Zaksa‘s endgame this season was something for the team to forget about. After leading PlusLiga from the first to the last round of games, completely dominating its opponents, it fell to Skra Belchatow in the finals. In addition, the team failed to medal in the Polish Cup and the FIVB Club World Championship. Likewise, after a very competent Champions League campaign, it was the only team to return home from the competition’s Final 4 without a medal.
The latter of the team`s mishaps hurt even deeper, as the Polish squad took the first set from Perugia in their third-place match-up, and was almost able to take a commanding 2-0 lead before everything blew up in the team’s face. Standout setter Benjamin Toniutti commented his team’s lack of a competent end-game (Siatka.org):
“Behind us is a difficult season, in which we suffered a lot of defeats in decisive matches. Well, on the other hand, we were in the finals. We must think about what happened. Why we lost all tournaments in the end. I do not want to say that it was a hopeless season because we were in good shape. We did not have that one win that would allow us to look at this season completely differently. We must be even stronger in the next season.”
Zaksa clearly lacked a killing instinct this season. If it hopes to be anything more than a role player as the next season comes around, it must learn from its mistakes, and realize that having a perfect regular season won’t do much when the real big games start. As a team with one of the biggest financial investments in PlusLiga, what Zaksa cannot afford is so many missed opportunities.
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