The russian league is almost similar to the Turkish league. Only 3 or 4 teams dominating.
Happy to see Parubets rocking again after that nasty injury.
Some recent results:
Proton 3 - 2 Moscow
Krasnodar 3 - 2 Lokomotiv
Kazan 0 - 3 Proton
Kazan 3 - 0 Moscow
Uralochka (one set away from winning the league last year) won't make the playoffs this season.
Russian players in their first Superleague season who play frequently:
Next week Tulitsa plays in Chelyabinsk. I like that Chelyabinsk's liberos have different shirts. The name of the player with nummer 1 in both teams is: Olga Efimova.
She's playing both opposite and outside hitter positions and she's doing OK although in some games she underperforms. IMO, Leningradka could get medals this season and that'll be great because they'll probably get a bigger budget in the next season.
Leningradka is third at the moment. I agree that they should be able to finish at least fourth (Kazan should get stronger when Ezhak joins them).
Cup final four this weekend in Tula:
Russian Cup was played last weekend. Lokomotiv, Moscow (won all games including a 3:0 against Kazan) and Dinamo-Metar (won 3:0 against Proton which had 7 Pts. too) qualified for the finals.
Finals in Tula will be played December 17./18.
Semis: Dinamo-Metar vs. Moscow, Tulitsa-Lokomotiv
Loko hadn't the best start in the league (0:3 against Kazan, 2:3 Moscow). Kazan had a very surprising 1:3 against Sparta at home (Spartas only victory in the first five games...).
New season starts next friday.
Most teams look quite different this season. Almost all teams have three or more new starting players (Moscow only two if Pipunyrova starts). Loko, Moscow and Kazan as usual among the favourites. Uralochka is unlikely to go as far as they did last season.
Kaliningrad: New coach (first time women). A lot of quality players. Probably the best subs.
Uralochka: No Parubets, no foreigners. Reception did not look good in cup.
Moscow: Natalia Pereira and Podkopaeva are back. Thanks to them the reception should be better than last season. Should be the main opponent for Loko.
Kazan: They seem to have to many players... Again three setters (I guess nobody wanted Lazareva)... I hope they loan out Kostina or Zamanskaia when Ezhak is joining them. Will probably need some time to find the right team.
Tulitsa: New MB's. Byarda is the only OPP which is a bit worrying. They should be quite competitive.
Proton: Malykh, Bobrova and Gatina joined. As usual almost no subs. They should be quite good if everyone stays healthy.
Leningradka: Drca, Mihajlovic, Gorbunova, Chernova and Perova joined. They have to be successful with this team. I will blame the coach if they fail...
Krasnodar: A lot of new players. Don't like the setters. OPP does not look great. Happy to see Shepeleva in Superleague.
Dinamo Metar: Several new players. Should have enough experienced player to do pretty ok. Happy that Olga Efimova (setter) is back in Superleague.
Enisey: Will be interesting to see what Perepelkina can do with this team. On paper not that strong but had a good start in the cup.
Lipetsk: Some very experienced and some very young players (16 year old Pavlova on loan from Kazan). Were disappointing the last few seasons. Hopefully the can do better this season. Setters should be better then last season.
Minchanka: New young setters and very experienced OH. Hopefully stronger than last season.
Sparta: Not sure about the OH (don't know the new ones). Reception probably still a problem.
Zarechie: A lot of young players as usual but a bit more experience then in previous seasons. Have the potential to do better than last season.
Russian Cup starts tomorrow. The league will start two weeks after the cup.
Akimova with minor injury.
Youtube streams https://www.youtube.com/c/VolleyRuVFV
Interesting lineup!
Matveeva didn't impressed me last year. I find her a bit slow and her sets are predictable. But then, she's young so there's room for improvement and she's tall too, so that's an advantage.
For the OHs, I wonder why Parubets and Kadochkina weren't included? I'm curious how this pair would work like how Voronkova-Fedorovtseva duo went well last year.
Also wondering why Suvorova wasn't on this list. I'd also like to see Brovkina, Sergeeva, Gorbunova, Pipunryova, and Smirnova. (Probably playing for the opposing teams?)
I think Matveeva is pretty solid but I like Kobzar and Popova more.
Parubets, Smirnova and Kadochkina will play in the Kaliningrad team. Suvarova and Sergeeva in team Tatarstan, Pipunyrova Moscow, Gorbunova Saint Petersburg.
Schedule https://volley.ru/news/2/p1/27078/
Any free tv channels broadcasting the finals?
How can I watch the french league?
https://www.lnvtv.com/InPlayer_Subscription.aspx is confusing to me... Shouldn't Integral be the most expensive?
Kochurina is the next Russian who signed with Volero
Any news on what the NT is going to do this summer? Training and exhibitions?
Next matches tomorrow.
Moscow is leading the third place series 2:0. They won the 5th set in both matches 15:13! Kazan is doing better than in the semis. They would probably be stronger had they used Popova in the second half of the season instead of Lazareva... Lukianova played most of the second match and made 20 pts. (49 %, Kadochkina 26 pts./43 %, Bricio 23 pts./44 %). Bricio is not playing her best in the playoffs (receptions is weaker than Kadochkina's who is not that good a receiver, only 27 % in attack first match against Moscow after 12 % in second semi).
Loko won the second match 3:1 (had match points at 24:22 in third set). As expected Uralochka was not able to keep the level of attacking efficiency from the first match (went from 59 % to 46 %, Kostyuchik, Kotova and Fitisova dropped considerably).
Uralochka beats Kazan again, this time even 3:0, and eliminates them to reach playoff finals
Fabris was back on court today but it wasn't enough.
Ailama Cese did quite well in the recent matches, but IMO Parubets still isn't as good as before her injury
Kazan failed in the playoffs for the second year in a row... Coaching staff might have something to do with it (Kadochkina was OPP in the first match, Lazareva started in second set match 2 etc.)...
Cese Montalvo is pretty impressiv in attack, reception not so much.
Finals start tomorrow. IMHO Loko is favourite after impressive performances in the semis. Since Kazan is a mess atm they should end up fourth.
Semis tomorrow and on Wednesday
Kazan - Uralochka: I think that Kazan should win this even without Fabris. Uralochka was really lucky against Tula but is not playing very well. Happy to see that Popova is fit to play.
Moscow -
Playoffs start today (second match on Monday)
Qualification winner Kazan (added Lukianova last week, Kostina is back) shouldn't have too many problems against Krasnodar.
Moscow is the clear favourite against Leningradka.
Proton (missed out on 5th placed Uralochka because of two points) only won one set against Kaliningrad in the qualification. But Kaliningrad is now without Smarzek and Shcherban joined only a week ago (Voronkova played OPP last match).
Uralochka lost both matches against Tulitsa but the last encounter was three months ago. Tulitsa doesn't look so strong since Perepelkina left. Should be close but I hope Uralochka will make it to the next round.
Display MoreAlthough it is a bit too early, I like to spin some ideas (for VNL) here to stir up unhappiness:
No. 1 the most important thing for the NT is to have a competent coach, imho, pretty much anyone out there should be better than Buzato (technically speaking, B is not really a coach)
S: Vetrova, Startseva,Filishtinskaia, Kobzar
OP: Goncharova, Lazareva, Akimova, Kodochkina, Antropova (if she wants to play for team Russia)
MB: Fetisova, Lazarenko, Koroleva, Pushina, Brovkina, Suvorova, Fitisova
OH: Fedorovtseva, Voronkova, Parubets, smirnova, Gatina, Chernova, Pipunyrova
L: Malova, Zaitseva, Pilipenko
Setter's line is a little weak, and all other lines I believe are pretty decent.
I would prefer younger setters: Dmitrieva, Markova, Kobzar
So far I am not convinced that Akimova will be a NT player but she is better than Malygina... I would say: Lazareva, Pipunyrova, Chernova
I would be really happy if Pushina and Fitisova would make the NT!
Kapustina starting to get in last seasons form and might be an option for OH too
I think I would prefer O. Frolova to Zaitseva and Pilipenko
The first half of the qualification is over. Luckily the league was not much affected by covid. As expected Loko, Kazan and Moscow are ahead. Tulitsa did better than I expected and is in forth place (only lost to top three and Leningradka). Bavykina's reception is pretty solid this season and they have better substitutes than most teams.
Parubets is back as top scorer but her reception is not yet as good as before the injury.
My favourite newcomers (russians in first super league season) are Pushina and Kostina. Both are starter in their clubs (Kostina since she was loaned out to Enisey). Pushina has 58 % in attack (only Fitisova and Polyakova are higher), most block points (58, 1.21 per set) and is with 13 aces a good server too.
Last week Lokomotiv lost their first league game of the season. Surprisingly it was Sparta (only three wins before the game) who was able to win in Kaliningrad. They managed to win 11 points in a row! Loko was without Smarzek and was not able to replace her (Stalnaya started as OPP and was replaced by Busa in the second set).
