Translated material
Railway Workers' Day
Two Lokomotivs celebrated strong victories
The highlight of the fifth round of the men's super league championship was the matches in Belgorod and Novosibirsk. “Lokomotiv-Belogorye” won a tiebreaker against the current champion, the capital’s “Dynamo”, “Lokomotiv” Siberian also defeated the silver medalist, Odintsovo “Iskra”, in five games. Moreover, in both meetings the hosts lost in sets 0:2, but in the end they found the strength to turn the tide of the battles.The fights between Belgorod and Dynamo are classics of Russian volleyball. For three years in a row (2004-2006), these teams competed for the “gold” of the national championship in the super final series, which invariably took place in the maximum format, that is, of five matches. Twice the winner of these dramatic confrontations was Lokomotiv-Belogorye, and in 2006 the “blue and white” rejoiced. The match that took place last Sunday was highly anticipated by volleyball connoisseurs, since in the off-season three key players from the championship years returned to the Loko camp after a two-year absence - setter Vadim Khamuttskikh, finishers Sergei Tetyukhin and Alexander Kosarev. All of them are participants in the Beijing Olympics.
You can’t imagine a better bait for the Belgorod public than Dynamo Moscow. The sold-out crowd at the Cosmos Sports Palace, which seats five thousand, was predictable. The expectations for a beautiful and interesting game were fully justified.
The hosts' coach Gennady Shipulin had to take the first time-out just a few minutes after the start of the match. The score 5:1 in favor of the guests on the serve of Semyon Poltavsky required immediate adjustments. But both the first and second games remained with Dynamo. The guests had excellent power serves; the railwaymen, due to difficult reception, were unable to establish attacks at the first tempo.
In the third set, Lokomotiv was ahead by five points, but lost this advantage towards the end of the game. The game began to be “balanced”, and the “blue and white” earned match points twice, but were unable to convert these goals. The Belgorod team won this game and then played much more inspired and stronger than at the beginning of the match.
All three “returnees” had a great meeting. Tetyukhin and Kosarev established a technique, scored difficult and necessary goals in attack, and worked on the block. An indicative moment was when Tetyukhin blocked the attack of the star Brazilian Dante with a single block. The age-defying 39-year-old setter Vadim Khamuttskikh skillfully directed his partners. He organized a fast game and often brought his attackers over a clear net. In the fourth set, the balance of power finally changed, and in the tiebreaker the Muscovites faced outright defeat.
Almost all of the substitutions carried out by Shipulin had a positive impact on the result. For the mentor himself, the duel with the Italian helmsman of Dynamo was not easy. When the match was over, the home coach's civilian suit could be wrung out. Bagnoli has never managed to gain the upper hand in Belgorod. Neither with the Italian Sisley in the Champions League, nor with Dynamo, which he took over before the start of last season.
Novosibirsk Lokomotiv had nowhere to retreat in the game against Iskra. Three defeats in four starting rounds is an alarming indicator for a team that was included in the top quartet following the results of the previous championship. In terms of plot, this match was fundamentally different from the Belgorod one in that the Siberians won the third game big (25:13), and the ending of the fourth set was the most dramatic. And here the guests had two match points. In both cases, the guests' main scorer Nikolai Pavlov (27 points in total) came back, then Iskra's finisher Pavel Abramov struck out, and the referees recorded his teammate Anton Astashenkov touching the net. The game was completed by Sergei Latyshev. Together with Pavlov, he was unstoppable in the tiebreaker.
Iskra suffered its first defeat in the tournament. There is not a single team left in the championship with zero points scored. Although Novokuybyshevskaya NOVA lost once again, thanks to winning two games against Ural, it earned the long-awaited point. The Ufa team extended their winning streak and brought it to four matches in a row.
Results. Super League. 5th round. "Zenit" - "Metalloinvest" - 3:0 (25:13, 25:15, 25:21). "Lokomotiv" NS - "Iskra" - 3:2 (22:25, 21:25, 25:13, 29:27, 15:11). "Lokomotiv-Belogorye" - "Dynamo" M - 3:2 (19:25, 21:25, 30:28, 25:20, 15:7). "Ural" - NOVA - 3:2 (25:16, 25:21, 19:25, 20:25, 15:8). “Fakel” – “Ugra-Samotlor” – 3:0 (25:16, 25:19, 25:20). "Gazprom-Yugra" - "Yaroslavich" - 3:1 (25:20, 19:25, 25:21, 25:23). The leaders are: Iskra - 12 points (4 wins - 1 loss), Lokomotiv-Belogorye, Ural, Fakel - 11 (4--1).