Posts by Armel

US opposite Murphy Troy (Latina) and Slovak setter Martin Repak (Rennes) to St Nazaire (French league B champion).

source

Toniutti leaving Sète for Italy.
Geiler leaving Sète as well for Friedrichshafen
Sol (Sète) to Narbonne

According to l'Equipe, Rafael Redwitz is now able to play with French NT.

He got the French citizenship last june after marrying in 2009 a French journalist currently working for ... L"Equipe !
Since he had play with Brazil NT at the 2007 Copa America, Rafa was waiting for the agreement of the FIVB.

With this agreement, Rafael is now looking forward to joining the French NT for the WL. According to the newspaper, Tillie already called Him to say he would be in the 22 list.

Quote from muse

I was actually thinking where I can ask about it, so I decided to do it here. I mean, that supposedly Nicolas Marechal took Polish citizenship, do you know the reason maybe and if it's true of course?

I read the rumour on a french forum.

I don't know if it's true, and how he can apply for Polish citizenship at all , maybe he is from Polish descent (Maréchal comes from the north of France where many people have ancestor coming from Poland), but I guess it's going to help Him play in Poland.

1/4 final results:

Tours (2) - Rennes (1)

2-3 (16 - 25 / 22 - 25 / 25 - 22 / 25 - 13 / 15 - 9)
3-0 (25-18 / 25-22 / 25-18 )
3-0 (25-16 / 25-22 / 25-20)

Sète (0) - Cannes (2)

0-3 (21 - 25 / 24 - 26 / 26 - 28 )
1-3 (25-27 / 25-19 / 25-27 / 21-25)

Nantes (1) - Paris (2)

0-3(21-25 / 18-25 / 19-25)
3-1 (25-19 / 26-24 / 22-25 / 25-23)
0-3 (16-25 / 20-25 / 23-25)

Chaumont (0) - Narbonne (2)

1-3 (27-29 / 25-19 / 23-25 / 20-25)
2-3 (23-25 / 25-19 / 20-25 / 25-22 / 13-15)

Many surprises with the teams ranked 2 to 4 kicked out of the play-off !
The formula with the first game played at the last ranked team resulted in every single favorite (including Tours) defeated in away game Tuesday and Wednesday.
Sète (against Cannes) and Chaumont (against Narbonne) were not able to overcome the pressure at home yesterday, and lost. Nantes however was able to win Friday, but sank against Paris yesterday.

Tours was the only team able to control its challenger at home with 2 straight set victories. Oliver Venno got a sprained ankle in 2nd set Saturday and that made it almost impossible for Rennes today.

1/2 final schedule

Tours - Narbonne (04-13 & 04-14 in Tours, 04-19 & 04-20* in Narbonne , 04-23* in Tours)
Paris - Cannes ((04-13 & 04-14 in Paris, 04-19 & 04-20* in Cannes , 04-23* in Paris)

* if needed

Quote from njvhaeck

Edit: Egleskalns is probably going to Chaumont.

Any source for Egleskalns in Chaumont ?

French cup Final: another victory for Tours !
This is the 7th win in 11 years for Tours.

Tours VB / Spacer's Toulouse : 3-1 (29/27, 25/22, 20/25, 25/22)

David Konecny had 36 points (32/42 spiking), including 15 points in the 4th set only, with an insane finish (starting at 1h56').
Toulouse played great, especially with 20 years old Thibault Rossard scoring about 90% of his spikes !

French Cup trailer from Tours Volley Ball:

French teams often make early recruitment if they can.

Thus they can build an early budget which help them with the French sport financial rules.
And the players also get to know earlier where they are going to play for the next season. (those with a family probably appreciate)

Please use this thread only for the current season's transfers.

For next season transfers use 2013 / 2014 Transfer News !

Milos Terzic (Tomis Constanta) to Chaumont (France)

Quote from Kaziyski

TLM coach or some1 else from TLM said he is going in Lennik Thanks for info guys

I guess everything is good for Tourcoing, as long as he leaves the team, they will be fine!

Quote from triglav_kran

Also, Yavor mentioned how prepared are Trento in every match. Another reason for their success for me is because Stoychev is one of the best coaches (if not the best) when it comes to pre-match preparation.

Is it because of Stoychev or is it because of Serniotti ?

I think Serniotti has a much more stronger case as a master of statistics and strategy than Stoychev ...

News from France:

Tours 28
Sète Arago 25
Nantes Rézé 21
Paris 17
Cannes AS 17
Ajaccio 16
Beauvais 16
Chaumont15
Narbonne 14
Rennes EC 12
Montpellier 11
Toulouse 7
Tourcoing 6
Avignon 5

Tours still undefeated will have to confirm his leadership in the next 3 rounds against Nantes, Cannes and Sète.

Sète registered a clean 3-0 victory in Nantes yesterday, and remain the only team seemingly able to cope pace with Tours.

Despite the defeat in Sète, and the tough games in Tours next week, Nantes, is definitely the main contender beside the 2 IECL teams, after victories in Cannes last week.

After their good start, Paris had a tough time, facing the best teams of the championship and dealing with the injury of Krolis. After 4 defeats in a row aginst Nantes,Cannes, Sète and Tours, Paris was again victorious against the weaker Avignon, and defeated Beauvais with a 3-2 home victory yesterday, thanks to 35 (including 5 aces) points from Oivanen.

Other things to mention:

- Rennes is currently strugling and appears unable to find a proper pace in this championship. Boris Grebennikov tried some changes against Ajaccio (benching all his OH and replacing them with libero and backup opp !)

- The historical team of Tourcoing (about 10 times cup or championship runner-up in the past 15 years) is in deep trouble with a weak team.

- newcomer Chaumont is dong pretty well and is currently a good chance of play-off.

Quote from volleystella

So now the 7 first ranked teams plus the 5 best 2nd qualifies?

That's right.

But since one of these team will organize the final 4, the 6th best second team will replace it in play-off.

So you can say that only the worst 2nd-ranked team will fail to qualify for play-off.

Quote from Diesse14

where will he go??

Tours may be looking for a medical joker due to Kamil Baranek needing to stop 2 months to take care of his shoulder.

Don't know if both the club and him will get interested in this move. Especially if one consider he would not be allowed to play in IECL.

Quote from Kaziyski

Skrimov picked up injury in last match, dunno how serious is ton Sunday Mikko Oivanen should have debut in his new club

Skrimov was back in the team today.

Paris lost 1-3 in Sète, the third defeat in a row after Cannes and Nantes.
Considering Skrimov's and Krolis's injuries, these 3 defeats are not very conclusive in regard of Paris's real level.

My guess is that both Nantes and Sète are slightly better teams. The question for now is whether Oivanen will reach Krolis's former level soon, and eventually top it.

Quote from Kaziyski

Watching Sete - Zalau... Sete missing both opposites and starting OH and still killing these Romanian mugs. Croatian champion could play CL instead Zalau w/o problems, what a pathetic team

I was afraid that Sète will have some trouble. But Zalau drowned just the way Beograd did yesterday against Tours.

Quote from triglav_kran

I'm reading that Paris Volley and Toshko Skrimov are rocking the league!

Is it cause they play vs weaker opponents or they are really playing well?

More or less both.

Out of Rennes (but Rennes is currently playing awfully with Gontariu completely out of shape who was not even on the game sheet against Nantes), they have only played supposedly weaker opponents.And 3 of these 4 games where in Paris.

Yet the level in French league is so close, that being 4/4 losing only 2 sets is definitely proof they are in good shape. Now the real test will be next week in Nantes, and then against Cannes, Sète, and finally Tours.

If they can win 2 of these 4 upcoming games, that would be quite a good result. And winning 3 or 4 would make them a very serious contender.

Quote from Armel

Jean-François Exiga back home in Ajaccio.

He was looking for a new club after being replaced by Henno in Macerata (and this despite an ongoing contract) and finally came back to his hometown. The president of the club is his own father.

Exiga finally signed a one season contract with Tours.
So he will be able to play in IECL.

The agreement with Ajaccio was that he would be let free if he had a good offer.
Tours came to look for him because they were feeling that Kilama was a bit short for now. (especially an overweight problem).
In the end, Kilama decided to put an end to his career (he's only 30) and was released from his contract by Tours.

Kilama is a 34 times french international. He started as a libero in Paris volley in 2002, but wanted to play as an OH despite his size (1,84 m) to be fully involved in the play. After many injuries he had finally agree to be back as a libero last Spring when he signed with Tours...

Jean-François Exiga back home in Ajaccio.

He was looking for a new club after being replaced by Henno in Macerata (and this despite an ongoing contract) and finally came back to his hometown. The president of the club is his own father.