Translated material
Poland's favorite
The game day made me remember the spring “Final Four” of the tournament of the strongest teams on the continent for two reasons. Firstly, the match between Piacenza and Zenit was a repetition of the decisive battle for the trophy, with the difference that this time the victory went to volleyball players from the Apennine Peninsula, and the Kazan club was previously called Dynamo-TTG. Secondly, SKRA hosted Iskra in the same MOSIR hall where the historic final for Kazan took place. If SKRA had played in Belkhatov, the local sports palace, designed for 2,500 spectators, would simply burst at the seams from the influx of public. Taking into account the colossal excitement caused by the arrival of Iskra with its star cast, the leaders of the SKRA club decided to move the game to Lodz and they were right. A European season attendance record was set - 9 thousand fans attended the meeting. This is even more than at the Final Four matches in March - due to the fact that there were no VIP boxes, reserved seats for cheerleaders, etc.
It seems that the volleyball players, who carried a serious load at the Beijing Olympics, are now in a functional hole. Both Zenit and Iskra have plenty of such players. The trend is confirmed by the sensational defeat of Lokomotiv-Belogorye in the first match of the 1/8 finals of the CEV Cup from the Finnish Perungan Pojat (Rovaniemi) - 1:3. The “railroad workers” also have Olympians in key roles - Vadim Khamuttskikh, Sergei Tetyukhin and Alexander Kosarev.
“Piacenza” is now on the move, takes third place in the Italian championship, and feels confident within its own walls. The Kazan team couldn't cope with one of the most jumping players in world volleyball, Cuban Leonel Marshall (he has an Italian passport) - 23 points. Zenit leader American diagonal Clayton Stanley tried his best (20 points, including three aces), but problems with reception did not allow his team to take two points from Italy.
After the game in Lodz, Polish volleyball fans probably began to treat Iskra coach Zoran Gajic with even greater sympathy. Of course, this is the third time he’s giving them a celebration of the soul. Two years ago, at the 2006 World Championships, the Poles did not allow the Serbian-led Russian team into the semi-finals, achieving victory after losing 0:2 in games. “Bialo-Chervonye” achieved silver at that tournament. Last season, the modest club Czestochowa beat Iskra in the 1/8 finals of the Czestochowa Cup on aggregate. Although the Poles did not even hope for this in a confrontation with an opponent who had gathered world-class stars under their banner - Zhiba, Alexey Verbov, Alexey Kuleshov, Jochen Schops. The current Iskra has become even stronger with the arrival of Andrei Egorchev, and Polish volleyball fans again have reason to rejoice. Gayich's players kept running into the opponent's block, but they themselves achieved nothing with the help of this element of the game. The ratio of points earned per block is monstrous for Iskra - 2:14. And these two goals were scored by setter Oleg Samsonychev.