Translated material
New greetings from Poland
Zoran Gajic's World Team was knocked out of the CEV Cup in the 1/8 finals
The confrontation between Iskra Odintsovo and the modest Polish club Wkret-Met Domex (Czestochowa) in the 1/8 finals of the CEV Cup ended in a sensation with a big minus sign for Russian fans.In the first match, Iskra confidently and calmly beat the opponent on their home court 3:0 (25:14, 25:17, 25:19), but late on Wednesday evening the team of the former coach of the Russian national team, Serb Zoran Gajic, suffered an away defeat 1: 3 (23:25, 25:23, 21:25, 21:25). According to the new regulations of the European Volleyball Confederation in the CEV Cup (as well as in the third most important Challenge Cup), in case of equality of victories in two-game matches, regardless of the ratio of sets or goals, an additional “golden” set is assigned to determine the winner. Iskra lost 13:15, giving up hopes of winning the title.
Let us remember that last off-season Iskra was the leader in the transfer market. Contracts with the club from Odintsovo were signed by the most valuable player of the 2006 World Cup and the winner of the Japanese World Cup gold, Brazilian finisher Zhiba, the best volleyball players in their roles at this tournament, the starting lineup of the Russian national team, blocker Alexey Kuleshov and libero Alexey Verbov, MVP of the Final Four of the League champions German diagonal striker Jochen Schops. In many media, including foreign ones, Iskra was positioned as the world team.
At the same time, having achieved the acquisition of such star players as Zhiba, Kuleshov and Verbov (Schops is not even the main diagonal player in the Bundesteam - Christian Pampel from Friedrichshafen spends the lion's share of playing time in this position), the leaders of Iskra invited to lead the team Zoran Gajic, with whom our national team took only seventh place at the World Championships. In Japan, the Russians' path to medals was blocked by the Polish team. At the end of the second group stage, our volleyball players played with the team of Argentine specialist Raul Lozano, led 2:0 in games, but ultimately suffered defeat after coming off the bench and the successful, effective actions of Grzegorz Szymanski for some reason became a real revelation for Gajich .
In Częstochowa, where a record attendance for the current tournament was set (sold out and 3,300 spectators), Gajić again received a painful blow to his coaching pride. But in the Polish club there is not a single player who could be called a European volleyball star. At the 2007 European Championships in Russia, this team was represented by only one performer - libero Petr Gacek. The Americans, Brooke Billings and Phil Iterton, who occupy foreign positions, have recently ceased to be included in their national team, and were never the main performers there. The names of the rest of the Częstochowa players will mean little to even the most advanced volleyball fan.
By the way, Iskra’s visit to Poland, where volleyball can rival football in popularity, caused a colossal stir. In central and local newspapers, entire pages were dedicated to the presentation of the Częstochowa - Iskra match, and the biographies of the leading players of the Russian club were written down to the smallest detail. Polish fans awaited the arrival of the world team with trepidation, but few of them imagined that Czestochowa would be able to achieve an overall victory.
Iskra's stunning fiasco could have far-reaching unpleasant consequences for Russian clubs in European competition. Successful performance of Moscow region volleyball players in the tournament could significantly increase our coefficient in the CEV ranking and overtake Italy, which occupies the top line. And only first place in this table allows the country to enter three teams into the Champions League.
Now in the tournament of the strongest teams on the continent, the “blue and white” from the capital and the Kazan “Dynamo-TTG” are showing a 100% result, without knowing any failures. In the fourth round, Muscovites defeated the Belgian “Noliko” (Maaseik) 3:0 (25:23, 25:23, 25:17), the Tatarstan team for the second time in a row was stronger than the current owner of the Champions League trophy, the German “Friedrichshafen”, winning he has 3:1 on the road (25:21, 20:25, 25:15, 26:24). Alas, the rules for calculating points in the CEV ranking are such that the results of only one, the best team in each of the three tournaments - the Champions League, the CEV Cup, and the Challenge Cup - are counted into the total score of the national federation. This approach can hardly be called fair.