Translated material
Kazan took
The volleyball Champions League trophy is back in Russia
In the decisive match of the Champions League Final Four held in the Polish city of Lodz, the Kazan team Dynamo-TTG, led by head coach Viktor Sidelnikov, prevailed over the Italian Piacenza, tipping the scales in their favor in the tiebreaker of the fifth game. This is already the third Champions League trophy for Russia. Belgorod "Lokomotiv-Belogorye" achieved success in 2003 and 2004, and then the current players of the Kazan starting lineup - Sergei Tetyukhin, Alexander Kosarev and Andrey Egorchev - played in its ranks.In order to return the most prestigious club trophy in Russia, Dynamo-TTG volleyball players had to play ten games in just over a day. The workload is crazy, especially considering that the key performers of the best team in the Old World are 30 or more years old. We are talking about Yegorchev, Kosarev, Tetyukhin, Bogomolov, the Americans Stanley and Ball.
Although Dynamo-TTG was a debutant in the tournament, it arrived in Lodz as a favorite. And this burden of responsibility almost crushed the team in the semi-final match. With a confident game, the “blue and white” took two games from the Polish club SKRA (Belchatov), and then allowed the hosts of the competition to level the score. Dynamo went into the tiebreak extremely concentrated and still snatched victory. It took a lot of energy, and it’s very good that according to the schedule, the Kazan team played first. Although, in principle, the Poles set the order of matches for their volleyball players.
Before the final, Dynamo-TTG had more time to rest than Piacenza. The Italian team's victory over another club from the Apennine Peninsula, Sisley, came at a great price - diagonal striker Vencheslav Simeonov, who left the court in the first game, was injured. Piacenza coach Angelo Lorenzetti had to make changes in the squad. In the attack, the biggest burden fell on another Bulgarian with an Italian passport - Hristo Zlatanov; a place in the fighting six was given to the Brazilian Bravo, who took the position of a finishing player.
Despite the loss of Simeonov, Piacenza started the final well, and at the end of the second set the situation for Dynamo-TTG turned out to be critical - 0:1 and 22:24.
And this moment, perhaps, became the key for the outcome of the meeting. The Kazan team literally bit into the court in defense, Egorchev earned a point on a block and scored in attack, and Stanley put the game to rest. However, after such a successful rescue, the game in the third game did not go well. It was completely inappropriate for the referee to make a gross error. After Stanley's serve, the ball fell into the court, right on its line, but the American was given an out.
The volleyball players of both teams were noticeably tired, and the rest of the game was based on moral and volitional qualities. This is where the fact that the “blue and white” had more time to recover after the semi-final played a role. The most experienced Tetyukhin even stepped it up, hitting the most needed balls into the court.
In the tiebreaker, Zlatanov began to make more mistakes; Bravo and the Frenchman Granwork served out. Dynamo quickly secured a three-point advantage: the score was 6:3 by Bogomolov, who, with his long arms, managed to block the opponent’s attack, already going down on the net. And the victorious tone of the fifth game was set by Tetyukhin, who scored the ball in an exemplary manner at the very beginning. Ball produced a couple of masterpieces - the Piacenza players could not cope with his tricky short serve and were powerless to lift the ball thrown by Lloy instead of a pass. The American, already in the air, assessed the situation, realized that it was difficult to organize a good attack with a difficult technique, turned 180 degrees in a jump and pointedly directed the game projectile past his taken aback opponents.
“Dynamo-TTG” has come a long way in eight years. The club was created in May 2000. The “blue and white” started in the Russian championship from the lowest, fourth division, quickly moved through the leagues, won the National Cup and won the “gold” of the super league last spring. Now Kazan has taken over the whole of Europe!
Results. Semi-finals. SKRA -- "Dynamo-TTG" -- 2:3 (21:25, 16:25, 25:18, 25:20, 12:15). "Piacenza" - "Sisley" - 3:1. For 3rd place. SKRA -- "Sisley" -- 3:2. Final. "Dynamo-TTG" - "Piacenza" - 3:2 (19:25, 26:24, 18:25, 25:17, 15:10).