There have been few surprises in the German Bundesliga since its new campaign began a month ago. Berlin Recycling Volleys tops the ranking unbeaten after 8 rounds and aims at clutching the first spot till late February when the regular season ends.
It all started well for the champions. The calendar was scheduled in a perfect way for the guys of head coach Mark Lebedew and allowed them to properly divide their time between the CEV Champions League and the domestic games. Unlike their arch rivals Generali Unterhaching and VfB Friedrichshafen, Berlin Recycling Volleys had less experience playing two, sometimes even three, important games per week, so the main challenge would have been to redistribute physical and psychological strengths accrodingly. This is where the schedule came to help – the title holders started the 2012-2013 Bundesliga with two consecutive derby games in a row versus Friedrichshafen at home and away in Munich. Having clinched two wins in a week, Berlin RV were pumped up emotionally to make a successful Champions League group endeavour. The sequence of matches against theoretically easier opponents in Germany allowed them to rotate the squad and provide the necessary amount of rest when needed – vital when you have to travel to Asia, Novosirbisk to be more precise, and play a European Champions League game there in the middle of the week.
The Management Board members of Berlin RV are certainly satisfied with the good start of the season. Plus, they hit the jackpot recruiting the German international Robert Kromm who acts as the main scorer quite often, especially when Lebedew keeps rotating his opposites Spirovski and Carroll. We will witness eventually whether the Australian will get back to his usual shape and overtake Spirovski’s starting position this season.
As the team had been juggling three balls simultaneously, they had to sacrifice their German Cup (Pokal) participation quite early. The draw sent them in Unterhaching already in the last 16 round. The 3-2 win against the same opponent in the Munich Olympic Sports Hall could not be repeated in the small sports center in Unterhaching and the champions were left to focus on whatever they had in their basket.
This time last year was a period marked by a domination of Generali Unterhaching in the domestic league. The team was confident, thirsty for victories and their performance back then was raising questions whether they could be beaten at all in Germany. The second half of the previous season gave us a positive answer to that question, but still one could contemplate on the different behaviour of Paduretu‘s boys. True, Haching lost some names, Kaliberda, Gunthor and Cedeno left holes on the Generali wall, but the signing of Raymaekers and Shumov somewhat filled the problems in the middle. The Belgian and the Finn are impressive, they have shown solid skills since October. Jan Willem Snippe needed some time to accommodate to his new team and is now quite reliable as a starter. Surprisingly to me, Robert Hupka did not get the role of Kaliberda. The Slovakian national team player is still benched this season while it comes down to Alex Shafranovich to accompany Snippe in the starting list.
An important 3-2 Champions League victory in Ljubljana against the local ACH guarantees Haching a second-place spot behind the Italian champion Lube Banca Marche Macerata in the current standings, but in the next weeks the German vice-champion will have the chance to secure that position. The confidence boost for the Bavarians has been supported by the convincing win over Berlin Recycling Volleys for the Pokal and, of course, Sunday’s big derby success at home against Friedrichshafen. Ventsislav Simeonov led VfB to a 2-1 margin before head coach Mihai Paduretu changed setters. Branislav Skladany, who had recently suffered lungs infection, helped Unterhaching come back to the game and win in five sets (25-23, 21-25, 22-25, 25-20, 15-12). With the addition of Patrick Steuerwald to the squad Paduretu has more options when it comes to changing game rhythm. Last year Skladany enjoyed full play time in important Haching games, this year the competition between the playmakers can only make the 2011-2012 runner-ups stronger when it comes to decisive moments.
Friedrichshafen currently looks a bit behind in the three-way title race. Ventsislav Simeonov is the absolute reason why VfB still holds on. The Bulgarian-born Italian is spending his first season abroad and is certainly enjoying a good team in a new league where his style has been unknown. The main problems for Stelian Moculescu nowadays seem to be linked to the outside attackers. ‘Idi’ and Jose Rivera are both far away from their best years and often, as was the case in the “Generali Arena” against Unterhaching, struggle. Rivera finished the game with a disappointing attack efficiency of 27 percent, while ‘Idi’ was the main serve target despite his decent contribution at the net.
It would not be a problem for VfB to take points in the Bundesliga despite the two away defeats in Berlin and Unterhaching. The main concern comes from the fact that their game sometimes just will not suffice. They had problems in Europe as well – a down-hearted loss in Roeselare, followed by narrow tie-break wins against the Belgians and the weaker Hypo Tirol Innsbruck, but only to be preceded by a 0-3 rout at home against Zenit Kazan.
Moerser SC is the team to come up right after the big three. The fourth-ranked club from the small town Moers signed in the last days before the Bundesliga start the former Dutch international Nico Freriks, who is actually the fourth Dutchman in the roster and the seventh foreigner overall, which turned out to be a quite good move after the release of Dirk-Jan van Gendt. Their schedule, however, opposes them to Generali Unterhaching, VfB Friedrichshafen and evivo Dueren consecutively in the next days, so it would come as no surprise if Moerser drop their fourth position.
We finish the Bundesliga update session with a wish to the bottom-placed Volley Club Olympia Berlin. This is the youngest team in the league and definitely one of the youngest permier league teams in Europe comprising of future German national team players. All the youngsters are born in the period 1993-1994 and some of them are even already part of the Youth and Junior national representations. The interesting decision to let them play in a senior league with all the experienced professionals does not lead to positive results as they not only miss a victory, but have won just three sets. Nevertheless, we wish them fast growth and patience to await their future success.
Standings:
1 – Berlin Recycling Volleys, 7 games, 14-0 points
2 – Generali Unterhaching, 8, 14-2
3 – VfB Friedrichshafen, 8, 12-4
4 – Moerser SC, 8, 10-6
5 – evivo Dueren, 8, 8-8
6 – TV Rottenburg, 8, 8-8
7 – CV Mitteldeutschland, 8, 6-10
8 – TV Ingersoll Buhl, 7, 4-10
9 – Netzhoppers KW-Bestensee, 8, 4-12
10- VC Dresden, 8, 2-14
11- VCO Berlin, 8, 0-16
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