Translated material
"Lions" do not recognize authorities
The tournament's youngest team, Belgorod's Lokomotiv-Belogorye, continues to remain in the leading group. The Lions confidently beat the Ufa Ural, whose colors are defended by Alexei Kazakov, Maxim Tereshin, Evgeniy Matkovsky and French setter Loïc De Kergre, who have experience playing in national teams. For the railway workers, seven players in the main squad are not yet 25 years old.
The most unlucky team of the initial period of the championship, Gazprom-Yugra from the Surgut region, which suffered three consecutive defeats in tiebreakers, interrupted this unpleasant streak with a home victory over Lokomotiv Novosibirsk, which was in second place. Gazprom-Yugra is one of the few teams whose foreign players (Slovenian Sassa Gadnik and Algerian Mehdi Hashemi) were not involved in the November national team tournaments (World Cup, European Olympic qualification, etc.). And the Siberians’ top scorer of the World Cup, Puerto Rican Hector Soto, has not yet reached Russia.
The mentor of the current national champion Dynamo-TTG Kazan provided rest for World Cup participants Americans Lloy Ball and Clayton Stanley. They did not go to Yekaterinburg to meet with the championship outsider Lokomotiv-Izumrud. This decision of the head coach cost the volleyball players from the capital of Tatarstan dearly. They won five games, but according to the new scoring system, when they won 3:2, they lost one point.
The capital's Dynamo team arrived in Novy Urengoy without Italian national team player Matej Cernich, however, even at Fakel, the dark-skinned Hungarian Domotor Meszáros, who was injured during the Olympic pre-qualification in his homeland, could not enter the court.
In the coming days, all five of our continental cup participants will play matches in tournaments under the auspices of the European Volleyball Confederation. In the 1/8 finals of the CEV Cup today, “Fakel” will host the Belgian “Menin”, “Iskra” will host the Polish club “Wkret-Met Domex” (Czestochowa). Tomorrow Lokomotiv-Izumrud will play away against Croatian Mladost in the third round of the Challenge Cup. On Wednesday, as part of the Champions League, the capital's Dynamo will meet in Belgium with Noliko, and the Kazan team will host the current trophy winner, German Friedrichshafen.
Results. Super League. Men. 5th round. "Dynamo-Yantar" - "Yaroslavich" - 3:0 (25:12, 25:18, 25:21). "Loko-Belogorye" - "Ural" - 3:0 (25:21, 25:22, 25:17). "Iskra" - "Ugra-Samotlor" - 3:0 (25:20, 25:21, 25:20). "Gazprom-Yugra" - "Loko" NS - 3:1 (25:16, 25:22, 18:25, 25:23). "Fakel" - "Dynamo" M - 1:3 (16:25, 25:23, 20:25, 21:25). “Loko-Izumrud” – “Dynamo-TTG” – 2:3 (17:25, 25:19, 25:22, 22:25, 13:15). Position of the leaders: Dynamo M - 15 points, Loko-Belogorye - 11, Iskra - 10, Lokomotiv Ns - 10, Gazprom-Yugra - 9. Women. 1st round. "Zarechye-Odintsovo" - "Stinol" - 3:0, "Leningradka" - "Balakovo NPP" - 3:2, "Uralochka-NTMK" - "Kazanochka" - 3:0, CSKA - "University-Belogorye" - 1:3, "Avtodor-Metar" - "Dynamo-Yantar" - 0:3, "Dynamo" M - "Spartak" - 3:1.