It’s not often that we are blessed with a weekend that is packed wall-to-wall with the best men’s volleyball that the world has to offer. But on January 27th and 28th, I urge you to bust out your computer, cancel your lunch plans, kick back and settle in for an action-packed couple of days. There are four big competitions going on this weekend: the Italian Cup, the Polish Cup, the Brazilian Cup, and the first NVA regional ever. Let me guide you through the ideal viewing sequence for maximum volleyball enjoyment.
All times EST – Eastern Standard Time.
January 28th
8:00 am – EST
Grab a bite to eat and a cup of coffee, and set up your laptop with whatever streaming device or HDMI cable you need to put it on the big screen. Apologize to the girlfriend/boyfriend about what is about to transpire for the next 36 hours.
8:45 am EST – Trefl Gdansk vs. Zaksa Kedzierzyn-Kozle
We’re going to give preference to the Polish cup because they have the foresight to start 45 minutes before their Italian counterparts. Zaksa has been the darling of the Polish league this season, winning their first seventeen games in a row before dropping one last weekend. Not many are picking Trefl Gdnask to win, but we will be watching it for the upset potential. Head over to ipla.tv to watch this game live.
We hop over to RaiSport at this point to see league-leading Perugia defeat Trentino. Perugia has never won an Italian Cup before, despite fielding very talented and expensive teams. One thing to keep an eye on in the Italian games is the atmosphere. These fans will not stop to breathe for the entire game. Bonus points for spotting drums, giant banners, and megaphones instructing fan sections on what chants to yell.
3:30pm EST – Break
Stretch. Take a walk. Grab a glass of water (or beer, it is Saturday after all).
The National Volleyball Association is a brand new league that hopes to bring professional volleyball to North America. They put on a showcase in Las Vegas back in early December, but this is the first official regular season event. While the level is not quite as high as the rest of the games we’ll be watching, the atmosphere at these events is great and at this point in the day, hearing an English commentary will be music to many people’s ears. Streams can be found on facebook and youtube under NVA USA.
6:30 pm EST – Sesi Sao Paulo vs. Sada Cruzeiro Volei
Our first finals match! This match between Brazilian titans in Sao Paulo features a wealth of national team members from the reigning Olympic champions, including Lucas Saatkamp, William Arjona, Douglas Souza, Felipe Fonteles, Isac Santos, and Evandro Guerra. An oddity about the Brazillian league is that they have not yet adopted the ball-watching technology that is used in basically every other league in the world. This results in much more frequent arguments with the refs, and the likelihood of a red card to appear at some point in this game is high. The game will be streamed online through SporTV.
January 28th
8:45am EST – Polish Cup Finals
For 90 minutes we get to watch Zaksa beat up on whatever team makes it out of the other side of the bracket. Hats off to their management and players for dominating a league that most consider one of the most competitive so thoroughly.
11:30 am EST – Italy Cup Finals
This is where we say przepraszam to our Polish friends and head back to RaiSport to check out the finals of the Italian Cup. My prediction for this match is that we will be seeing Modena vs. Perugia, but these teams are so evenly matched that anything could happen. Not many better ways to spend a Sunday morning.
Blizzard volleyball has never lost a tournament in the NVA. There has only been one, but it’s still impressive nonetheless. Russell Holmes, American national team veteran, headlines this team but they have lost David Lee to Argentina. This is a relaxing conclusion to an energetic weekend.
That is the ideal schedule to watch volleyball this weekend. You may come across a stream that is geo-locked to certain countries. If you reside in one of these countries and you get a message that the stream is not available in your country, you can use a VPN service like TunnelBear to set your country. I’ll see you all on Instagram where I will be watching volleyball highlights obsessively in anticipation of all the action this weekend.
Taking place in the midst of the regular season, the Italian Cup is a prestigious competition that brings four of the best teams in the SuperLega to the city of Bari for a single elimination tournament. And the teams aren’t there for just bragging rights either; the winner gains a place in the CEV Champion’s League for the 2018-19 rendition. These four teams earned the right to play in Bari by winning their early-round matchups that took place just before the regular season started in October. Here is a quick rundown of the teams that will be participating.
Trentino comes into this tournament as an outsider looking in at the elite teams of the league. They only have 36 points so far this regular season, 9 points behind third place Modena. Their record against the other teams in this tournament is 1-3, including a 20 point beatdown against Lube Civitanova that happened only a couple of weeks ago. The key stat for Trentino will be their kill efficiency, as they are the only team in the tournament to score on less than half of their hits. PLayers that will have to step up to secure a Trentino victory are Italian national team starters Filippo Lanza and Luca Vettori. Both of them have been playing well lately after slow starts, and they will need to maintain better consistency in order for Trentino to have a chance.
Modena is the biggest wild card in this Italian Cup. Despite being comfortably in third place with 45 points, their season has been plagued by disagreements between coaches, management, and players, punctuated by a dispute between Earvin Ngapeth and coach Radostin Stoytchev resulting in missed games by both Ngapeth brothers. On the other hand, they handed a decisive 3-0 victory to Lube Civitanova last weekend without star opposite Giulio Sabbi. The key for Modena will be the health of their players. Earvin Ngapeth and Giulio Sabbi have both dealt with injury concerns recently, and although Andrea Argenta has performed admirably as a replacement, Modena would like to have their top players available to them.
Lube Civitanova
The reigning champions of both the Italian Cup and the SuperLega regular season, Lube will have a Tsvetan Sokolov-sized target on their back for the tournament. Lube looked infallible this season, placing second in the World Club Championships and crushing their competition in the SuperLega with a +210 point differential. They have also posted unbelievable efficiency numbers, passing at 35% and hitting at 55%, both by far the best marks in the league. However, their losses have been bizarre. Two to Latina and Grotte, teams that are comfortably in the bottom of the rankings, and one to Modena without two of their top players. Lube will rely on American setter Micah Christenson and French libero Jenia Grebennikov to make sure that they don’t fall to last weekend’s level of play.
Perugia is the only team taking part in the tournament who has never won the Italian Cup. This year could be their best opportunity yet. They are in first place in the regular season standings with 17 wins and 2 losses. They have the tightest defense in the league, scoring on a block 2.63 times per set while holding their opponents to a meager 44.7% kill efficiency. And if you thought Lube’s point differential was impressive, Perugia has outscored opponents by an incredible +232 points this regular season. Ivan Zaytzev will have to ignore speculation that the team is trying to replace him, and Aleksander Atanasijevic can’t afford an off game, but when everything is clicking Perugia is probably the best team in the competition. An Italian Cup win would be a long time coming for a fanbase that is both huge and passionate about Perugia.
Azimut Modena will play Lube Civitanova at 3:30 pm CET, 9:30 am EST, 6:30 am PST on January 27th.
The winners of each match will play at 5:30 pm CET, 11:30 am EST, 8:30 am PST on January 28th.
The club Zenit Kazan has been the focus of significant media speculation regarding their roster moves over the past few weeks. And it makes sense. The club from Russia is having perhaps the most dominant stretch we have ever seen from a men’s volleyball club, winning 3 of the past 4 champion’s leagues and the most recent club world championships as well as 4 straight domestic league titles. Fans of the team now have one less thing to worry about though, as American outside hitter Matt Anderson declared on his Instagram that he has signed a contract to return to Kazan for the 2018-2019 season.
Matt Anderson is one of the top outsides and players in the world, so you would expect there to be quite a bidding war to enlist him. Zenit Kazan has proven once again though that their professionalism and large wallets allow them to retain top players for a significant period of time. This will be Matt Anderson‘s 7th season with the team, which is much longer than the typical stint in men’s volleyball. While the exact details of the contract have not been released, given Kazan’s reputation for handing out lucrative deals and Matt Anderson‘s stature in international volleyball, we can be fairly confident that it is north of $500,000 for the season. Matt Anderson also occupies the unique position of being one of the few male volleyball players who are marketable to a North American audience and has numerous endorsements.
We reported earlier this week on rumours that Wilfredo Leon has already decided to stay with Kazan as well, and this news only increases the likelihood that this is true. Leon is almost impossible to replace from a talent perspective, so unless Kazan has a superstar waiting to sign it seems unlikely they would spend on Matt Anderson without some sort of confirmation that Wilfredo would also be returning to the team. The duo has been practically unbeatable the past few years together, so clubs all around Europe feverishly await news on further roster moves from Kazan.
The club that Wilfredo Leon will play at next season has been the topic of many volleyball discussions, from online message boards to the boardrooms of top clubs in Italy and Russia. Leon’s impact on the court is so massive that his decision will have ripple effects throughout the entire world of club volleyball.
Interviews with Leon over the past few weeks have suggested that he while he is interested in staying in Kazan, he would be open to moving to another team if the circumstances were right. In particular, Italian SuperLega leading club Sir Saftey Conad Perugia has been involved in talks to replace Ivan Zaytzev with the Cuban outside.
Volleyball.it, a leading volleyball news site in Italy, was informed that Leon has decided to remain in Kazan for the next two seasons as reported in this article. When we reached out for a comment, author Luca Muzzioli remarked that his source was a Russian journalist and that he was confident in the information. Neither Wilfredo Leon, his agent, or the team has made any comment on the validity of the article or any final decision regarding his contract for next season.
Staying in Kazan makes sense for Leon for a few reasons. It has been home his entire pro career, and while Russia may be the farthest place in the world from Cuba, spend four years in any place and it becomes comfortable. And if championships and accolades are important for Leon, there is no better place to play than Kazan. Since Leon has arrived, the club has won the domestic Russian league four times, the champion’s league three times, and the world club championships once. In those competitions, Leon picked up 6 best outside spiker awards and two MVPs.
If the rumour is true, this would spell the end of a wild period of speculation where fans of several teams dreamed of a day where the high-flying Cuban would lead their team to a championship. It would also mean that Zenit Kazan would also likely remain the top club team in the world for the next few years especially if American Matt Anderson remains as well.
Leon will be expensive, that is for sure. His contract is thought to be north of 1,000,000 euros per year, practically unheard of in men’s volleyball. And he will likely demand an even higher price now that he is a proven commodity. However, despite his cost, there seems to be no shortage of clubs willing to pay a premium for his services. Although there has been speculation that Leon’s camp is taking advantage of a certain Italian team’s interest in order to gain leverage in bargaining with Kazan. Regardless, Leon being taken off the market will undoubtedly clear the path for other signings to take place, much to the relief of players whose club is still uncertain for next season.
Last Friday, January 19th, owners of the 14 teams in the Italian SuperLega met to discuss the future of their league. One of the results of the discussions was the decision to reinstate a system of relegation between the SuperLega and Serie A2. Starting in the 2018-2019 season, the two teams with the fewest ranking points in the SuperLega will play their next season in Serie A2. Likewise, the two top performing teams in Serie A2 will be invited to join the major league.
North American fans may be unfamiliar with the concept of relegation, which is common in soccer as a means for smaller clubs to rise through the ranks and attempts to turn leagues into more of a meritocracy. The difference between competing in the first and second division in a sport’s league can be huge in prestige. Just think of how many teams the average fan can name in the English Football League, the second division of the Premier League. Relegation can raise the stakes exponentially at the end of a season for teams in the bottom of the top division and the top of the second division. Detractors mainly come from organizations, who complain that the system can cause a club’s decision horizon to be artificially short.
Regulation was removed 4 years ago from the league as sponsors wanted security that their investment would not lose their worth in an uncertain economic climate. Italy had been slower than many other EU economies to recover from the 2008 financial crisis but is now in much better economic shape, creating a safer environment for investors and sponsors. SuperLega president Paolo de Micheli emphasized that due to innovative practices such as online streaming of all games and the video check system, the league is in a strong financial position and can afford to have two teams rotate leagues every year.
However, even if the league as a whole is financially sound, individual teams may have trouble forking up the 400,000 euro fee that comes with moving up into the SuperLega. Many of the clubs competing in Serie A2 are located in small towns of less than 100,000 people, whose entire payroll may be less than the league fee. Cynics will point to cases like Molfetta, who had to fold their team after several successful seasons after they couldn’t keep up with the demands associated with competing in the SuperLega, such as maintaining a certain arena capacity.
It is not a great time to be a fan of BCC Castellana Grotte or Biosi Indexa Sora, who would be relegated this season if it were implemented, and are in fear of losing their coveted SuperLega spots if they do not improve their rosters.
Some unexpected results for many teams in the 19th round of the Italian Men’s Serie A. The VolleyMob most anticipated matchup of the week, Lube Civitanova vs Modena, turned out to be a dud. Even without superstar Earvin Ngapeth, Modena was able to pick apart a Civitanova lineup that had come in 2nd place in the FIVB World Club Championships back in December. Credit is due to coach Radostin Stoytchev for orchestrating such a convincing defeat, and to opposite Andrea Argenta who scored on 11 of his 14 attacks in just his second game as a starter for Modena.
For the 4th time this season, 3 games went to 5 sets. Piacenza came back after losing the first two sets against Milano, who was playing without league-leading scorer Nimir Abdel-Aziz due to a abdominal strain. Most of the sets allocated to Aziz were instead given to Klemen Cebulj, who had his best game of the season with 24 kills on 50 sets. BCC Castellana Grotte, a veteran group underperforming their preseason expectations, beat a struggling Monza squad behind some clutch serving from George Tzioumakas who had 6 aces in the match. Kione Padova and Bunge Ravenna played in an epic showdown, with a combined 163 points scored between the two teams. Ravenna came out victorious behind their internationals, with 28 points from Austrian Paul Buchegger, 20 from Argentinian Cristian Poglajen, and 15 from French Nicolas Marechal.
The focus will shift this weekend from the regular season to the Italian cup. On Saturday, January 27th, Perugia will play Trentino and Modena will play Lube Civitanova in the cup semifinals. With Luca Vettori playing better Trentino should have the weapons to compete with the big dogs of the league, and Lube Civitanova will have have the opportunity to redeem themselves after embarrassing themselves against Modena.
While there were some hiccups along the way, the four teams that represented the Italian Superlega went undefeated in this week’s CEV champion’s league and CEV Cup.
Perugia 3- Roeselare 2
In what was probably the most surprising game of the week, Knack Roeselare of Belgium takes 2 sets off the SuperLega leading Perugia. While Roeselare is a champion’s league regular and at the top of the Belgium league standings, the level of competition in their domestic league is considered much lower in Belgium than Italy. For example, Belgium national team players like Kevin Klinkenberg, Pieter Verhees and Francois Lecat choose to play in Italy rather than their home country. However, some precise for Roeselare was almost enough to overcome the talent disparity, but in the end, Perugia was able to pull out a 15-12 victory in the fifth set. Perugia is first in Pool A with 3 wins and no losses.
This was the most one-sided four-setter match I have ever watched. While Fenerbahce managed to win the third set 25-21, they lost the other three by whopping combined 30 points, including a 25-11 set and a 25-12 set. Americans Micah Christenson and Taylor Sander were in synch, and Dragan Stankovic locked down the middle of the court with 6 blocks. A disappointing outing for Fenerbahce’s leading scorer Metin Toy, who scored a paltry 7 points on 29 attempts for a 24% kill efficiency. It is unlikely you will win the game if you have a player with a higher number of attempts than kill efficiency. Lube Civitanova is second in pool A with 2 wins and 1 loss (to Perugia).
Trentino 3 – Izmir 0
A bounce-back game for Trentino after their loss to Civitanova in the SuperLega last weekend. Izmir is an excellent team led by Serbian setter Nikola Jovovic, German attacker Christian Fromm, and coached by former Canadian national team coach Glenn Hoag. Izmir hit well, but there is little you can do when Luca Vettori brings his best. After a string of poor performances and several trips to the bench in favour of Renee Teppan, Vettori scored on an efficient 14 out of 18 attacks to lead Trentino to the win. Trentino sits in second place in Pool E at 2-1.
Verona 3- Liberec 1
The CEV Cup, the little brother to the Champion’s League, just finished its playoff round of 16. Verona, who is sitting in fourth place in the SuperLega, is one of the favourites to win. They showed it in this match, taking care of the side from the Czech Republic with ease. Emanuele Birarelli was a key part of the victory for Verona, scoring on 8 of 11 attempts and notching four blocks. Verona will play Montpellier volley UC in the quarterfinals of the CEV Cup.
Week 18 in the UnipolSai Italian Men’s League saw the end of a 9 game winning streak by Diatec Trentino, falling to their rivals Civitanova Lube in 4 sets on Italian national tv. The scores do not paint a pretty picture for championship hopeful Trentino, as they lost the first and last sets 25-13 and 25-14 respectively.
Bolstered by the return of American Max Holt who missed multiple games with the flu, Azimut Modena made quick work of Calzedonia Verona with a comfortable 3-0 victory. The surprise for Modena was their MVP, recently turned 22-year-old Andrea Argenta, who earned the award in his first start of the season. Verona, who had been playing well since the insertion of Iranian Javad Manavi into the starting lineup, was hoping to prove that they belong with the trifecta of top clubs, but the severity of the loss further proves the talent gap between Modena, Civitanova Lube, and Perugia versus everyone else.
Vibo Valentia showed some guts with a comeback from down 0-2 against BCC Castellana Grotte. Unfortunately, both teams are firmly out of the playoff picture so the win was a purely moral victory, although one that I’m sure feels satisfying for the 4-14 club. Piacenza wins their second 5-setter in a row due to solid contributions from Trevor Clevenot and 39-year-old Alessandro Fei, who gives hope to older volleyball players with every one of his 20+ point performances.
Game of the week will definitely be Modena vs. Civitanova Lube. Both of these teams are contenders this season and have looked unstoppable at full strength.
