Translated material
Roadblock
Belgorod and Kazan residents showed how to resist attacks
The central match of the seventh round of the men's super league was the confrontation between the teams that won the European Champions League. Belgorod's Lokomotiv-Belogorye, which became the best club on the continent in 2003 and 2004, hosted the current trophy owner, Zenit Kazan. Adding to the intrigue was the coaching duel between the mentors who led the Russian national team - the hosts’ “steering” Gennady Shipulin and Vladimir Alekno, who was working in the capital of Tatarstan for the first season, who led the national team to the “bronze” of the Beijing Olympics. In the battle, which lasted more than two hours, the Belgorodians gained the upper hand - 3:2.Last off-season, players Sergei Tetyukhin and Alexander Kosarev returned to Belgorod after two years in Kazan. Loko's setter Vadim Khamuttskikh also played on the banks of the Volga in the 2006/07 season. In turn, Zenit volleyball players Alexander Korneev and Alexander Abrosimov defended the colors of the Belgorod team at different times. Olympic champions of Beijing 2008, Americans Clayton Stanley and Lloy Ball, played against the “railwaymen” more than once in the Champions League while still part of the Greek Iraklis. That is, the rivals who met under the arches of the Cosmos Sports Palace knew each other very well, and the result was a dramatic game in which defensive actions unexpectedly prevailed over attack.
The guests earned 18 points thanks to the block, Shipulin's team - 16. Kazan's Alexander Bogomolov, using this element of the game, added eight goals to the team's treasury (a record figure in the current championship), the Latvian diagonal from Belgorod Gundars Celitans recorded six effective actions on the block . Most often (seven times) the “railwaymen” stopped the attacks of Maxim Shpilev, who replaced the injured player Alexei Bovduy, who was out of action for at least a month.
After losing the first game, Shipulin began to make changes in the fighting lineup. Finisher Kosarev was replaced by Taras Khtey, and Dmitry Shestak gave up his place to Vyacheslav Makhortov, who noticeably strengthened the hosts’ play on the block. At the most necessary moments, Sergei Tetyukhin scored two aces, confirming his reputation as the core player of Lokomotiv-Belogorye, which had developed over the years. The "Railroadmen" took the lead in games - 2:1, but they lost the fourth set, which turned into a blocking competition. In the tiebreaker, the same Tetyukhin served excellently, providing his team with a three-point advantage by the change of sides - 8:5. The Belgorod team brought this match to victory, repeating their success two weeks ago, when they also broke the resistance of another serious rival, the capital's Dynamo, in the fifth game. The best scorer of the meeting was Celitans - 31 points. As for Zenit, the Kazan team lost the tiebreaker on the road for the second time in a row and with a minimal difference in the score. Back in October, Zenit was unable to put the finishing touches on Iskra in Odintsovo, losing the decisive game 14:16.
The guests celebrated victory in three matches of the tour. But if Iskra’s win in Ufa and the success of the capital’s Dynamo in Novy Urengoy were predictable, then the home fiasco of Surgut’s Gazprom-Yugra in a match with the NOVA club from Novokuybyshevsk can be called a sensation. After all, volleyball players from the banks of the Volga had previously lost all six matches in the championship.
In Ufa, Iskra coach Zoran Gajic gave the team's main forward, German Jochen Schops, a chance to rest by putting his colleague in the starting line-up, Evgeniy Matkovsky. He ended up being the most productive player of the meeting (21 points). Interestingly, last season Matkovsky played for the Ufa club.
Results. Super League. Men. 7th round. "Gazprom-Yugra" -- NOVA -- 0:3 (19:25, 23:25, 13:25), "Ural" -- "Iskra" -- 0:3 (23:25, 21:25, 26 :28), "Fakel" - "Dynamo" M - 0:3 (20:25, 19:25, 20:25), "Lokomotiv-Belogorye" - "Zenit" - 3:2 (22: 25, 25:19, 25:17, 23:25, 15:13), “Yaroslavich” - “Ugra-Samotlor” - 3:0 (25:21, 25:12, 25:19), “Lokomotiv » NS - Metalloinvest - 3:0 (25:23, 25:17, 25:20). Leading: Iskra - 18 points (6 wins - 1 loss), Dynamo M - 16 (5--2), Fakel - 14 (5--2), Zenit - 14 (4--3), Lokomotiv-Belogorye - 13 (5--2).