The men’s volleyball season is very busy. The teams barely had time to start the championship and the second round is already behind us. We talk about its main events.
Return to Surgut
Who would have thought that the main event of the tour would be the match between Gazprom-Yugra and Neftyanik, teams for which reaching the playoffs would be an excellent result at the end of the regular season? But it so happened that in this match the loudest event took place. After the third set, the Surgut team found itself in a real hole – 12:25 in the fourth game. The break did not help either – the tiebreak started with 1:6 and a little later the difference reached seven points – 3:10.
It is very difficult, almost impossible, to recover in such a situation, but Gazprom-Yugra managed to do it! It cannot be said that the hosts’ serve was somehow supernatural, but the Orenburg team swam towards the reception with the serves of Alexey Rodichev, and it was already 9:11. After that, “Neftyanik” pulled back twice, gaining a comfortable 13:10, and again failed in the reception. The Orenburg team had a match point, but Vitaly Papazov’s diagonal attack inside the line was recovered. In the same way, he gave the Surgut team a match point. And then the owners were lucky. After Artyom Masko’s serve, the ball caught on the top rope and fell like a stone. The victory of Gazprom-Yugra is a great disappointment for the Neftyanik players.
“Gazprom-Yugra” – “Neftyanik”
Photo: volley.ru
“I won’t say that we relaxed in the fifth game, this match will be a pain for me and I think for the players as well. You can’t give it away like that. The most annoying thing is that we gave away these balls, which were returned to us just like that, without risk. Surgut took advantage, got an extra game and scored confidently and powerfully. Well, Papazov in the end, three shots in a row… He didn’t score all match, but he did it at the right moment,” Orenburg senior coach Anton Volvich lamented after the match.
By the way, the Surgut team’s comeback was not a record-breaking one. In the 2017/2018 season, Nova beat Dynamo-LO 6:13. Gazprom-Yugra also managed to close the seven-point gap, but in this match the opponent was a little further away from victory.
Alekno took the lead
Of course, the lead is largely nominal, but after two rounds the St. Petersburg team topped the standings, ahead of Dynamo in terms of sets. In every interview, Alekno talks about the importance of instilling a winning mentality in the team, so even this first place in a small city is important for Zenit.
“Fakel” – “Zenit”
Photo: fakevolley.ru
The match with Fakel turned out to be uneven, but, as in the first round against Dynamo, the young players from Urengoy were unable to maintain their level throughout the match. At the same time, they caused problems for their opponents. Stanislav Dineikin’s meeting with his former club did not go well, and Ivan Yakovlev was not in the best form. Vladislav Babkevich and Marlon Yant had to bear the blame. Not without problems, but the attackers coped, although Babkevich received his share of criticism from his mentor, losing two goals in a row with the score 24:21 in the first set. In the next round everything will be even more difficult: Zenit will visit Dynamo-LO.
Lokomotiv has a dual personality
Novosibirsk Lokomotiv defeated ASK (3-1) with great difficulties. The Nizhny Novgorod players disappointingly lost the first set and were in the lead almost all the time. ASC confidently won the second set. And who knows what would have happened next if Nizhny Novgorod’s Greek setter Dmitry Filippov had not been injured.
Lokomotiv – ASK
Photo: lokovolley.com
Lokomotiv has a lot of work to do. Plamen Konstantinov works separately with Igor Kobzar in every match, but so far the playmaker has not found mutual understanding with the attackers. Omar Kurbanov is injured, and Yoandi Leal, although in the team, has not yet regained fitness. In the match against ASK, the Brazilian made his debut in the Super League, but did not even touch the ball.
“It was like we had two different teams before and after the 17:16 score in the third set. We want to see the second half of the match, but we are still ‘floating’, we are not fully prepared as a team,” Plamen Konstantinov said after the match. In fact, in every match Lokomotiv plays according to a sine wave, with huge differences.
“Enisey” forced the fight against the champion, but did not take the set
Zenit-Kazan has had problems in recent years in matches against Yenisei in Krasnoyarsk. The Krasnoyarsk team could have won at least one set this time too: in the second and third games the home team was leading by four or five points. But this time the champion managed to do it. The court helped, which Yenisei managed, but only with great difficulties, and in the end the Kazan team played noticeably cleaner.
“We were seriously preparing for our opponent. I think that Enisey is a team that is just behind the top five clubs and sets high goals for itself. And on its own court this team is even more dangerous. If three years ago we came and treated them carelessly, now they are an absolutely serious opponent. In Krasnoyarsk we never play easily. Today I am happy with how the match went. In some places a double substitution helped, it turned the game around, in the third game Misha Labinsky came out great, in some places “Enisey” at the end did not believe that he could give us the finishing touch,” emphasized Alexey Verbov.
Muscovites won the Dynamo derby
For the second round in a row, Dynamo has a similar scenario: Konstantin Bryansky’s team is taking a long time to get into the game. This resulted in lost games in matches with Fakel and Dynamo-LO. This time, the Muscovites caught up with their opponent at the end of the game and even took the lead at 23:21, but failed on Nazar Litvinenko’s serve.
“Dynamo” – “Dynamo-LO”
Photo: vcdynamo.ru
Sosnovoborets started the second set with the same strength, 3:0, but their success ended there. Maxim Belogortsev fired a six-inning run and sent Osniel Melgarejo to the bench. After that, Konstantin Bryansky’s team did not allow the opponent to change the game, no matter what Alexander Klimkin tried to do. Sosnovoborets made too many mistakes and in the last few games it was worse: only 40% of conversions compared to 56%.
All the results of the second round matches.
“Gazprom-Yugra” – “Neftyanik” – 3:2 (21:25, 25:14, 25:22, 12:25, 16:14);
MSTU – “Kuzbass” – 1:3 (16:25, 18:25, 25:21, 20:25);
“Enisey” – “Zenit-Kazan” – 0:3 (20:25, 20:25, 23:25);
“Locomotive” – ASC – 3:1 (29:27, 21:25, 25:18, 25:15);
“Fakel-Yamal” – St. Petersburg “Zenit” – 1:3 (23:25, 25:23, 17:25, 23:25);
“Nova” – “Belogorie” – 0:3 (24:26, 21:25, 22:25);
“Dynamo” – “Dynamo-LO” – 3:1 (23:25, 25:21, 25:21, 25:18).
