Middelfart Tournament Part 2

A few quick comments on my last post:

I don't really know what you can do about a generation of volleyball players that stop playing. It takes time to build up the ranks of players again. In 2002, when I came to Denmark, there were several teams built around "older" players that all decided to stop within the next couple of years. No matter what, you are going to feel the effects of 20-25 good, experienced players stopping at about the same time. And that's what happened in the last few years.

The difference between "reliance on" foreign players and "supplementing" a roster with them is huge. I've always felt that the sweet spot for foreigners is around 2-4 all depending on the team you can surround them with. The idea, that should be apparent to everyone by now, is to have a self-sufficient roster made up of homegrown (danish) talent that can be augmented by some foreign talent. Basically, it should be a matter of luxury, not necessary, spending. Said another way, clubs should be taking on foreign players to make them better not just to fill spaces that are empty.

Now I'm just whipping stuff off the top of my head, but maybe it should be a requirement for teams to have an equal amount of junior players as foreigners on their teams...

As one of the first teams to bring foreigners into the league, Aarhus has actually done a really good job of starting to work with younger talent. At least their elite team is carrying more and more inexperienced/young Danish players.

While we're on the subject of the youth, I have to ask the question - why do I know nothing about youth players in Denmark? I've never seen a youth match or tournament, if they come to watch our games I've never spoken with any of them, I see KIDS volley players all the time at the club but other than that I have no connection whatsoever to the youth players in Denmark. Where do they play? When do they play? Another quick thought: Why don't we let the youth players play some sort of finals on the same floor as the real Danish Championship finals? It could happen a couple of hours before the senior finals or right afterward.

Anyways, I know almost nothing about the youth at this point. I hope that changes soon.

Middelfart was a bit of a disappointment as far as the level of play. Most teams are still in a bit of chaos at this time of year, but this year seemed a bit worse than normal.

I thought HIK looked better than I thought they would, they're roster is full and they've got a bunch of new faces, which is a really good thing. A lot of the younger guys looked raw, but they definitely had potential. They do have some question marks at certain important positions though, it will be interesting to see how they develop as the season moves along.

Aarhus looks like they will put together a strong team eventually. I'm not sure that they're current crop of foreigners can carry the team the way they did last year though. It looks a little bit more like quantity than quality at this point. I think the setter looks good and they still have a lot of guys that have been around for a long time mixed with some solid youth so they should be formidable by mid-season. But during the tournament they didn't exactly have everything working perfectly.

ASV got another foreigner who looks promising. He's a big middle and you can't really go wrong with a big middle at this point. Obviously, as newcomers to the Elite division, they'll struggle while they get used to the new level of play. They'll be good for some upsets though as the season progresses.

Middelfart was missing one of their middles and a libero and had almost no one on the bench so it is hard to say what they'll look like by season's end. I think they'll be better than they showed at the tournament but it might be a stretch at this point to say that they are medal contenders. I like Jarryd, the young outside, and the opposite was actually better than I expected. It will be a matter of finding an identity and somehow convincing everyone in Middelfart that they should be rooting for a team made up of almost entirely foreign players. Out of everyone, I think this team will be the most fun to watch from outside and see what they become.

I have nothing but good things to say about Gentofte. In fact, as we saw with Geovan the last couple of years, if they had the money and the desire to add a couple of foreign pieces to their team, they would always be in the top of the Elite division. Right now, they are dealing with the exit of a lot of experienced older players so it will take a little while to figure out how to be consistent for a whole season. They'll be good this year, but it's really next year or the year after that will be the exciting for them...

I had mixed feelings going into the tournament because I felt that we hadn't really done anything to earn the pre-season expectations that everyone seems to have for us. We played mediocre volleyball against Wuppertal and in our pre-season tournament. Our training has been interrupted by the national team season and we've had little time to jell as a team. Well, the tournament answered some questions for me. We've got a good team. And not just our starting six, but everyone on the bench as well, we've got a chance to be really good. There were a lot of things we could have done better, including being more aggressive and putting pressure on the other teams, but there were also some signs of how good we can be. I don't know what the finals looked like from off the court, but we controlled that entire match from start to finish. Whether or not the other team was "motivated" or not, they didn't really have a chance and that is a good feeling for our side.

Of course, all of this could be meaningless in less than two weeks when the regular season starts...