Translated material
The art of survival
“Iskra” is still first, “Ugra-Samotlor” remains in the super league
In the super final series of the national championship among men's teams, Iskra and the capital's Dynamo will meet (April 23-24, April 28-29 and May 3). Novosibirsk Lokomotiv and the strongest club on the continent, Kazan Dynamo-TTG, will compete for bronze within the same timeframe. Fifth place and the last ticket to the European Cups of the next season will be competed between Ufa's Ural and Lokomotiv-Belogorye. Kaliningrad Dynamo-Yantar and Lokomotiv-Izumrud are leaving the Super League. These are the main results of the 22nd round of the regular season that ended yesterday with six matches.Before the last round, neither the team in first place nor the second place was known. But since the capital’s Dynamo team was not particularly concerned about a local victory in the two-round tournament and actually sent a reserve squad to the previous meeting with Ural (1:3), the intrigue automatically moved to the very bottom of the table. The “Blue and Whites” can be partly understood - the difference between Moscow and Odintsovo is small (half an hour by car, if there are no traffic jams), besides, if the team feels confident in its abilities and is ready to defeat Iskra, then a possible championship in first place I would have to celebrate not at home, but at a party. With the “2--2--1” scheme operating in Russian team sports championships, the favorite, as a rule, celebrates its triumph on the road, winning the series 3--0 or 3--1. It's rare when it comes to the fifth match.
But it is impossible to accept the philosophy of the capital’s club, as well as some other teams that decided to make do with little blood at the end of the regular season. In the Italian championship, for example, with which there are inevitable comparisons all the time, this is unacceptable. All matches are played with fighting squads. Otherwise, there will be immediate obstruction from fans and the press, discontent from television and sponsors, and so on.
The centerpiece of the round was the match between the opponents who were in 10th and 11th places. As if by order, “Ugra-Samotlor” and “Dynamo-Yantar” decided their future fate in a head-to-head battle. There was no need to even count any options. Whoever wins remains in the elite. I thought it wasn’t entirely fair to so quickly, in one match, determine the club’s fate for the whole season ahead. The experience of Poland is interesting - here a series of up to four (!) victories is played to maintain a place in the elite. The battle is even longer than the “golden” confrontation (up to three wins).
Already the first game in Nizhnevartovsk showed that the opponents were going to fight to the death - 35:33 in favor of the hosts. Before that, the Baltics, after a long black streak, the dismissal of Yuri Panchenko, the arrival of Vyacheslav Zaitsev as head coach and the return of the previously injured American Sean Rooney, had a series of three victories. The Ugra team also had a strong ending - four out of five successful matches.
However, it was not the experience of the players that was decisive, but the factor of their site. Volleyball players who have hundreds of matches in the uniform of the Russian national team play for Dynamo-Yantar - Stanislav Dineikin, Konstantin Ushakov. However, they were not destined to save their team from relegation to the major league “A”. The Nizhnevartovians, with the wild support of the spectators, gained the upper hand, although the guests were close to sending the match to a tie-break. They were in the lead after the second technical break of the fourth set, but could not maintain their advantage.
Results. Super League. 22nd round. "Ugra-Samotlor" - "Dynamo-Yantar" - 3:1 (35:33, 25:20, 20:25, 28:26), "Loko-Izumrud" - "Gazprom-Yugra" - 1 :3, "Iskra" - "Ural" - 3:1, "Dynamo-TTG" - "Yaroslavich" - 3:0, "Lokomotiv" Ns - "Dynamo" M - 0:3, " Fakel - Loko-Belogorye - 3:0.
Super League. Men
| 1. "Spark" | 22 | 19 | 3 | 12 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 60:19 | 55 |
| 2. Dynamo M | 22 | 19 | 3 | 11 | 6 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 59:9 | 55 |
| 3. Lokomotiv Ns | 22 | 15 | 7 | 9 | 2 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 53:31 | 44 |
| 4. "Dynamo-TTG" | 22 | 15 | 7 | 6 | 7 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 50:32 | 44 |
| 5. "Ural" | 22 | 11 | 11 | 1 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 2 | 47:48 | 33 |
| 6. “Loko-Belogorye” | 22 | 11 | 11 | 2 | 4 | 5 | 1 | 4 | 6 | 39:47 | 29 |
| 7. "Torch" | 22 | 9 | 13 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 6 | 36:46 | 27 |
| 8. Gazprom-Yugra | 22 | 8 | 14 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 4 | 4 | 6 | 36:47 | 27 |
| 9. "Yaroslavich" | 22 | 7 | 15 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 6 | 3 | 6 | 36:52 | 25 |
| 10. "Ugra-Samotlor" | 22 | 9 | 13 | 1 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 9 | 33:51 | 25 |
| 11. "Dynamo-Yantar" | 22 | 6 | 16 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 8 | 5 | 32:50 | 21 |
| 12. "Loco-Emerald" | 22 | 3 | 19 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 5 | 10 | 22:61 | 11 |