Heading to the Apennines

The Russian national team is heading to the World Cup in a fighting mood

This coming Sunday, the Russian men's volleyball team will fly to Italy, where the World Championship starts on September 25. Before the start of the tournament, our team plans to play a couple of test matches, and a few days before leaving for the Apennine Peninsula, head coach Daniele Bagnoli’s wards held a training session open to media representatives on meringue in Novogorsk near Moscow.

Let us remind you that after winning silver in the final World League tournament, held in the Argentine city of Cordoba at the end of July, the players of the Russian national team received a two-week vacation, continuing preparations for the World Championship at the Volley Grad base near Anapa, Krasnodar Territory. Then the national team arrived in Germany for two friendly matches with the Bundesteam (3:0 and 3:1), then went to Serbia for the international tournament Belgrade Trophy 2010, where they took first place, defeating Bulgaria (3:2), Cuba (3:1) and hosts (3:2).

If in the World League tournament the captain of the national team was blocker Alexei Kazakov, who is no longer in the fighting lineup, now honorary duties are assigned to setter Sergei Makarov. “The captain was not chosen, Bagnoli appointed me,” Makarov himself told the Vremya Novostei correspondent. - Probably, his decision is due to the fact that I am the oldest player on the team, if you don’t count libero Valera Komarov, who is only a week older than me. But he is only in the national team for the first season. One of my main tasks is to psyche up the guys in the locker room before each match, energize the team, add a fighting spirit. Although everyone is already eager to get to the site. For now, our main problem is instability in the sense that sometimes we can make a large number of our own mistakes. This happened, for example, at the final tournament of the World League, where once we gave the opponent a whole game just on serve. The Presidium of the All-Russian Volleyball Federation set our team the task of taking first or third place, but I think that we should strive to at least get to the finals and then fight for gold. The favorites, medal contenders are all the same - Russia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Serbia, Poland, Cuba, the hosts, other participants can shoot.”

Blocker Alexander Volkov, who in the off-season moved from the capital's Dynamo to the Italian Cuneo, made it clear that, perhaps, after the World Cup he would not return to Russia, but would remain in the Apennines to prepare for the club season. “So far my knowledge of the Italian language is largely one-sided. It seems that I understand a lot or almost everything, but I myself cannot say a long and meaningful phrase. But it’s okay, I should learn soon,” Volkov admitted.

Starting from the new season, follow-up player Yuri Berezhko will also play in Italy - for Modena. “I’ll take care of all the club affairs and arrangement after the World Cup,” Berezhko said. - Although the Russian team will play games in the first group stage against Cameroon, Puerto Rico and Australia in Modena. If we talk about the tasks for the tournament, then “bronze”, for example, will not give us any satisfaction. We want to play in the finals and take a place on the highest step of the podium. Everyone has been waiting for big victories for the national team for a long time. Therefore, probably, “silver” can also upset us. In general, everyone on the team is focused exclusively on maximum results.”

The greatest attention of journalists was focused on the 218-centimeter giant Dmitry Musersky from Lokomotiv-Belogorye Belgorod, who received the prize for the best blocker at the final tournament of the World League. “If in Argentina we took silver and were unable to achieve more due to the injury of Taras Khtey, who did not play in the final match, then in Italy we must move on and snatch gold,” says Musersky. — This is my debut year in the national team, but excitement and uncertainty were present in one or two matches since the beginning of the World League. Then I was no longer nervous. There’s probably no point in drawing big conclusions about the tournament in Belgrade. All teams played against the backdrop of prolonged physical activity. But it was still nice to get the main trophy.”

14 volleyball players went to matches in Germany and Serbia as part of the team. This is exactly what should be included in the final application for the World Championship. In principle, no changes are expected unless some force majeure circumstances intervene. For example, injury or illness. So far, all the players Bagnoli chose are healthy. Here's who should go to Italy: setters - Sergei Makarov (Iskra), Sergei Grankin (Dynamo M); diagonal - Semyon Poltavsky (Yaroslavich), Maxim Mikhailov (Zenit); blockers - Alexander Volkov (Cuneo, Italy), Dmitry Musersky (Lokomotiv-Belogorye), Anton Astashenkov (Fakel), Dmitry Shcherbinin (Dynamo M); finishers - Taras Khtey, Denis Biryukov (both Lokomotiv-Belogorye), Yuri Berezhko (Modena, Italy), Evgeniy Sivozhelez (Fakel); libero - Alexey Verbov (Iskra), Valery Komarov (Lokomotiv NS). The clubs for which the players will play in the upcoming season are indicated.

Ilya TRISVIATSKY