I feel like it has been months since I played any serious volleyball. This might be because it actually has been about a month since I played. But more than that, I think I am just a little bit jealous. It seems like everyone else is getting ready to start the playoffs. Danish Basketball, Swedish Volleyball, German volleyball, Champions League is getting down to the final four, March Madness… I don’t know, I’m getting kind of antsy. We’ve still got two more games and after that, a solid ten or eleven days before the playoffs begin. It’s times like these that make me think we should have a more developed playoff schedule. Best of five perhaps? Maybe best of three semi final and then best of five final? Would this be too much or just the right amount?
Some other thoughts for this time of year:
With Aalborg’s win over Gentofte this weekend the whole playoff picture has kind of come into focus. It’s a really interesting development that puts my team in a really weird situation. Assuming that we can play well enough to stay in first place, we are going to play either Gentofte or Aalborg in the semis. We are also going to play them in our last two matches of the regular season. Gentofte this Saturday and then Aalborg next Thursday. If we win both, then we get Aalborg in the semis. If one of them beats us, then they will probably end up in third place. It’s also possible that we’ll play Aalborg next Thursday in a match that means nothing to us and might mean a lot to them.
Some people would also argue that we are in a position to decide who we want to play against in the semi finals. I think that talking about match-ups, etc… for the playoffs is kind of a waste of time and usually counter productive. I think that you have to just go into each match and try to play your best and win. No one ever got in trouble for playing as hard as they can every time. When you start talking about losing to Team A so that you can play Team B in a certain situation I think you end up creating more negatives than positives.
It might be easy for me to say this because Aalborg and Gentofte are both really good teams. We’ve had our problems with Gentofte, and Aalborg has really played well in their last six or seven matches. Who wants to play the hot team in the playoffs?
What’s even more weird, is that we haven’t really played in so long, I have no idea how good we are at the moment. It almost feels like we are starting a second part of the season from scratch right now. So, hopefully we’ll be able to step up and finish this season off well.
I know that the schedule was kind of thrown off at the beginning of the season because DHG pulled out of the Elite, but has anyone noticed that some teams have had more home games than others? Just for posterity’s sake let’s take a look. Gentofte for example, up until now, the best home team in the league with 7 wins and 1 loss and a set score of 23-4 (That means, besides the three sets they lost to Marienlyst, they have lost one set at home all year). At the end of the schedule they will have played an equal amount of matches home and away – 9 and 9. Important when you notice that their record is 3 wins and 6 losses away from Kildeskovshallen.
Aalborg, who is also much better at home at 7-2, will end the season with 10 home games and only 8 away games. This is a pretty big deal when you consider that Gentofte and Aalborg are battling to see where they will finish for the playoffs. If Aalborg had had one more away game would they have lost it? If Gentofte had had one more home game would they have won it? Just to be a bitch, I’ll also mention that Marienlyst will end the season with 8 home games and 10 away games – kind of unfair?
Lastly, I’ve read with great interest the couple of shots that people have taken at SK Aarhus in the last few weeks. I don’t really feel that it is up to people from the outside to judge what they are doing over there. I was a part of it for two years and I am really glad for the chance that I got to play there. What I do think is important to note, is that they have not done anything illegal or against the rules. There are no rules that forbid a certain amount of players or how often they can be switched out. So, they can do whatever they want as long as it is inside the rules. Do I think it is the best strategy for the future? Probably not, but in case no one else has noticed, SK has a solid portion of young players that have a good future in the Elite division. Supplementing with foreign players until the younger guys are ready to really step up isn’t the worst idea. Sending players home because they can’t make the playoffs? Well, I can’t really condone that.
A more important point though, and this relates to the above paragraphs, is the luck factor in when and how a team faces Aarhus. You could argue that they have been responsible for more tumult in the elite division this year than any other team. They’re kind of like going out to the bar with your one crazy, unpredictable friend. You might end up having the best night of your life, you also might end up getting into a fight and getting stabbed, and there’s no real way to know before you get out there.
Look at Gentofte, they played an Aarhus volley that no other team in the league played against. They had the bad luck of playing them when they had the services of a Tunisian, among other motivated foreigners, who were pretty good. If Gentofte got to play them again today, with the team they have right now, they would most likely win.
ASV got the opposite, they got to play an Aarhus volley that was in a transitional phase, with unmotivated and new foreigners that weren’t in playing shape yet. The result was a win for ASV, a win that has turned out to be a very important win for them in relation to staying in the elite next year.
Aarhus has been the wildcard of the league all year. There is no question that it was an advantage to play them at the right time this year and that’s directly due to the fact that they have switched out their team a couple of times this year. Kind of unfair? You tell me.
Good luck to those that are starting playoffs already. I can’t wait to join you. It’s going to be a while I guess.
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3 comments:
Jeg er fuldt ud klar over at SK ikke har gjort noget forkert og det er egentlig heller ikke det jeg skriver for.
Jeg ærgrer mig bare over at SK ikke bidrager til at fremme interessen for elitevolley i Danmark. Ingen presseinfo, ingen nyheder på hjemmeside osv.
Det bunder nok bare i min drøm om at proffesionalisere dansk volleyball i sin helhed. Det vil sige ikke bare "nøjes" ved at købe udenlandske spillere, men også skabe mere professionelle rammer og interesse i lokalområdet.
Marienlyst er et skoleeksempel på hvad man kan gøre, hvis man vil! Folk grinede i starten når der blev sat tribuner op til flere hundrede tilskuere og der kun kom 20. Det er der vist ingen der griner af mere. Marienlystcentret er vist den mest intense og "professionelle" hjemmebane i den danske elitedivision. Der er altid presseforhold, der er altid bar, der er altid speaker og kampprogram, der er altid fuldt set-up med tribuner og bander uanset om det er Middelfart eller Hvidovre der er modstander. Der bliver lavet kampreferater og pressen bliver kontaktet (hvis de ikke selv er der) UANSET om man har vundet eller tabt. Alt dette er i mine øjne at være dybt seriøs omkring sin elitevolleyball.
Jeg ville ønske at der var flere som fulgte dette eksempel. Det ville også gøre det lettere for de enkelte klubber at skaffe sponsorer!
Jeg ville ønske at der havde været de forhold i de mange år jeg spillede elitevolley. Det havde gjort det til en ekstra fed oplevelse.
Nu lyder det måske lidt selvfedt at jeg skriver det om min egen klub, men hvis det havde været en anden klub, eksempelvis SK, som havde de forhold og leverede den indsats for dansk volleyball, havde jeg skrevet det samme!
Og det er egentlig der jeg vil hen. Det er min drøm at ALLE klubber skaber de rammer og være med til at løfte volleyball i Danmark. Hvis man viser seriøsitet bliver man også opfattet seriøst. Hvis man ikke viser seriøsitet, er det ret svært at blive opfattet som noget andet.
Man kunne jo også prøve at sammenligne dansk volleyball med dansk basketball. Begge sportsgrene er ikke ret store i Danmark, men vil gerne være det. I Dansk Basketball Forbund har man valgt at stille nogle meget specifikke krav til klubberne med hensyn til økonomi og måden man skal afholde en elitekamp på. Hvis man ikke lever op til disse kan man ikke spille i den bedste række. Jeg siger ikke at det skal styres så meget som i basketball, men omvendt så er det lykkedes basketball at få en TV-aftale. Det skyldes sikkert også at der er styr på rammerne, så TV kan vise et godt og seriøst produkt.
Så har jeg vist været lidt omkring. Jeg har ikke noget imod SK, men synes bare de har et kæmpe potentiale som de ikke udnytter, og det ærgrer mig bare.
Mvh
Jacob
Hove,
Some interestings points made in both your entry and the first comment. Wouldn't it be interesting to have a set up somewhat like NCAA. It doesn't necessarily matter how big the school is or how good they are, but if they meet the structural (and in their case mainly financial) requirements, then you are allowed in. Knowing that Danish volleyball isn't overflowing with cash and sponsors make the requirements more to do with structure than dollars. Many "professional" things can be done that don't cost an enormous amount of money. Having a full gym set up, printing out some brochures, updating the website in a timely fashion. I know here we must report our results to the governing body within 1 hour of match completion or our school is fined....with the fine increasing for each infraction. I think this is a great rule for those interested that want to see the results quickly and also since their is no cost involved in being punctual. I don't know much about the roster switching but it does seem odd. It is surprising to me that there are no rules concerning the number of players you can have on your roster at any given time. We are allowed to have 14 (I believe) rostered players for the season. Since we are only allowed to dress 12, then we have some flexibility as to who plays but we cannot enter matches with a different team each week. It is obviously different with the ability to "buy" players in your system, but after the deadline of signing players should their not be a roster submitted with a limited number of players in order to avoid the problems that could arise, such as the ones mentioned with teams having a clear advantage over another team depending on when they played SK?? This seems only sensible, but hey maybe I am just talking crazy here. Hope all is good in the DK, we are finished for 2 weeks until under 21's start. Good luck in your upcoming games and of course in the playoffs.
p.s. I also think that having more playoff games would be a good idea. Why not increase the number of competitive, meaningful games?
Ses
Chad
Good luck in the playoffs!
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