that on the paper Kuzbass is actually a better team and, with a functional Poletaev on the pitch, may have not given away the set. Just like Zenit-SPb, they're still "digesting" their summer shopping and trying to figure out the best starting line-up.

Quote from ossubtus

according to CEV website, kosheleva touches 315 cm, about the same as goncha and malikh.

several ITA players jump higher than that, egonu at 336 cm.

wow. according to this, both bosettis outjump the russians above (cate the same but lucia jumps higher).

http://www.cev.lu/Competition-…s.aspx?TeamID=9795&ID=841

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According to cev.lu, no players in Zenit Kazan could reach 3 m:
http://www.cev.lu/Competition-…s.aspx?ID=566&TeamID=7923

OK, the cev data is poorly maintained, to say the least. But if one digs out the reach of Viktor Poletaev (Superleague's best jumper), the realistic numbers would be 360 and 370 for block and spike, respectively. Back in 2014, Poletaev recorded a jumping master class video (now deleted), in which he was reaching over 370 from the spot.

Quote from inc0gnito

Filishtinkaya not setting the ball to Goncharova is a mystery. I think the problem is the sets are too fast. Goncharova sometimes is only able to tip the ball. She is 1.94 for Christ's sake, let her physical advantage come into play, no need to super-speed the sets. In the latter parts of the third set, Voronkova got blocked and she still set to her on a decent pass even when Goncharova was available. Clearly she is not comfortable setting to the OPP, and having a bad connection with your team's most prolific scorer will definitely be a problem.

One problem as well was the lack of playing time of Scherban. Parubets, albeit short, is not to be considered to be a defensive OH! Voronkova/Parubets duo is disastrous.

I hope Russia can have a Startseva/Vetrova duo, and Malova can return next year!

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I've heard Malova is skipping this season so she won't be ni her best shape next year Look at Kryuchkova at this ECh. I've also heard a speculation that Fili and Go doesn't like each other. Overall, both setters are bullying Go a lot. Frolova was like the main hitter at some point whilst what they set Go during the transitions was a pure offense, badly out of tempo or was too into the block.

It's not the lack of player X or presence of player Y. The team looked as if they didn't know what they wanted and hence struggled converting transitions into break points, let alone side-outs.

Quote from Canter

does/can Kosheleva jump higher than Egonu ?

Don't know but Ko has always been hitting better from two than from four.

Quote from Canter

Kosheleva didnt have a good season with Vitra last season in Turkey.maybe she will have more playing time in Galatasaray this season and that way we can watch a better Kosheleva.She is also not that young anymore.

i get that its not easy for Voronkova to pass tough serves well but id except Parubets to pass better than that.i mean she is offensively not a Kosheleva so if she cant pass in a decent level she cant be a starter in this team.Frolova is best passer of this Russian team.Russia has been getting good results at younger age groups in the recent years so they will keep being a good team in the future

The problem with Frolova is that she is not perfect (good defensive digger but not the best receiver), not very smart in the offense and... not that young. Parubets is younger/taller and technically gifted.

With Kosheleva, whether it was a good or bad season results-wise, she didn't spend it on the bench. A new league is a new challenge and perhaps the only opportunity for a mature player to improve. Also, differently from Dinamo Krasnodar where the genius coach made her play opposite (would you guess the name of that guy?) she spent the season as an OH, i.e. had at least some receiving practice. When she set the transition ball to the opposite side with her first touch in set 2 - that looked dangerously amateurish.