In this, what I have planned as weekly, column I’ll make my predictions about the weekend’s matches. By no means am I an expert and any money that anyone loses by listening to me is their own problem. With that said, it will be interesting for me to see how I do over an entire season. Keep in mind that if I were to gamble each weekend it would not be on every single match, I pick certain matches that I feel strongly about and then bet only on those.
Also, it is important to note that as the season goes on and my team has played against these other teams it should become easier to pick them. At the moment things are a bit unpredictable as the season is just beginning and we don’t really know much about any of the teams just yet. So, in the early weeks it is important to be careful.
Here are my thoughts on the men’s matches this week:
What a bunch of crappy odds this week, really nothing worth much here. Odds are low and handicaps are high. The bookies are just as nervous as the betters at the moment…
Hvidovre (+2.50) – Middelfart: These two teams met in the Middelfart tournament and the result was a fairly clear win for Middelfart. I don’t see any reason why this result changes. We know that Middelfart had a bit of a scare against HIK in their first match of the season but I expect them to come into this one with confidence and rhythm intact. I think the first set is close and Middelfart wins the next two without much doubt. At odds 1.40 this is probably one of the better bets this week.
Gentofte – PVC Lyngby (+2.50): This one looks like an easy 3-0 win for Gentofte. The only thing that worries me is the possibility that the starters won’t play the whole match for Gentofte. PVC has shown that they have some life here in the elite division with that solid 3-0 win over DHG and I think they can easily give the backups a run for their money. It's all about taking just one set so this might be something to consider if you're feeling lucky or adventurous. At odds 1.30 for Gentofte this one may not be worth it.
Lyngby (+2.50) – SK Aarhus: Lyngby has had their problems with SK over the years. Last year they seemed to always play their worst matches against them. But this is a whole new season and you can almost always count on Lyngby to deliver a few surprises early. This is also a newly formed SK Aarhus team that hasn’t proven they can play steady in every match they play. This one is in Lyngby and with a little home crowd support I think Lyngby is taking at least one set here. With odds 2.70 I think it is worth a shot.
Aalborg – Holte IF (+2.50): To me this is the most secure of all the bets this week. Holte has lost several important players and are relatively inexperienced. What especially worries me about them is that they have an untested setter and shaky passing going up against one of the best blocking teams in the league. Add in Aalborg is playing their first home game of the year and they are certainly focused on playing their best volleyball with CEV cup and Pokal matches in the near future and it looks like a relatively easy win. At odds 1.25 though it doesn’t look like a real big money maker, considering that they have to win 3-0 the risk might not be worth the reward.
Marienlyst – DHG (+2.50): I can’t say anything else but Marienlyst. Although at odds 1.20 there isn’t really a bet here.
Friday, September 30, 2005
Thursday, September 29, 2005
Referees
Warning: This entry is extremely long and much too wordy so read on at your own risk.
Since there has been a few things said about refereeing here on the site in the last couple of days I think it is an appropriate time to talk a bit about the referees here in Denmark.
Obviously this can be a touchy subject, especially coming from a current player in the elite division, but hopefully I can say what I want to say without offending anyone. I should also say that I respect referees and the job they do in general. My father was a head referee on the AVP tour and other places for many years so I have a bit of an understanding of what kind of pressure the job can put on someone. Ironically, while I’ve seen him getting yelled at by Sinjin Smith, Randy Stoklos, Tim Hovland and all the rest of those great old school beach guys, I’ve also seen my dad go as far as to throw sand at a referee because he was so angry about a call made against him in a match. No matter how much understanding or experience we have, the emotion of a certain moment can always override it. (Quick aside: There is a great picture of Sinjin screaming in my dad’s ear after a match he had refereed. Stoklos and Smith were never really one of his favorite teams…)
The thing that bothers me more than anything else about the referee – player relationship here in Denmark is the way that once the match starts there seems to be this invisible wall between the two. I can’t even remember how many times I have come up to a referee with a valid question or comment and immediately been shunned by a firm wave of the hand. What is that? Can anyone else offer an example of this in any other area of life? Can you imagine going into your boss’ office with a question and being immediately shunned with a cold stare and a wave of the hand? It’s like somehow the referee is supposed to be this god like figure who cannot be questioned. And honestly, to me it seems like a lot of referees consider themselves gods once they step onto that podium. Yes, I understand that in the end it is their decision and that we all have to respect that. But does that mean that I shouldn’t be treated with the same respect as any other human being? If a referee expects to be treated with respect then maybe they should consider giving that same respect to the players. Too many times have I seen a player being ignored. Let’s look at a player’s options if they want to talk to a referee and the possible outcome of those options:
Scream at them until they are forced to respond in some way or other = At least a yellow card, probably a red card
Scream at the ground in disgust, maybe saying a bad word or two = At least a verbal warning, very possibly a yellow card
Calmly walk over to the referee and explain your feeling about the situation = A flat hand signaling that a player has no right to even approach a referee and should immediately turn around or get a yellow card
Ask your captain to politely go up and say something to the referee = Probably a flat hand and blank stare for the captain. If he somehow gets to talk to the referee he probably won’t explain the situation the way you wanted to so there is no benefit anyways.
Do nothing = Nothing happens.
None of these are very viable options for real people. They work well for cattle.
I understand perfectly well that referees should not be subject to having to sit there and listen to people scream at them after every play. And in no way am I suggesting that they should. But if a referee wants my respect during a match then they have to do three things, be consistent, treat me with the same respect, and most importantly, understand that there are emotions involved in the game of volleyball. There are so many things going on in our bodies that sometimes we have trouble containing ourselves. Sometimes we do go over the line, but the more these emotions get bottled up inside, the more apt we are to take them over the line.
I’ve met and talked to a lot of the referees and all of them (with the exception of one or two who I will not name) seem like genuinely nice people. I would just love to see that side of them during a match. We all make mistakes, maybe next time if you think you might have made one, listen to the player who is protesting. You don’t have to change your call and you don’t have to let him scream at you or call you an idiot, but you could calmly say, “I’m sorry, I saw it the other way,” and move on.
Another issue I have with many of the referees is that they try actively to be a part of the game. Many refs, and I am not saying all of them, seem to relish the chance to blow the whistle and make a call. In my mind this is not what a referee should be doing. A perfectly refereed match from my perspective is a match where I can’t remember the refs or any of the calls they made. Of course I have a tendency to always feel like any call against my team is a wrong one, but that is an issue for another day… But please, I’m begging all of the referees to just take a step back and try not to be a major factor in deciding a match. DHG has a gold medal that stems all the way back to a match deciding referee call during the regular season in 2003 but that is also another story that I don’t have time to get into at the moment J.
The last thing I want to say on this subject is that a yellow card should not be enjoyable. We are all working together to provide good sport and good entertainment for the fans, yellow cards and red cards should be used only as a last resort. I only mention this because I have seen with my own eyes referees who like giving out yellow cards. This is not right and as a player it makes me upset. It is an insecure referee who not only frequently uses red and yellow cards but who also feels satisfied by using them. (That was the volleyball wisdom by Confucius section of the blog for today)
Technically, the biggest problem I have seen in Denmark has been the inconsistency of the refereeing in relation to hand setting on the beach. There is simply no consistent level for hand setting. Personally, and I have also heard this from several other people, I am too afraid to even attempt to hand set the ball. For me, the reason is that as far as I can tell I can make ten identical hand sets and three of them will be called bad. This makes no sense and honestly it’s holding good players back in their development. Anders Hoyer is a great example. He is a good young player who has ambition to play internationally on the beach. And there is no doubt that he has the talent. Unfortunately, when it comes to hand setting (a major part of international beach volleyball) he is behind. A major reason for this is because of the inconsistency of the refereeing. I saw it several times over the course of the summer – one good set, two good sets, a third good set which was called for an unknown reason, and a fourth bad set which wasn’t called. I saw a hand set that rotated two times in the air be called. I’ve also seen balls that didn’t rotate at all get called because the player had “not contacted it evenly with both hands”. How this player made uneven contact and still managed to set the ball without any spin is one of the great mysteries of the world…
Of course we can always discuss how harshly we should referee hand setting, all I’m asking is that we draw a line and we all abide by it. However, right now the Danish referees are much, much tighter than the rest of the world and that means that players on the Danish tour are not being encouraged to use that part of the game and they are behind because of it.
I realize the above is slightly long and a little picky, but it is something that has bothered me since I got here, plus it’s my blog so I get to write whatever I feel like.
Since there has been a few things said about refereeing here on the site in the last couple of days I think it is an appropriate time to talk a bit about the referees here in Denmark.
Obviously this can be a touchy subject, especially coming from a current player in the elite division, but hopefully I can say what I want to say without offending anyone. I should also say that I respect referees and the job they do in general. My father was a head referee on the AVP tour and other places for many years so I have a bit of an understanding of what kind of pressure the job can put on someone. Ironically, while I’ve seen him getting yelled at by Sinjin Smith, Randy Stoklos, Tim Hovland and all the rest of those great old school beach guys, I’ve also seen my dad go as far as to throw sand at a referee because he was so angry about a call made against him in a match. No matter how much understanding or experience we have, the emotion of a certain moment can always override it. (Quick aside: There is a great picture of Sinjin screaming in my dad’s ear after a match he had refereed. Stoklos and Smith were never really one of his favorite teams…)
The thing that bothers me more than anything else about the referee – player relationship here in Denmark is the way that once the match starts there seems to be this invisible wall between the two. I can’t even remember how many times I have come up to a referee with a valid question or comment and immediately been shunned by a firm wave of the hand. What is that? Can anyone else offer an example of this in any other area of life? Can you imagine going into your boss’ office with a question and being immediately shunned with a cold stare and a wave of the hand? It’s like somehow the referee is supposed to be this god like figure who cannot be questioned. And honestly, to me it seems like a lot of referees consider themselves gods once they step onto that podium. Yes, I understand that in the end it is their decision and that we all have to respect that. But does that mean that I shouldn’t be treated with the same respect as any other human being? If a referee expects to be treated with respect then maybe they should consider giving that same respect to the players. Too many times have I seen a player being ignored. Let’s look at a player’s options if they want to talk to a referee and the possible outcome of those options:
Scream at them until they are forced to respond in some way or other = At least a yellow card, probably a red card
Scream at the ground in disgust, maybe saying a bad word or two = At least a verbal warning, very possibly a yellow card
Calmly walk over to the referee and explain your feeling about the situation = A flat hand signaling that a player has no right to even approach a referee and should immediately turn around or get a yellow card
Ask your captain to politely go up and say something to the referee = Probably a flat hand and blank stare for the captain. If he somehow gets to talk to the referee he probably won’t explain the situation the way you wanted to so there is no benefit anyways.
Do nothing = Nothing happens.
None of these are very viable options for real people. They work well for cattle.
I understand perfectly well that referees should not be subject to having to sit there and listen to people scream at them after every play. And in no way am I suggesting that they should. But if a referee wants my respect during a match then they have to do three things, be consistent, treat me with the same respect, and most importantly, understand that there are emotions involved in the game of volleyball. There are so many things going on in our bodies that sometimes we have trouble containing ourselves. Sometimes we do go over the line, but the more these emotions get bottled up inside, the more apt we are to take them over the line.
I’ve met and talked to a lot of the referees and all of them (with the exception of one or two who I will not name) seem like genuinely nice people. I would just love to see that side of them during a match. We all make mistakes, maybe next time if you think you might have made one, listen to the player who is protesting. You don’t have to change your call and you don’t have to let him scream at you or call you an idiot, but you could calmly say, “I’m sorry, I saw it the other way,” and move on.
Another issue I have with many of the referees is that they try actively to be a part of the game. Many refs, and I am not saying all of them, seem to relish the chance to blow the whistle and make a call. In my mind this is not what a referee should be doing. A perfectly refereed match from my perspective is a match where I can’t remember the refs or any of the calls they made. Of course I have a tendency to always feel like any call against my team is a wrong one, but that is an issue for another day… But please, I’m begging all of the referees to just take a step back and try not to be a major factor in deciding a match. DHG has a gold medal that stems all the way back to a match deciding referee call during the regular season in 2003 but that is also another story that I don’t have time to get into at the moment J.
The last thing I want to say on this subject is that a yellow card should not be enjoyable. We are all working together to provide good sport and good entertainment for the fans, yellow cards and red cards should be used only as a last resort. I only mention this because I have seen with my own eyes referees who like giving out yellow cards. This is not right and as a player it makes me upset. It is an insecure referee who not only frequently uses red and yellow cards but who also feels satisfied by using them. (That was the volleyball wisdom by Confucius section of the blog for today)
Technically, the biggest problem I have seen in Denmark has been the inconsistency of the refereeing in relation to hand setting on the beach. There is simply no consistent level for hand setting. Personally, and I have also heard this from several other people, I am too afraid to even attempt to hand set the ball. For me, the reason is that as far as I can tell I can make ten identical hand sets and three of them will be called bad. This makes no sense and honestly it’s holding good players back in their development. Anders Hoyer is a great example. He is a good young player who has ambition to play internationally on the beach. And there is no doubt that he has the talent. Unfortunately, when it comes to hand setting (a major part of international beach volleyball) he is behind. A major reason for this is because of the inconsistency of the refereeing. I saw it several times over the course of the summer – one good set, two good sets, a third good set which was called for an unknown reason, and a fourth bad set which wasn’t called. I saw a hand set that rotated two times in the air be called. I’ve also seen balls that didn’t rotate at all get called because the player had “not contacted it evenly with both hands”. How this player made uneven contact and still managed to set the ball without any spin is one of the great mysteries of the world…
Of course we can always discuss how harshly we should referee hand setting, all I’m asking is that we draw a line and we all abide by it. However, right now the Danish referees are much, much tighter than the rest of the world and that means that players on the Danish tour are not being encouraged to use that part of the game and they are behind because of it.
I realize the above is slightly long and a little picky, but it is something that has bothered me since I got here, plus it’s my blog so I get to write whatever I feel like.
Monday, September 26, 2005
Top Teams Cup
Two European Cup matches, 40 Hours on a bus, five bags of Haribo candy, numerous buckets of Kraut and roughly 50 poker games later we are back in Denmark...
It's hard to say what we are bringing back with us at the moment as I haven't really had much time to digest it all but here are some of the highlights from the trip:
Volleyball: We played heads up with a GOOD austrian team at times. Clearly, we were not consistent or well rounded enough to beat them but we certainly played at a high level for a good portion of the time we were down there. Unfortunately, SK Aich/Dob (probably one of the worst volleyball team names I have ever heard) had more experience and more power when it came down to the important points. (Quick Note: They also had the head referee on their side. And I don't mean in the sense that they were at home and got a few "home team" calls. I mean that the referee was Slovenian and at least half of their team was slovenian and that there were several points in the match where players from the other team and the referee had small friendly conversations in Slovenian. I also mean that both the head ref and down ref were sitting outside in the cafe of our hotel with the other team's trainer, owner and others drinking beers during the day before our second match. Just sitting around having a FEW friendly beers BEFORE the match later. I'm not saying that the referee decided the match for them, I don't think we would have won either way, but there was something going on here. And he did make some very, very questionable calls. The more I think about it, the weirder it becomes.)
In my opinion (and I'm not going to tell you why) they did some things tactically that made it far too easy to side out for us and that helped us alot. Where they made up for it was in their serving, they use their own gym to their advantage and hit a lot of jump serves. They also had a lot of experience and ball skills. Their opposite was just consistent, didn't make mistakes, could hit angle or line with equal ability and saw the block well, whenever they needed a big point they just gave him the ball and let him take care of it. It was simple but effective for them.
Bottom line, we got a lot of good experience and we got a chance to jell as a team. I think a trip like this can go a long way in developing a team and there is no doubt that we can take this experience home with us.
A few other random thoughts from the trip:
Don't ever go to Bleiberg, Austria unless you have no other option. Weird, weird place to be.
The gym was cool but really, really small. 6 meters to the ceiling and maybe two meters from the sides of the volleyball court to the walls. Kind of annoying for passing and defense but cool because 200 spectators made for a crazy atmosphere. It was loud and hot, perfect conditions for a volleyball match.
I forgot my digital camera but I think there are some guys on the team who took some pictures so I'll try and upload something when I get the chance.
PVC Lyngby 3-0 over DHG? Anybody feel like filling me in on what happened over there?
HIK - Middelfart 2-3. I heard it was a bit of a poor performance from Middelfart and some good serving from HIK that kept this one close... I had this one picked clear for Middelfart and I'm glad my money isn't into Nordic Bet yet...
Hvidovre 0-3 to SK Aarhus. Not really surprised, I think SK is definitely good enough to do this to a lot of teams. We'll wait and see how it goes against one of the so-called "top teams".
Lyngby 0-3 Gentofte. Yeah. Gentofte is good, Lyngby is kind of in transition.
Glad to see that the season is back on again!
It's hard to say what we are bringing back with us at the moment as I haven't really had much time to digest it all but here are some of the highlights from the trip:
Volleyball: We played heads up with a GOOD austrian team at times. Clearly, we were not consistent or well rounded enough to beat them but we certainly played at a high level for a good portion of the time we were down there. Unfortunately, SK Aich/Dob (probably one of the worst volleyball team names I have ever heard) had more experience and more power when it came down to the important points. (Quick Note: They also had the head referee on their side. And I don't mean in the sense that they were at home and got a few "home team" calls. I mean that the referee was Slovenian and at least half of their team was slovenian and that there were several points in the match where players from the other team and the referee had small friendly conversations in Slovenian. I also mean that both the head ref and down ref were sitting outside in the cafe of our hotel with the other team's trainer, owner and others drinking beers during the day before our second match. Just sitting around having a FEW friendly beers BEFORE the match later. I'm not saying that the referee decided the match for them, I don't think we would have won either way, but there was something going on here. And he did make some very, very questionable calls. The more I think about it, the weirder it becomes.)
In my opinion (and I'm not going to tell you why) they did some things tactically that made it far too easy to side out for us and that helped us alot. Where they made up for it was in their serving, they use their own gym to their advantage and hit a lot of jump serves. They also had a lot of experience and ball skills. Their opposite was just consistent, didn't make mistakes, could hit angle or line with equal ability and saw the block well, whenever they needed a big point they just gave him the ball and let him take care of it. It was simple but effective for them.
Bottom line, we got a lot of good experience and we got a chance to jell as a team. I think a trip like this can go a long way in developing a team and there is no doubt that we can take this experience home with us.
A few other random thoughts from the trip:
Don't ever go to Bleiberg, Austria unless you have no other option. Weird, weird place to be.
The gym was cool but really, really small. 6 meters to the ceiling and maybe two meters from the sides of the volleyball court to the walls. Kind of annoying for passing and defense but cool because 200 spectators made for a crazy atmosphere. It was loud and hot, perfect conditions for a volleyball match.
I forgot my digital camera but I think there are some guys on the team who took some pictures so I'll try and upload something when I get the chance.
PVC Lyngby 3-0 over DHG? Anybody feel like filling me in on what happened over there?
HIK - Middelfart 2-3. I heard it was a bit of a poor performance from Middelfart and some good serving from HIK that kept this one close... I had this one picked clear for Middelfart and I'm glad my money isn't into Nordic Bet yet...
Hvidovre 0-3 to SK Aarhus. Not really surprised, I think SK is definitely good enough to do this to a lot of teams. We'll wait and see how it goes against one of the so-called "top teams".
Lyngby 0-3 Gentofte. Yeah. Gentofte is good, Lyngby is kind of in transition.
Glad to see that the season is back on again!
Saturday, September 24, 2005
Top Teams Cup - First Match
Just a quick summary from last night:
We started well, playing solid aggrassive volleyball. The other team also had problems with their serve - quite a few serve mistakes - and didn't really look very strong from the beginning. Putting aside a few VERY questionable referee calls we should have won the first set. After five or six set balls for us and some back and forth at the end we lost 28-30. Afterwards things went downhill with each set getting worse.
In the last two sets we lost some of our agression an they started to work in to their game. No doubt, the team we are playing agaihst is good. Solid ball players with a lot of collective experience. They are mostly czech and slovenian nationals (everyone who complains about foreigners in the danish league should see the way the austrian league is set up - there were no austrians on the court for their team consistently) and they all look like they have side jobs as mercenaries. By the end of the match there was little question on who was the better of the two teams.
We'll make some adjustments and see what we can do tonight. Hopefully I'll have something better to report then...
Good luck to everyone this weekend!
We started well, playing solid aggrassive volleyball. The other team also had problems with their serve - quite a few serve mistakes - and didn't really look very strong from the beginning. Putting aside a few VERY questionable referee calls we should have won the first set. After five or six set balls for us and some back and forth at the end we lost 28-30. Afterwards things went downhill with each set getting worse.
In the last two sets we lost some of our agression an they started to work in to their game. No doubt, the team we are playing agaihst is good. Solid ball players with a lot of collective experience. They are mostly czech and slovenian nationals (everyone who complains about foreigners in the danish league should see the way the austrian league is set up - there were no austrians on the court for their team consistently) and they all look like they have side jobs as mercenaries. By the end of the match there was little question on who was the better of the two teams.
We'll make some adjustments and see what we can do tonight. Hopefully I'll have something better to report then...
Good luck to everyone this weekend!
Tuesday, September 20, 2005
Immediate Reactions and Unfounded predictions...
I want to start this entry by saying congratulations to Middelfart for not only winning this weekend but for putting a really strong, well run tournament. It was great to see that they made a few adjustments and came out with a much better result than in previous years. The level of play was high and everything ran smoothly and I’m fairly sure that all of the teams participating got exactly what they wanted out of it – a bunch of good volleyball.
With that said, allow me to give you my immediate reactions and some unfounded speculation…
Things haven’t changed much from my team previews. I still think the top four teams are Gentofte, Middelfart, Marienlyst and HIK. With that said, I also think that Gentofte and Middelfart have separated themselves out as the top two teams right now.
Gentofte looks like they have the biggest upside to me, if they continue developing throughout the season they are going to be really tough to beat. The setters are going to have to work hard to find the Brazilian’s attack points because right now it looks like they are somewhat out of sync with each other.
Middelfart was absolutely solid throughout the tournament. They have a deep bench and a full team that can all play at a high level. I think out of everyone they are the sharpest team right now. They don’t make a lot of mistakes and they play a good solid all around game. In order to beat them you have to execute at a high level for an entire match and that is about all you can ask for from a team at this point.
That leaves Us and HIK to try and catch up. We played okay at times in the tournament but our level is far too inconsistent. Something we are going to have to remedy through training and experience. It’s hard to point to one thing that we need to improve on for me, I just think that right now we are not as good as some of the other teams out there.
HIK has all the ingredients to be in the top as well and it was great to see Villadsen back around. They just need to pass the ball better. At the moment their passing is not good enough and without consistent passing they won’t be able to challenge any of the top level teams.
SK Aarhus also put on a fairly strong showing, considering that their team has only been together for about ten days they look pretty solid. I didn’t really get to see them play a whole lot so I can’t say too much more about them.
I’m absolutely excited and thrilled to see that the level of Danish volleyball has been strengthened so much since last year. It is going to make for a really interesting season which will hopefully translate into some renewed enthusiasm for volleyball. No doubt that since I have been in Denmark this is the highest the level has ever been.
I don’t know what the deal is, maybe they didn’t have all of their players or whatever, but the only Swedish team that was any good was Hylte. So the lesson here is that Swedes suck.
And Germans too.
Season start is only one week away for most of the teams in the elite division except for us who will be going to Austria for our top teams cup qualification match. I’m going to try and keep a kind of running journal of the events leading up and including the matches. If there is anything worth mentioning I’ll try to put it up here on the site.
Also, not this weekend because I will be gone and worrying about other things, but next weekend I’m going to start a weekly “tips” column where I will predict the future and tell you who is going to win each match. So if you want to make some money or post your own predictions (with explanations) then check it out.
Good luck to everyone this weekend, cross your fingers for us we need all the help we can get down there.
With that said, allow me to give you my immediate reactions and some unfounded speculation…
Things haven’t changed much from my team previews. I still think the top four teams are Gentofte, Middelfart, Marienlyst and HIK. With that said, I also think that Gentofte and Middelfart have separated themselves out as the top two teams right now.
Gentofte looks like they have the biggest upside to me, if they continue developing throughout the season they are going to be really tough to beat. The setters are going to have to work hard to find the Brazilian’s attack points because right now it looks like they are somewhat out of sync with each other.
Middelfart was absolutely solid throughout the tournament. They have a deep bench and a full team that can all play at a high level. I think out of everyone they are the sharpest team right now. They don’t make a lot of mistakes and they play a good solid all around game. In order to beat them you have to execute at a high level for an entire match and that is about all you can ask for from a team at this point.
That leaves Us and HIK to try and catch up. We played okay at times in the tournament but our level is far too inconsistent. Something we are going to have to remedy through training and experience. It’s hard to point to one thing that we need to improve on for me, I just think that right now we are not as good as some of the other teams out there.
HIK has all the ingredients to be in the top as well and it was great to see Villadsen back around. They just need to pass the ball better. At the moment their passing is not good enough and without consistent passing they won’t be able to challenge any of the top level teams.
SK Aarhus also put on a fairly strong showing, considering that their team has only been together for about ten days they look pretty solid. I didn’t really get to see them play a whole lot so I can’t say too much more about them.
I’m absolutely excited and thrilled to see that the level of Danish volleyball has been strengthened so much since last year. It is going to make for a really interesting season which will hopefully translate into some renewed enthusiasm for volleyball. No doubt that since I have been in Denmark this is the highest the level has ever been.
I don’t know what the deal is, maybe they didn’t have all of their players or whatever, but the only Swedish team that was any good was Hylte. So the lesson here is that Swedes suck.
And Germans too.
Season start is only one week away for most of the teams in the elite division except for us who will be going to Austria for our top teams cup qualification match. I’m going to try and keep a kind of running journal of the events leading up and including the matches. If there is anything worth mentioning I’ll try to put it up here on the site.
Also, not this weekend because I will be gone and worrying about other things, but next weekend I’m going to start a weekly “tips” column where I will predict the future and tell you who is going to win each match. So if you want to make some money or post your own predictions (with explanations) then check it out.
Good luck to everyone this weekend, cross your fingers for us we need all the help we can get down there.
Friday, September 16, 2005
Trash Talking
Just a little while back on volleynet there was quite a bit of debate about how much room the players should have to complain/argue/debate/yell in a normal match. I’ve felt strongly about this for a long time so I thought I would take this chance to put my thoughts out there.
First, I want to say that I think trash-talking is not only good for the game of volleyball, but a positive factor in making it entertaining. I can’t even think of how many times I have been sitting, watching a boring game of volleyball, two teams efficiently siding out against each other, very little defense and not much enthusiasm from the crowd or the players themselves. When, all of a sudden someone will make a big stuff block, celebrate facing the opposing team and set off a string of emotions that changes the whole emotional landscape of the game. As a result, players begin diving after every ball, trying to hit each ball as steep and hard as possible (which we all know is the correct way to hit the ball) and yelling as loud as possible. This makes for exciting volleyball.
In the summer, Peter Lyø and I were playing Lunde/Kazsas and getting a beating. We lost the first set 21-12 and things were looking bleak. The volleyball was ugly. Then something subtle happened, in between points (and anyone who has played beach volleyball knows about this) instead of returning the ball exactly to Kim and Lars, Peter rolled it just far enough so that it was on their side of the court, forcing one of them to walk over and pick it up. Soon after, instead of just nicely giving us the ball back Kim kicked it hard into the far corner of center court forcing me to go over and pick it up. Now, this isn’t exactly trash talking, and there is no way to control that kind of behavior, but these two small things (mixed, I’m sure with lots of former experiences between Peter and Kim) were enough to change the entire direction of the match. Defense, Intensity and emotions all poured out on the court and the crowd got to see good volleyball. The match turned out to be one of the best and most fun that I played in last summer and it all started with one little roll of the ball. Maybe the above story is a bit of a stretch, but the point is that, in volleyball, emotion and intensity are major ingredients in making the product watchable. And if those things aren’t there, then a little trash talking can often get the juices flowing…
Of course there are limitations to how far players should be allowed to go. I’m not condoning anarchy where players can run over to the other side and pull each other’s pants off (Although that would be awesome). All I’m asking is that the referees sit on their yellow and red cards a bit more. Instead of giving someone a red card for saying a bad word under their breath with their back turned, we should be saving those cards for something serious.
I can’t really remember when it was that everyone decided that players should not be able to look to the other side of the court and celebrate. I mean really, what does this accomplish? I can understand at the younger levels, we aren’t out to embarrass children, etc… but at the Elite level we are all adults. It doesn’t make sense that after a big stuff block, probably one of the most emotional moments in our sport, we are REQUIRED to turn our backs and look only to our own team. The net’s separation of the court should not include the separation of our emotions. The most fun matches to watch are the ones where both teams are getting after each other. Only two or three years ago, the biggest regular season match of the year was the one between Marienlyst and DHG, not only was it two good teams matching up, it was two teams who had quite a bit of bad blood towards each other.
As fans we are drawn to these types of high intensity games. We want drama on the court, we want blood and we want to be entertained. When two teams are forced to control their emotions and forced to keep everything they do on their own side it makes for a sterile, dispassionate and ultimately boring game. I think we all need to loosen up a bit…bitch.
Tuesday, September 13, 2005
Italians
Seeing that the Italians just won the European Championships reminded me about our CEV cup matches last year.
One of the main reasons that I came to play in Marienlyst last year was to get the chance to play in a European Cup tournament. I was slightly disappointed at first that we got to host the pool because that meant that we wouldn't get a chance to do some traveling. Seeing foreign gyms in weird out of the way places is exciting for me. I was hoping we would get to play somewhere in Siberia just to see what it would be like...
But, it turned out to be a really good experience for our team. Losing all three matches was not that exciting, except perhaps the loss to the Czech team where Martin Olafsen almost lost his mind, but it definitely helped our team develop. And looking back at the matches, there is no doubt that we could have won two of them. The match against the Italians was a different story altogether...
To this day I honestly don't know what happened in that match. I guess you could say that we were just happy to be there and that all of us gave them too much credit before the match even started. At times it did feel like we were little school children trying to beat the full grown men on the other side of the net. But I really think that most of that loss just had to do with them starting out in a comfortable rhythm and us being unable to break them out of that rhythm. I think the main differences between the teams were the passing - we could not pass their serves, they handled ours as if we were serving underhand - and their middle play. At various points in the match, Andre hit the ball over our middles somewhere in front of the three meter line. There was little we could do about it.
I still haven't tried to watch the tape of that match. I have no particular desire to punish myself by seeing it. However, In some strange way I cherish the memories of that match, as if being pounded by a team from Italy is every volleyball player's rite of passage.
One of the main reasons that I came to play in Marienlyst last year was to get the chance to play in a European Cup tournament. I was slightly disappointed at first that we got to host the pool because that meant that we wouldn't get a chance to do some traveling. Seeing foreign gyms in weird out of the way places is exciting for me. I was hoping we would get to play somewhere in Siberia just to see what it would be like...
But, it turned out to be a really good experience for our team. Losing all three matches was not that exciting, except perhaps the loss to the Czech team where Martin Olafsen almost lost his mind, but it definitely helped our team develop. And looking back at the matches, there is no doubt that we could have won two of them. The match against the Italians was a different story altogether...
To this day I honestly don't know what happened in that match. I guess you could say that we were just happy to be there and that all of us gave them too much credit before the match even started. At times it did feel like we were little school children trying to beat the full grown men on the other side of the net. But I really think that most of that loss just had to do with them starting out in a comfortable rhythm and us being unable to break them out of that rhythm. I think the main differences between the teams were the passing - we could not pass their serves, they handled ours as if we were serving underhand - and their middle play. At various points in the match, Andre hit the ball over our middles somewhere in front of the three meter line. There was little we could do about it.
I still haven't tried to watch the tape of that match. I have no particular desire to punish myself by seeing it. However, In some strange way I cherish the memories of that match, as if being pounded by a team from Italy is every volleyball player's rite of passage.
Saturday, September 10, 2005
Team Previews 2005-2006 - The Rest.
Team Previews – The rest.
DHG Odense – Probably the biggest question mark at this point, nobody really knows who they have to play for them, some people are even questioning if they have a team or not. Assuming they do have a team, it is extremely hard to predict where they will end up. DHG seems to find a way to put things together at the last minute so they might end up with a decent team. Anders Hoyer should still be there along with Martin Nielsen so that is at least a start. They’ll need “Mio” to play well as he looks like their only setter and they’ll need Jakob Oppenheim to play well even though he is still fairly young. Of course, you can never rule out some of the older guys stepping in and playing for the first team. As far as I can tell, there are too many question marks surrounding them to consider DHG one of the top teams; however, I’m too nervous to say that they won’t do well considering that they always seem to put something together. So, let’s let them sit here somewhere in the middle.
SK Aarhus – Big losses for them from last year include both setters, Mikkel Simonsen in the middle and Lars Hoppe playing outside. They will also lose the deadly middle/libero flexibility of Jesper Pedersen, and we all know that if you are seriously considering making a run at a title you have to have Jesper P. included somewhere in the action. What they’re left with is a potentially good team with little experience.
Their new Japanese setter is definitely legitimate; he runs a nice offense, plays the middle well, strong in defense and has a fairly solid jump serve. What he lacks is communication with the rest of the team, of course, this will come as the season moves along.
It will also be a year where Sasha and Ole finally get their chance to play consistently, both can play well and are hard workers but are untested playing consistently over a whole season. Brian Nordberg will continue to do well as they will look to him even more for offensive help. Danny Kurulyo (I’ll never spell this correctly) is solid but not going to carry them from what I’ve heard.
All in all it looks to me like SK will be somewhere in the middle. They are too unbalanced in my mind, their passing is still a question and their roster is fairly small at this point, if there are injuries or one of the starters is not playing well they won’t have much to fall back on. I think they will struggle with consistency throughout the season, but they certainly will be dangerous at times. No matter who is playing for them, this team has been to the finals the last two years in a row. It is also worth mentioning that you never really know who will pop up on their roster midway through the season…
Lyngby Volley – It seems that it has been out with the old and in with the new over there in Lyngby. They have said themselves that they will try to be more focused on training and development this year than they have been in the past. I hope this does not mean the end of warm up football! They have also got quite a few people coming into the club this year who can help them tremendously. Add that to their core of veteran players and you have a solid team. Lyngby has always been hard to play against when they are on, the question was always which team would show up. Last year we played them four or five times and each time I think we played against a completely different team. I’d also like to take a second to mention that I think it is too bad that William Menzel has stopped, I’ve always enjoyed playing against him. I also have great respect for all the work that he does for Lyngby and for volleyball in Denmark.
This team will probably be good for a few upsets this year, what they lack in order to be one of the better teams is consistency and, like a lot of other teams in Denmark, a strong setter. Especially if they stop giving themselves the excuses to mess around all the time, this team will be better than expected.
Holte – I don’t have much to say about Holte. I don’t know who they have to play this year, especially since Kristian Bech and a few others decided to go to Gentofte (Watch out for Alex Jacobsen by the way, if you haven’t seen him play before, I think you are in for a treat when you do. He was definitely one of the most fun players to watch play this year on the beach) Holte is going to have a tough time competing with what looks like a strong Danish Elite division this year.
Hvidovre – Honestly, I’ve always thought that this team has underachieved. Playing against them I think to myself that they should at least be challenging for a top six placement but it never seems to happen. Kasper does a good job setting, they have good outsides and their middles, while undersized, do a decent job. I’ve seen that they have a large team this year and are doing some good things, I hope it translates to some more wins for them this year. I think that they don’t really think they can win against the good teams and therefore they handicap themselves but that is just my opinion. If they concentrate on doing the things that they know they can do well then there is a chance that they will be stronger than most people think. However, until they prove that they can do it I have no choice but to leave them somewhere near the bottom.
PVC Lyngby - A bit of a surprise that they made it up to the elite level. There were rumors that they might not even have wanted to be promoted but here they are anyway. I can't pretend to know very much about this team but from what I've heard they are fairly reliant on two guys - Jeppe Brinck and Kristoffer Bergholt (This has nothing to do with this post, but it just reminded me, someone was telling me that they were thinking about naming their child Kristophpher and spelling it with the two ph's instead of ff's, what a ridiculous thing to do...) two guys that have been around for quite a while. I've also heard that possibly some people weren't very satisfied with the way the team was run... So, to me it looks like they are headed towards a tough season especially considering they will be stepping up a level in competition. It may be possible to rely on two outside hitters in the first division but unless they get some help out of the middle and can distribute the ball a bit they are going have trouble against bigger blockers. It will be interesting to see how they fit in amongst the elite teams this year...
DHG Odense – Probably the biggest question mark at this point, nobody really knows who they have to play for them, some people are even questioning if they have a team or not. Assuming they do have a team, it is extremely hard to predict where they will end up. DHG seems to find a way to put things together at the last minute so they might end up with a decent team. Anders Hoyer should still be there along with Martin Nielsen so that is at least a start. They’ll need “Mio” to play well as he looks like their only setter and they’ll need Jakob Oppenheim to play well even though he is still fairly young. Of course, you can never rule out some of the older guys stepping in and playing for the first team. As far as I can tell, there are too many question marks surrounding them to consider DHG one of the top teams; however, I’m too nervous to say that they won’t do well considering that they always seem to put something together. So, let’s let them sit here somewhere in the middle.
SK Aarhus – Big losses for them from last year include both setters, Mikkel Simonsen in the middle and Lars Hoppe playing outside. They will also lose the deadly middle/libero flexibility of Jesper Pedersen, and we all know that if you are seriously considering making a run at a title you have to have Jesper P. included somewhere in the action. What they’re left with is a potentially good team with little experience.
Their new Japanese setter is definitely legitimate; he runs a nice offense, plays the middle well, strong in defense and has a fairly solid jump serve. What he lacks is communication with the rest of the team, of course, this will come as the season moves along.
It will also be a year where Sasha and Ole finally get their chance to play consistently, both can play well and are hard workers but are untested playing consistently over a whole season. Brian Nordberg will continue to do well as they will look to him even more for offensive help. Danny Kurulyo (I’ll never spell this correctly) is solid but not going to carry them from what I’ve heard.
All in all it looks to me like SK will be somewhere in the middle. They are too unbalanced in my mind, their passing is still a question and their roster is fairly small at this point, if there are injuries or one of the starters is not playing well they won’t have much to fall back on. I think they will struggle with consistency throughout the season, but they certainly will be dangerous at times. No matter who is playing for them, this team has been to the finals the last two years in a row. It is also worth mentioning that you never really know who will pop up on their roster midway through the season…
Lyngby Volley – It seems that it has been out with the old and in with the new over there in Lyngby. They have said themselves that they will try to be more focused on training and development this year than they have been in the past. I hope this does not mean the end of warm up football! They have also got quite a few people coming into the club this year who can help them tremendously. Add that to their core of veteran players and you have a solid team. Lyngby has always been hard to play against when they are on, the question was always which team would show up. Last year we played them four or five times and each time I think we played against a completely different team. I’d also like to take a second to mention that I think it is too bad that William Menzel has stopped, I’ve always enjoyed playing against him. I also have great respect for all the work that he does for Lyngby and for volleyball in Denmark.
This team will probably be good for a few upsets this year, what they lack in order to be one of the better teams is consistency and, like a lot of other teams in Denmark, a strong setter. Especially if they stop giving themselves the excuses to mess around all the time, this team will be better than expected.
Holte – I don’t have much to say about Holte. I don’t know who they have to play this year, especially since Kristian Bech and a few others decided to go to Gentofte (Watch out for Alex Jacobsen by the way, if you haven’t seen him play before, I think you are in for a treat when you do. He was definitely one of the most fun players to watch play this year on the beach) Holte is going to have a tough time competing with what looks like a strong Danish Elite division this year.
Hvidovre – Honestly, I’ve always thought that this team has underachieved. Playing against them I think to myself that they should at least be challenging for a top six placement but it never seems to happen. Kasper does a good job setting, they have good outsides and their middles, while undersized, do a decent job. I’ve seen that they have a large team this year and are doing some good things, I hope it translates to some more wins for them this year. I think that they don’t really think they can win against the good teams and therefore they handicap themselves but that is just my opinion. If they concentrate on doing the things that they know they can do well then there is a chance that they will be stronger than most people think. However, until they prove that they can do it I have no choice but to leave them somewhere near the bottom.
PVC Lyngby - A bit of a surprise that they made it up to the elite level. There were rumors that they might not even have wanted to be promoted but here they are anyway. I can't pretend to know very much about this team but from what I've heard they are fairly reliant on two guys - Jeppe Brinck and Kristoffer Bergholt (This has nothing to do with this post, but it just reminded me, someone was telling me that they were thinking about naming their child Kristophpher and spelling it with the two ph's instead of ff's, what a ridiculous thing to do...) two guys that have been around for quite a while. I've also heard that possibly some people weren't very satisfied with the way the team was run... So, to me it looks like they are headed towards a tough season especially considering they will be stepping up a level in competition. It may be possible to rely on two outside hitters in the first division but unless they get some help out of the middle and can distribute the ball a bit they are going have trouble against bigger blockers. It will be interesting to see how they fit in amongst the elite teams this year...
Thursday, September 08, 2005
Team Previews 2005-2006
Marienlyst -– Our biggest obstacle has obviously been the loss of two top talents in Mads Ditlevsen and Peter Lyck, as well as our coach from last year - Jens Larsen. Well, out with the old and in with the new.
With Stewart McGrenary already here and Nathan Roberts on his way it looks, if not promising, then solid, for our team this year. Jesper Hansen and BT are as solid as always, which makes us, in my mind, the best passing team in the league. We'’ve still got depth off of the bench: Lasse Westergaard gets better every year and could easily start for a lot of teams in the league, Toke is doing lots of good things in practice both in the middle and on the outside, and Paw is ready to finally get his chance to start for us as soon as he is healthy again. All in all, the team has a lot of the same characteristics of our team from last year. The big question is whether it is enough considering that nearly each team in the league has improved.
HIK Aalborg -- In my mind, the biggest disappointment from last year. I don’t know what happened at the end of the year but they had the talent to be in the finals. Of course there was some questionable officiating at the end of that semi-final against SK (eh, Villa?) but they really shouldn'’t have been in that situation to begin with. The questions surrounding their team this year are: After dying out late in the season the past couple of years, will they be able to sustain their high level of play throughout an entire season? Will Ricky Ziegler, their new American setter, be enough to put them over the top?
I think their main problem this year is going to be replacing the intensity and the passing that Jesper Villadsen gave them last year. It'’s also going to be hard to replace Jesper Madsen in the libero spot.
They've been smart with both Mikkel and Jeppe, limiting their time on the court here in the pre-season so that they are ready for when it is important. Like, the first match of the Pokal for example...…
Gentofte -– This may be the year that Gentofte brings a title back to Copenhagen. With the new players that are coming in and the excellent system that is already in place I think that they have to be considered one of the favorites to win the title. I don’t have any personal experience with him but I have great respect for Peter Borglund and his attitude towards training.
Their biggest problems last year were that it took so long for Lasse Toft to emerge as a quality opposite hitter to give them a presence out of the back row and that they were relatively undersized in the middle. Both of these problems have been solved. They now have an abundance of outside hitters that are pretty much interchangeable. I look forward to seeing the Brazilian, there isn'’t much doubt that he is a top shelf player but how good he is remains to be seen. They’ve also picked up Mads Toubro and Kristian Bech to help out in the middle, a big improvement on last year.
Questions remain: Who will play libero? They've had a kind of rotating libero system the last few years that hasn'’t really worked. I'’ve even seen them play without a libero. This will have to be resolved before they can take their place as one of the elite teams. Also, do they have the required experience to make a run at the title? I know a lot of their guys have been around for quite a long time but I don'’t know how many titles they have won, especially in recent years.
If they can jell quickly and resolve their libero issues, this team will be strong with all the necessary components to win a championship.
Middelfart -– This is the buzz team of the off-season. They have made the most moves, showed the most ambition and been generally the most impressive team during the summer. As opposed to last year when they made some questionable signings they have brought in two quality Canadian players and a number of key Danish players, as well as Chad Grimm to coach.
Big for them will be the arrival of Mikkel Simonsen who will give them extremely solid play in the middle as well as a lot of important leadership. It also won’t hurt to have Lars Hoppe and Jakob Funch around either. I've met both of the Canadians and they seem like good quality guys. At least a class better than Warrren "I hurt my knee by stumbling drunkenly into an open sewer hole" Jarred. This team is a definite favorite to win a title.
The questions: They are still completely untested. Chad is a good friend of mine and I have no doubts that he will be a good coach, but it is still his first year in a relatively new situation. On average this is still a very young team, not many guys with a lot of championship experience. Especially their setters. Both have the talent to lead their team but neither has proven yet that they can do it over a whole season. It will be interesting to see how this team comes together and who emerges as their leaders in crunch time. No doubt this team has the talent to go all the way, but with that talent comes quite a bit of expectation and pressure...
With Stewart McGrenary already here and Nathan Roberts on his way it looks, if not promising, then solid, for our team this year. Jesper Hansen and BT are as solid as always, which makes us, in my mind, the best passing team in the league. We'’ve still got depth off of the bench: Lasse Westergaard gets better every year and could easily start for a lot of teams in the league, Toke is doing lots of good things in practice both in the middle and on the outside, and Paw is ready to finally get his chance to start for us as soon as he is healthy again. All in all, the team has a lot of the same characteristics of our team from last year. The big question is whether it is enough considering that nearly each team in the league has improved.
HIK Aalborg -- In my mind, the biggest disappointment from last year. I don’t know what happened at the end of the year but they had the talent to be in the finals. Of course there was some questionable officiating at the end of that semi-final against SK (eh, Villa?) but they really shouldn'’t have been in that situation to begin with. The questions surrounding their team this year are: After dying out late in the season the past couple of years, will they be able to sustain their high level of play throughout an entire season? Will Ricky Ziegler, their new American setter, be enough to put them over the top?
I think their main problem this year is going to be replacing the intensity and the passing that Jesper Villadsen gave them last year. It'’s also going to be hard to replace Jesper Madsen in the libero spot.
They've been smart with both Mikkel and Jeppe, limiting their time on the court here in the pre-season so that they are ready for when it is important. Like, the first match of the Pokal for example...…
Gentofte -– This may be the year that Gentofte brings a title back to Copenhagen. With the new players that are coming in and the excellent system that is already in place I think that they have to be considered one of the favorites to win the title. I don’t have any personal experience with him but I have great respect for Peter Borglund and his attitude towards training.
Their biggest problems last year were that it took so long for Lasse Toft to emerge as a quality opposite hitter to give them a presence out of the back row and that they were relatively undersized in the middle. Both of these problems have been solved. They now have an abundance of outside hitters that are pretty much interchangeable. I look forward to seeing the Brazilian, there isn'’t much doubt that he is a top shelf player but how good he is remains to be seen. They’ve also picked up Mads Toubro and Kristian Bech to help out in the middle, a big improvement on last year.
Questions remain: Who will play libero? They've had a kind of rotating libero system the last few years that hasn'’t really worked. I'’ve even seen them play without a libero. This will have to be resolved before they can take their place as one of the elite teams. Also, do they have the required experience to make a run at the title? I know a lot of their guys have been around for quite a long time but I don'’t know how many titles they have won, especially in recent years.
If they can jell quickly and resolve their libero issues, this team will be strong with all the necessary components to win a championship.
Middelfart -– This is the buzz team of the off-season. They have made the most moves, showed the most ambition and been generally the most impressive team during the summer. As opposed to last year when they made some questionable signings they have brought in two quality Canadian players and a number of key Danish players, as well as Chad Grimm to coach.
Big for them will be the arrival of Mikkel Simonsen who will give them extremely solid play in the middle as well as a lot of important leadership. It also won’t hurt to have Lars Hoppe and Jakob Funch around either. I've met both of the Canadians and they seem like good quality guys. At least a class better than Warrren "I hurt my knee by stumbling drunkenly into an open sewer hole" Jarred. This team is a definite favorite to win a title.
The questions: They are still completely untested. Chad is a good friend of mine and I have no doubts that he will be a good coach, but it is still his first year in a relatively new situation. On average this is still a very young team, not many guys with a lot of championship experience. Especially their setters. Both have the talent to lead their team but neither has proven yet that they can do it over a whole season. It will be interesting to see how this team comes together and who emerges as their leaders in crunch time. No doubt this team has the talent to go all the way, but with that talent comes quite a bit of expectation and pressure...
Tuesday, September 06, 2005
Danish and such...
I just wanted to mention that if anyone has comments or anything else they want to add to the site please feel free to write or respond in Danish. Of course it is great if anyone wants to work on their english writing skills, but I can't imagine that anyone outside of Denmark is going to be reading this blog (if anyone reads it at all...) so fire away. My danish reading skills are pretty good so it shouldn't be a problem, my danish writing skills however are not particularly sharp...
Quick Training Tournament in Aalborg
This weekend we were in Aalborg to play against Sk Aarhus and Aalborg. Originally it was just supposed to be against Aalborg but apparently Sk Aarhus asked if they could join us and unfortunately they were accepted. I have no problem with Aarhus, and I love all the guys that are still there from when I played there, but the team they brought this weekend was barely a team. There were maybe three or four guys who have elite division experience and the rest were just thrown together in what seemed like the last second.
Anyways, we played SK first and it wasn't much of a match. I think they might have gotten 15 or 16 points in one of the sets. I will say that their new Japanese setter is good though. Lots of energy and lots of noise - fun to watch. Unfortunately he didn't have a whole lot of good passing to work with... I'm sure they will be alot better once the other guys are around (Brian when he is healthy again, Sasha who deserved more of a chance to play last year in my opinion, Danny Kurulyo (sp?) who played with Middelfart last year, and knowing Thorkild, a few more) and ready to play, but at the moment I would not include SK as a team with a chance to win a medal.
Aalborg looks fairly promising, they played against us without Jeppe or Mikkel and still played well. Thomas Bach is playing extremely well at the moment but I still have some reservations about their passing. I think it is going to be hard for them to transition from Jesper Villadsen and Jesper Madsen being their main passers to what they have this year. The new setter is also good though, athletic and solid, hopefully he lasts a whole season for them... They definitey will be a team to reckon with as always this year as long as their passing holds up.
As far as our team goes, I think we played ok but it is early and of course there is a lot of room for improvement. Stewart has been solid so far and I hope he continues to be that way, it's fun to have such a slimy hitter on our team, I don't think I have ever played with someone like that before. We'll have to keep working hard with our blocking and defense, but Jesper Hansen and BT continue to do things well as always. At the moment we need our outside hitters to be ready because we only have three. As soon as Nathan comes from Australia we should be in much better shape for training and in games. Until then, I hope that we can continue to improve as we look forward to the Middelfart tournament and to our Top Teams Cup matches in Austria.
Match Scores:
SK Aarhus - Marienlyst: 0:3
HIK - Marienlyst: 1-3
Anyways, we played SK first and it wasn't much of a match. I think they might have gotten 15 or 16 points in one of the sets. I will say that their new Japanese setter is good though. Lots of energy and lots of noise - fun to watch. Unfortunately he didn't have a whole lot of good passing to work with... I'm sure they will be alot better once the other guys are around (Brian when he is healthy again, Sasha who deserved more of a chance to play last year in my opinion, Danny Kurulyo (sp?) who played with Middelfart last year, and knowing Thorkild, a few more) and ready to play, but at the moment I would not include SK as a team with a chance to win a medal.
Aalborg looks fairly promising, they played against us without Jeppe or Mikkel and still played well. Thomas Bach is playing extremely well at the moment but I still have some reservations about their passing. I think it is going to be hard for them to transition from Jesper Villadsen and Jesper Madsen being their main passers to what they have this year. The new setter is also good though, athletic and solid, hopefully he lasts a whole season for them... They definitey will be a team to reckon with as always this year as long as their passing holds up.
As far as our team goes, I think we played ok but it is early and of course there is a lot of room for improvement. Stewart has been solid so far and I hope he continues to be that way, it's fun to have such a slimy hitter on our team, I don't think I have ever played with someone like that before. We'll have to keep working hard with our blocking and defense, but Jesper Hansen and BT continue to do things well as always. At the moment we need our outside hitters to be ready because we only have three. As soon as Nathan comes from Australia we should be in much better shape for training and in games. Until then, I hope that we can continue to improve as we look forward to the Middelfart tournament and to our Top Teams Cup matches in Austria.
Match Scores:
SK Aarhus - Marienlyst: 0:3
HIK - Marienlyst: 1-3
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