Posts by StefanS

State of the second leagues, especially Pro: yesterday the 8 regional cup finals took place, and while in every region at least one second pro team was eligible to play, some of those cups were won by the second league north or south teams amateurs on league below anyway. The winners, with one exception, host the first league teams in first round of national DVV cup now. Here the overview:

Southeast/Bavaria: winner Rote Raben Vilsbiburg (now 2. pro), they defeated a less known team in the finals (there), after passing in even more local competitions before for example fellow team Dingolfing, I don't know what happened to Straubing anyway. They will now host Münster.

East/Saxonia and Thuringia: I don't know, what happened to Grimma (2. Pro), but the finals were won by Neuseenland Markkleenberg (2. South, quickly ascending through leagues the last years) against a lower ranked other team from Erfurt. They will now host Aachen.

Northeast/Berlin-Brandenburg: winner was BBSC Berlin(-Brandenburg) from 2. pro, playing at old Köpenick location usually (Hämmerlinghalle), defeating Cottbus and others. They will host now Potsdam.

North/Hamburg, Schleswig-Holstein, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern: the Stralsunder Wildcats (by themselves relegated to 2. North) managed to defeat ETV Hamburg (2. pro) in four sets and will now face another team for the last berth in DVV cup:

Northwest/Lower Saxonia and Bremen: I don't know, where Oythe (Vechta), now 2. pro and still undefeated in that league, was, but the finals were won by SCU Emlichheim (2. north). So Oythe vs. Stralsund will determine the last team not decided yet, the winner will host Wiesbaden (I).

West/Northrhine Westfalia: DSHS SnowTrex Köln/Cologne, 2. pro, won the finals in Hörde, 2. north. I don't know, how the other teams of this big state fared, several 2. pro teams are in that zone too (Borken, Leverkusen...). They will now host Erfurt.

Southwest/Hesse, Rhineland-Pfalz, Saarland: Wiesbaden II (second south) made an upset of SSC Freisen (2. pro) in four sets in the finals, but you should now, that Wiesbaden II is dominating that second south league somewhat and would prefer 2. pro, but are not eligible for it (one league has to be in between first and second team always). They will now host Dresden.

South/Baden-Württemberg: as expected favorite Binder Blaubären Flacht (part of Weissach, region Stuttgart) from 2. pro won the finals, both semi and final in three sets, the latter against Karlsruhe-Beiertheim from second south. They will now host Stuttgart in a Württemberg derby, really close.

Sorry, I have not translated all state names correctly into English .

Freisen is generally not faring well so far. They missed the regional cup yesterday against Wiesbaden II, see below...

As expected Mladost ZAGREB (CRO) won also the return match at home (again in four sets) and proceeded as last qualifying team to the pool stage, joining the Conegliano group with Developres RZESZOW (POL) and Maritza PLOVDIV (BUL).

The three winners of first match made it today into pool stage: Voluntari/ROM joins with an easy home win the Scandicci lead pool and has to play there in the first match (other two are Stuttgart/GER and Bielsko - Biala/POL), Tent Obrenovac/SRB won also return match at home in three sets against Asterix/BEL and has now to play in Istanbul against the Ecztigers (other two Schwerin/GER and Paris/FRA), Porto won fourth set on Gran Canaria and is now victim of Milano/ITA at begin of pool stage. Today the victim of defending champion Conegliano/ITA will be finally played out.

Budowlani Lodz/Poland is as expected first team to qualify for pool stage of the five duels in total, won again clearly in three sets at home against Novi. Therefore they join Fenerbahce Pool with Nantes/FRA and Vasa's Budapest/HUN as the first completed pool.

At least Krenicky does a good job so far, replacing Bongaerts on the same level was just plain impossible under these circumstances.

For now Stuttgart, Schwerin, Dresden and Potsdam are the only unbeaten teams so far, with huge differences in number of matches played (one to three).

The drain to LOVB/USA seems to be huge and Dresden has also less money than before. Therefore it is no surprise, that they are weaker than last season. Indeed I am surprised, that Stuttgart could build a pretty good team under these circumstances.

Also the last, additional duel was won by the favorite, Mladost Zagreb (CRO) won in four sets at Gackos home site. Generally speaking, I think, that only five of those ten teams are really strong enough for CL pool stage not to cause embaressment, unluckily two are against each other here (Obrenovac and Asterix), the other three being Budowlani Lodz, Voluntari and Zagreb, so a feeble Iberian club will be in pool stage too.

Quote from Marisaala

Wow. Schwerin really loves to "steal" players from other german teams. I know, there are two sides and of course in the end the player decides, but that's not the first time this happens.

BTW. Any news about Nova Marring and what kind of injury she has?

In this case it might have been a little different, but generally speaking Schwerin is doing what is called a hostile takeover in the economy regularly, buying out players from other, financially less well suited VBL clubs indeed.

The three matches yesterday were won by the respective favorites: Voluntari/ROM and Budowlani Lodz/POL with three set away wins, only Tent Obrenovac/SRB had to work more in Beveren against the European Cups experienced Asterix team, won in four sets there, but all three can get into pool stage already with two sets won at home in the return match.

No big surprises yesterday: 0:3 Münster - Stuttgart, Aachen - Potsdam 2-3, Wiesbaden Suhl 3:1, Erfurt - Dresden 0:3 (but was much less one-sided than Stuttgart vs. Erfurt before). The table is somewhat questionable of course, with at most two matches and two teams with just one (uneven team number of league) Schwerin and Potsdam, using point to match number ratio it is Stuttgart before Schwerin, Dresden, Potsdam, Münster, Wiesbaden, Aachen, Suhl and Erfurt. This shows no unusual order either way.

The qualification phase for the pool stage has now started. First match was won by Porto/POR against Las Palmas/ESP in three sets, so the latter will have a hard time to turn tides on their insula in the second match, but both teams are to be considered feeble from pool view.

Today the stronger teams have their first away match: Romanian champions and supercup winners Voluntari are favorites you even can't bet on in Skopje (Northern Macedonia), and also Novi/Montenegro is clear-cut underdog as host against Polish Budowlani Lodz.

More interesting is Asterix Beveren/BEL against Tent Obrenovac/SRB, the latter are slightly favored in the bets.

I have checked all team roasters now, there are still many teams with only German players. The others have 1 to at most 6 foreigners, mostly 3 to 4 aside from Freisen.

Quote from phoenix1

I can't believe that the 2. Liga Pro in Germany has no restrictions on the use of non-German players. When I look at Freisen's squad, I have to wonder how the German teams in the Bundesliga are ever going to develop athletes with aspirations for the national team.

https://www.volleyball-bundesl…amsCmsComponent_766577326

Last season there were Italy like restrictions, including at most 6 non German players. It seems that was relaxed.

It's a little embarassing, but after long time scout Andy Bühler left the team, Stuttgart didn't put online yet the match statistics (of limited interest of course, because Stuttgart was far too strong for Erfurt).

Quote from VolleyFreak

VBL is not threatening the clubs
VBL is more threatened to lose two more „international“ clubs

Where are those hard financial rules if they can go on and on and on? Seems like They are asked to go on and get every possible help from VBL, what is absolutely reasonable.

Stuttgart, Schwerin and Dresden are really angry regarding too soft sanctions against Potsdam, the VBL can't afford to annoy the three top teams to no end therefore.

Leilani Slacanin came in at end of first set on opposite position and killed her first ball cross court.

Here in Stuttgart Leilani Slacanin, biggest hope of her age class, is again in the roaster today. I am interested, if she gets playing time against Erfurt, being just 15 years young.

Quote from Matthias

With the season starting I decided to take a small step out of my hiatus and return at least to sharing info about German league. I won't be joining any other discussions nor will be moderating since there is still way too much toxicity around.

Schedule, results and stats can be found here. This week there is no TV match and I guess it will be more difficult than last season to watch those from abroad. No idea if it's possible to watch the TV matches for free on Dyn as it was possible on Sport1Extra, and the regular Sport1 stream is probably geo-blocked.

The news from Wiesbaden sound very worrying. Apparently some of their sponsors can't keep their initial promises so already at the beginning of the season they are in big financial trouble

Potsdam still hasn't registered Antunovic and Cholet in their team roster, I suppose it's for the same reasons as Wiesbaden had to cut a player. VBL demands to cut costs for players and staff for teams with financial problems, so I guess Potsdam can't register them until they have solved their issues as much as VBL requests.

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Yes, I think VBL threats convincingly to Wiesbaden and Potsdam to kick them out of league, when they don't comply to hard financial rules.