When we left for Aalborg yesterday, we felt good. We felt good about the way that we played our third semi final match against Gentofte. We felt good about the way that we were able to respond to the pressure of being the favorites. And most importantly, we felt good about getting the chance to play in a final.
All that positive energy allowed us to play a very solid first final. Our passing was really consistent and that allowed us to get into an early groove. We sided out well and made it difficult for Aalborg to win points in their own serve. It's a perfect scenario when playing an away game, it doesn't allow the crowd, or, by extension, the home team to get too excited. Not that the crowd wasn't alive or loud, but there simply weren't enough opportunities to go crazy. I would argue that against a team like HIK that means a lot. As soon as they get on a roll blocking, you know you are in trouble and the momentum is almost impossible to stop.
In a short post after the game on his blog Joakim Larsen declared it the best match that either team has played all year before replacing the post with a little more detail. It's hard to tell how the match looked from outside the court but a few different people told me that it was well played. I'm not sure if I'm ready to say it was our best match of the year, but it was definitely a good one. I think that we missed a few opportunities to really blow the game open, especially in the first and second sets. But that's all subjective so there is no point in saying more about it.
The most important thing for us is that we came home with a win. With two chances now to win gold at home we're not taking anything for granted. But, we also played all season to have the advantage we have now and hopefully that will translate into a win for us.
It feels like forever until Thursday and match number 2...
Showing posts with label Match Reports. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Match Reports. Show all posts
Monday, April 14, 2008
Monday, April 07, 2008
New Classics
What a playoff series. And from what I hear, that goes for both semis. When we got the message on Saturday, right after our match was over, that Middelfart and Aalborg were 2-2 and just beginning a fifth set, my first thought was how sad it was that we couldn't be there court side to see it. After all the drama that we went through in our first two matches against Gentofte it would have been nice to sit back and watch how other teams dealt with it. Without knowing too much about it, I have to take my hat off to Aalborg. I know how good I feel about being in the finals, but I can't imagine how they feel. Losing that first match at home 0-3 and not letting it stop them from coming back to win two grueling 5 set matches in Middelfart. Everyone else has said it already, but the difference in that team from the middle of the season to now is incredible. It's also amazing, in the current playoff system, how quickly that 1st place finish can be wiped away. Lose that first match and the entire regular season is washed away pretty much.
I also think it's significant to note that the difference in the two series came down to very few points. One sideout here or one point scored there and everything is different. From that viewpoint, any of the four teams could be in the finals right now. We were down a match ball in the fourth set of our second match and somehow figured out how to win anyways. I'd imagine that it was the same way in the other semi. I'm rambling a little bit, but the point is that these were all exciting matches, for players, fans and anyone else out there. And the intensity/emotion of the atmosphere has been incredible. It is these kinds of matches that get people excited about watching and playing volleyball. Hopefully the finals will be the same...............with maybe a little less drama surrounding the outcome...........
Anyways, all respect to Gentofte. They play good volleyball, they do the right things most of the time and they are always well prepared. Like I said to Sebastian after our match Saturday, their time is coming, if they stay together they are going to win a lot of gold medals. Luckily for us, it won't be this year.
As far as our team goes, I think that Saturday was a great match for us. It felt like we found ourselves again in that match. We remembered what we can do on the court and we did it, without nerves and without feeling any pressure. We played free and made few mistakes, all the while putting pressure on the other side of the net. If we can keep playing like that, we'll be tough to handle in the finals.
Congrats to Aalborg. Looking forward to seeing you guys on Sunday. And I'm not afraid to promise a better game than last time!
I also think it's significant to note that the difference in the two series came down to very few points. One sideout here or one point scored there and everything is different. From that viewpoint, any of the four teams could be in the finals right now. We were down a match ball in the fourth set of our second match and somehow figured out how to win anyways. I'd imagine that it was the same way in the other semi. I'm rambling a little bit, but the point is that these were all exciting matches, for players, fans and anyone else out there. And the intensity/emotion of the atmosphere has been incredible. It is these kinds of matches that get people excited about watching and playing volleyball. Hopefully the finals will be the same...............with maybe a little less drama surrounding the outcome...........
Anyways, all respect to Gentofte. They play good volleyball, they do the right things most of the time and they are always well prepared. Like I said to Sebastian after our match Saturday, their time is coming, if they stay together they are going to win a lot of gold medals. Luckily for us, it won't be this year.
As far as our team goes, I think that Saturday was a great match for us. It felt like we found ourselves again in that match. We remembered what we can do on the court and we did it, without nerves and without feeling any pressure. We played free and made few mistakes, all the while putting pressure on the other side of the net. If we can keep playing like that, we'll be tough to handle in the finals.
Congrats to Aalborg. Looking forward to seeing you guys on Sunday. And I'm not afraid to promise a better game than last time!
Tuesday, February 05, 2008
Ugh.
God that was a great Superbowl. Wasn't it? One transcendent play, lots of tension, an underdog coming back to win, it almost lived up to all the hype. It's just so much fun to watch sports when games are like that. Honestly, and this is a crazy thing to say considering the way he is regarded, but Bill Belichick choked. He turned into Marty Schottenheimer in the game that could have cemented him and his team as the greatest of all time. They got conservative when they had been playing wide open and aggressive all year long. And it cost them.
Besides feeling slightly obligated to write something about the Superbowl, I kind of needed some filler to beef up this match report from ASV. And normally, I try not to be too critical of the teams that we play against. In this case, I feel it's justified to say that ASV was horrible. When two teams step onto a court against one another, they enter into a kind of contract. They both pledge to do whatever they can to win the game and compete. On Sunday, ASV didn't fulfill their end of the bargain.
It's weird because, out of all the teams we've played against this year, ASV has had the most drastic fluctuation in their level of play. Earlier in the year, they looked like a team headed in the right direction. Sunday they played the worst match I've seen in recent memory. Yes, they were dealing with one starter who was out of place, but that does not excuse the absolute lack of emotion, effort or intensity that they brought into our gym. It was slightly embarrassing, and to borrow a thought from recent debate (a debate some might say is still ongoing) - I'm extremely glad that there were no television cameras anywhere near Marienlyst for this one. Airing this match on tv would set Danish volleyball back about twenty years. You could hear people in the stands having conversations from the court.
We played well, but were hardly pressed in any part of the game. All of our players played a substantial amount and as the scores indicate were equally successful in what they did. We've got a nice stretch of home (and close to home) games coming up which we can hopefully use to establish ourselves as the definite first seed heading into the playoffs. It's really important to generate some momentum for the end of the season, especially with Aalborg playing very well and Aarhus also improving. This Friday's game between the two is going to be exciting to follow. If Aarhus loses that one at home, I can't imagine them being able to get it together in time to make it to the playoffs.
Speaking of Aarhus, I watched their Saturday match on Gentofte's new webcam. I think it's an extremely exciting feature and the quality is good enough to follow the action. I might be a huge nerd, but by keeping my own score on a piece of paper I was able to enjoy the game a lot more. It's funny how much knowing the score and the context of each point makes a difference for watching a game. Anyways, thanks to Gentofte for offering the service, it would be great if there were a few more clubs that could set something up like this.
Big match for us this weekend, maybe the last time we see Middelfart this year...
Besides feeling slightly obligated to write something about the Superbowl, I kind of needed some filler to beef up this match report from ASV. And normally, I try not to be too critical of the teams that we play against. In this case, I feel it's justified to say that ASV was horrible. When two teams step onto a court against one another, they enter into a kind of contract. They both pledge to do whatever they can to win the game and compete. On Sunday, ASV didn't fulfill their end of the bargain.
It's weird because, out of all the teams we've played against this year, ASV has had the most drastic fluctuation in their level of play. Earlier in the year, they looked like a team headed in the right direction. Sunday they played the worst match I've seen in recent memory. Yes, they were dealing with one starter who was out of place, but that does not excuse the absolute lack of emotion, effort or intensity that they brought into our gym. It was slightly embarrassing, and to borrow a thought from recent debate (a debate some might say is still ongoing) - I'm extremely glad that there were no television cameras anywhere near Marienlyst for this one. Airing this match on tv would set Danish volleyball back about twenty years. You could hear people in the stands having conversations from the court.
We played well, but were hardly pressed in any part of the game. All of our players played a substantial amount and as the scores indicate were equally successful in what they did. We've got a nice stretch of home (and close to home) games coming up which we can hopefully use to establish ourselves as the definite first seed heading into the playoffs. It's really important to generate some momentum for the end of the season, especially with Aalborg playing very well and Aarhus also improving. This Friday's game between the two is going to be exciting to follow. If Aarhus loses that one at home, I can't imagine them being able to get it together in time to make it to the playoffs.
Speaking of Aarhus, I watched their Saturday match on Gentofte's new webcam. I think it's an extremely exciting feature and the quality is good enough to follow the action. I might be a huge nerd, but by keeping my own score on a piece of paper I was able to enjoy the game a lot more. It's funny how much knowing the score and the context of each point makes a difference for watching a game. Anyways, thanks to Gentofte for offering the service, it would be great if there were a few more clubs that could set something up like this.
Big match for us this weekend, maybe the last time we see Middelfart this year...
Monday, January 28, 2008
Aalborg...not in Aalborg for once.
It takes a solid 2.5 hours to drive to Aalborg from Odense. It's a drive that we've already had the pleasure of making a couple of times this year. And conceivably could be making two more times before the season is over.
Luckily, this weekend we got to play them at home.
I don't know if it was the unusual green floor in Hal 2, the setter change, the recent pokal title or the impending team Christmas dinner, but something had us playing well below our normal standard. To me it looked like the guys weren't really that motivated - there was little excitement or urgency in the things we were doing. We gave points away too easily and didn't do enough to score when we needed it. At the same time, for most of the first set we were close enough so as to not be too worried. It wasn't until late that Aalborg put together a run and pulled away from us. Unfortunately, no one looked very worried about losing the set.
The second opened where it ended, with Aalborg scoring points. At some point, the score was 5 or 6 to 1 and things looked bleak for us. But, here the game changed drastically. I think more than anything, we decided to inject a little more effort and emotion into our play and that, in turn, put more pressure on Aalborg. As the score indicates, after their early lead in the second set we essentially played them off the court. 74-45 speaks for itself.
I can't speak from their perspective, but I would definitely say that pressure was the key in the match. As soon as we were able to push them outside of their comfort zone - whether by serving tougher, receiving well against serves that in the first set would have resulted in bad passes or siding out at a much higher rate - they seemed to break down. And significantly, the emotion and fun swung from their side to ours.
Looking forward to at least one more trip up there at the end of the season!
The Christmas dinner afterwards was a success. Very hard to go wrong when you have lots of incredible food, beer, snaps and people. And of course aufguss.
In any case, I got a chance to watch the pokal final again and I have a few comments I'll post in the next couple of days.
Luckily, this weekend we got to play them at home.
I don't know if it was the unusual green floor in Hal 2, the setter change, the recent pokal title or the impending team Christmas dinner, but something had us playing well below our normal standard. To me it looked like the guys weren't really that motivated - there was little excitement or urgency in the things we were doing. We gave points away too easily and didn't do enough to score when we needed it. At the same time, for most of the first set we were close enough so as to not be too worried. It wasn't until late that Aalborg put together a run and pulled away from us. Unfortunately, no one looked very worried about losing the set.
The second opened where it ended, with Aalborg scoring points. At some point, the score was 5 or 6 to 1 and things looked bleak for us. But, here the game changed drastically. I think more than anything, we decided to inject a little more effort and emotion into our play and that, in turn, put more pressure on Aalborg. As the score indicates, after their early lead in the second set we essentially played them off the court. 74-45 speaks for itself.
I can't speak from their perspective, but I would definitely say that pressure was the key in the match. As soon as we were able to push them outside of their comfort zone - whether by serving tougher, receiving well against serves that in the first set would have resulted in bad passes or siding out at a much higher rate - they seemed to break down. And significantly, the emotion and fun swung from their side to ours.
Looking forward to at least one more trip up there at the end of the season!
The Christmas dinner afterwards was a success. Very hard to go wrong when you have lots of incredible food, beer, snaps and people. And of course aufguss.
In any case, I got a chance to watch the pokal final again and I have a few comments I'll post in the next couple of days.
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
POKAL
I think I've sufficiently shaken off the cobwebs of Sunday night's celebration to sit down and write something coherent about the Pokal final. Maybe. By the way, thanks to Fortuna and everyone out there for a great party, it was nice to be able to celebrate together and share the fun. I don't envy anyone who had to work the next day...
I haven't spent very much time analyzing what happened in the finals, I haven't really had the time. One thing that is immediately apparent to me though, is that there was a lot more pressure on us to win than I recognized beforehand. After Middelfart came into Marienlyst on the 9th and beat us so badly, everyone kind of accepted that we weren't the favorites any more. That the two teams were evenly matched. We might have even believed it ourselves - I, for one, was happy to accept not being the favorite. The point though, is that when we got into the match, all of the talking was behind us and somewhere in my brain I felt that we needed to win. Maybe, it was because I felt that we needed to re-establish ourselves and, most importantly, shake off the latent feelings from our recent loss to them. In a nutshell, another loss to Middelfart in such a short time, especially on the bigger stage of the pokal final could have meant huge problems for us for the rest of the season.
The match was a grind. Neither team ever had enough of a lead to feel comfortable at any point. So, we just kept grinding out the sideouts and taking whatever points we could. I haven't seen the match on tv yet (hopefully I'll get the chance at some point) so I don't know exactly how it looked from the outside but my feeling is that it was an okay match to watch. I don't think the level was extremely high, but I also don't think it was without charm. If nothing else, there was excitement throughout and some interesting things to look at.
A reporter asked me afterward what the difference was in the match and I had a hard time coming up with something definitive. At the time, I answered serving and passing (real original, Jordan). Middelfart (judging from their website) seems to think that their players weren't quite prepared to step up on the bigger stage and that we benefited from our collective experience in bigger games. More than anything, I think we were more pro-active, I think we did more than they did and I think the match shows that. We applied the pressure and we were therefore always a step ahead. And honestly, we played a little bit better at every spot. Look through the rosters, position against position, our guys were just that much better. I give them full credit though - we're going to have some battles coming up.
Honestly, I was really surprised to be named Pokal Fighter. And I wouldn't be afraid to write that I deserved it if I really thought I did, but truly it was a surprise. Not that I specifically think someone else should have gotten it, but really, anyone on our team could have received the honor. Shaun and Geo were both exceptional and everyone else contributed in huge ways. Matthias was stable as always, anchoring the passing and defense. Our middles both got big kills at important times and were active blocking, Middelfart was clearly not as effective as last time we played them. And Søe was the definition of what I think of when I hear "Pokal Fighter", in many ways he's our heart on the court. So, I'm extremely proud of the award and I'll have to clear out a big space somewhere around the house to be able to fit the trophy in...
It was great to see all the fans there. I missed it last year, but I don't remember seeing such a big crowd at a Pokal final before. It was nice to see both sides of the gym semi-full with people. I can only imagine what it would be like to play in there with a sold out crowd, it must be insane.
Now, we have to get ready for Aalborg and the rest of the season. And we might actually have an almost full roster - crazy.
Thursday, January 17, 2008
ASV
I was a little disappointed that we didn't have a game scheduled this weekend. After the beating that we took last Wednesday, it would have been nice to be able to wash the stink off of us by playing again quickly. As it turned out, we had to wait until Tuesday in Aarhus to get back on the court.
The result of the match was a fairly convincing 3-0 win for us. Fairly typical for us this year, we played one really good set, one okay set and one set where we let the other team hang around much too long. It should be said, we were never really in danger of losing, and we responded when necessary, but besides the first set we didn't play to the top of our abilities.
ASV was weaker than the last time we played them. I'm not sure if it is the loss of the Brazilian middle or the poor play of their opposite, or a general team wide malaise, but they didn't offer very much opposition in this match. Maybe it was because I was so focused on our own side throughout the match that I didn't notice them very much.
In any case, we won and we played a lot better than we did on Wednesday. I'm not sure what it means for the pokal final on Sunday as Middelfart has pretty much dominated in all three of their matches since the Christmas break. We'll probably have to be even sharper in sideout and defense because, from what I can gather, they've done it by blocking a lot of balls and feeding Vandenburg on the right side.
One thing is for sure, they are the favorites heading into this one. They have all the momentum, a completely healthy team, confidence from their win over us and a better recent record. We have our work cut out for us and we know it - hopefully we can figure out a better way to move their block around and challenge them in other ways. Honestly, if I were a spectator, I'd be first in line on Sunday because I think this game has a chance to be really, really good...
The result of the match was a fairly convincing 3-0 win for us. Fairly typical for us this year, we played one really good set, one okay set and one set where we let the other team hang around much too long. It should be said, we were never really in danger of losing, and we responded when necessary, but besides the first set we didn't play to the top of our abilities.
ASV was weaker than the last time we played them. I'm not sure if it is the loss of the Brazilian middle or the poor play of their opposite, or a general team wide malaise, but they didn't offer very much opposition in this match. Maybe it was because I was so focused on our own side throughout the match that I didn't notice them very much.
In any case, we won and we played a lot better than we did on Wednesday. I'm not sure what it means for the pokal final on Sunday as Middelfart has pretty much dominated in all three of their matches since the Christmas break. We'll probably have to be even sharper in sideout and defense because, from what I can gather, they've done it by blocking a lot of balls and feeding Vandenburg on the right side.
One thing is for sure, they are the favorites heading into this one. They have all the momentum, a completely healthy team, confidence from their win over us and a better recent record. We have our work cut out for us and we know it - hopefully we can figure out a better way to move their block around and challenge them in other ways. Honestly, if I were a spectator, I'd be first in line on Sunday because I think this game has a chance to be really, really good...
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Middelfart + Momentum
Well, last night was certainly a kick in the teeth. Sometimes, stats and scores don't tell the whole story about a match, in this case, the scores are VERY representative of how well we played. We didn't do anything well and Middelfart took full advantage of our inability to get any momentum going. They dominated the net, blocking with high efficiency and played solid defense behind it.
Excuses from our side: We were missing several important players. We had a bad day. We are saving ourselves for the pokal finals on the 20th. Blah, blah, blah...
In truth, we did have problems dealing with the absence of a strong opposite presence. For one, we didn't pass well enough to have enough variation in our offense and two, I didn't do a good enough job distributing the ball when I had the chance. Otherwise, there is absolutely no excuse for playing as poorly as we did. I think that the last time I was on the losing side of such a one sided beating was two years ago in the pokal semi finals in Gentofte. That was also a beating for the ages. Luckily, this one didn't mean as much in the overall scheme of things. We still have a decent lead in the standings and, more importantly, we have a chance for revenge in ten days in the pokal finals. Hopefully, by then we'll have some answers for our lack of players.
Last night's game got me thinking about team spirit. I think we've all had the experience of playing against a team that fed off of energy. In other words, a team that was ten times better when they were emotional and energetic. You could catch them on a day where they didn't have that energy and beat them easily, but once they got going it was difficult to reverse that momentum. Some of the HIK Aalborg teams from three and four years ago were like this. You could go up on them 2-0 and still not feel very safe because one or two blocks and all of a sudden the whole team would catch fire.
I mention this because I've often wondered where that comes from. Is it from certain individuals? Is it team chemistry? Is it a particular style of play? Is it based on performance? Volleyball is a peculiar sport in that each set is a whole new opportunity and therefore momentum can swing wildly at any point. Last night, I kept waiting for our team to rebound and to put some pressure on Middelfart and it never happened. It seemed that for every point we got, they got three and we were always behind. How can a team ever get momentum when the game unfolds like this? It's kind of a chicken and the egg debate, how can you get momentum without playing well? Does momentum come from good play or does good play come from getting excited and playing emotionally?
I think about the game last night and I think there are twenty things I could have done differently. I should have been more vocal, I should have been more positive and I should have tried to slow down the bad runs. But my question is, how does one stay positive when everyone is playing terribly, not the least of which, yourself? How do you create and sustain momentum when you are doing nothing right physically? I've never been able to do so, and I would like to get better at it. Anyone got any suggestions?
Excuses from our side: We were missing several important players. We had a bad day. We are saving ourselves for the pokal finals on the 20th. Blah, blah, blah...
In truth, we did have problems dealing with the absence of a strong opposite presence. For one, we didn't pass well enough to have enough variation in our offense and two, I didn't do a good enough job distributing the ball when I had the chance. Otherwise, there is absolutely no excuse for playing as poorly as we did. I think that the last time I was on the losing side of such a one sided beating was two years ago in the pokal semi finals in Gentofte. That was also a beating for the ages. Luckily, this one didn't mean as much in the overall scheme of things. We still have a decent lead in the standings and, more importantly, we have a chance for revenge in ten days in the pokal finals. Hopefully, by then we'll have some answers for our lack of players.
Last night's game got me thinking about team spirit. I think we've all had the experience of playing against a team that fed off of energy. In other words, a team that was ten times better when they were emotional and energetic. You could catch them on a day where they didn't have that energy and beat them easily, but once they got going it was difficult to reverse that momentum. Some of the HIK Aalborg teams from three and four years ago were like this. You could go up on them 2-0 and still not feel very safe because one or two blocks and all of a sudden the whole team would catch fire.
I mention this because I've often wondered where that comes from. Is it from certain individuals? Is it team chemistry? Is it a particular style of play? Is it based on performance? Volleyball is a peculiar sport in that each set is a whole new opportunity and therefore momentum can swing wildly at any point. Last night, I kept waiting for our team to rebound and to put some pressure on Middelfart and it never happened. It seemed that for every point we got, they got three and we were always behind. How can a team ever get momentum when the game unfolds like this? It's kind of a chicken and the egg debate, how can you get momentum without playing well? Does momentum come from good play or does good play come from getting excited and playing emotionally?
I think about the game last night and I think there are twenty things I could have done differently. I should have been more vocal, I should have been more positive and I should have tried to slow down the bad runs. But my question is, how does one stay positive when everyone is playing terribly, not the least of which, yourself? How do you create and sustain momentum when you are doing nothing right physically? I've never been able to do so, and I would like to get better at it. Anyone got any suggestions?
Monday, December 17, 2007
Hvidovre
Apparently last Tuesday’s Pokal match was the volleyball apocalypse. It was good we won and all, but it seems that everyone who was a part of that match ended up hurting themselves in one way or another. Geo and Paw and Per and Shaun were all definitely out for yesterday. Toke, who has been laying in bed for the last three weeks, made it back for one practice on Friday and went directly into the starting line up. Basically, we played yesterday with everyone who actually could play. Including Daniel at opposite. So, it took a little getting used to.
We played great in the first set. I don’t know if it was the fact that we didn’t have any time to think about what we were doing and we just played or that everyone was more focused because we knew we were playing a weird line up, but we won easily. Maybe Hvidovre was a little confused with what they were playing against, who knows?
The second set was obviously different, we didn’t hold the same level and Hvidovre played better, everyone messed something up in this set and that didn’t really help us. Unfortunately, even though we were fairly close, we gave up too many easy points and lost the set.
After this, we played better, more stabile and with fair pressure. It wasn’t always pretty, and we clearly couldn’t stop their opposite, but we did enough to win the match. Thinking back, I enjoyed the game quite a bit. It was fun to have to figure out a way to win a match in a kind of unorthodox way. We got good contributions from everyone at different times in the match so people stepped up when they had to. And it was also kind of exciting, the fourth set ended up 30-28 so there was a realistic chance that the match could have gone to five sets. I would imagine that Hvidovre feels they missed an opportunity to press us even more.
We can only hope that the Christmas break will give our guys a chance to heal. While it was fun to play this match, I don’t think it is the line up we want to use when we head to Germany or in the Pokal finals. That might make things difficult. But for now, we have to be satisfied with our position in the league and the way the season has progressed so far.
We played great in the first set. I don’t know if it was the fact that we didn’t have any time to think about what we were doing and we just played or that everyone was more focused because we knew we were playing a weird line up, but we won easily. Maybe Hvidovre was a little confused with what they were playing against, who knows?
The second set was obviously different, we didn’t hold the same level and Hvidovre played better, everyone messed something up in this set and that didn’t really help us. Unfortunately, even though we were fairly close, we gave up too many easy points and lost the set.
After this, we played better, more stabile and with fair pressure. It wasn’t always pretty, and we clearly couldn’t stop their opposite, but we did enough to win the match. Thinking back, I enjoyed the game quite a bit. It was fun to have to figure out a way to win a match in a kind of unorthodox way. We got good contributions from everyone at different times in the match so people stepped up when they had to. And it was also kind of exciting, the fourth set ended up 30-28 so there was a realistic chance that the match could have gone to five sets. I would imagine that Hvidovre feels they missed an opportunity to press us even more.
We can only hope that the Christmas break will give our guys a chance to heal. While it was fun to play this match, I don’t think it is the line up we want to use when we head to Germany or in the Pokal finals. That might make things difficult. But for now, we have to be satisfied with our position in the league and the way the season has progressed so far.
Thursday, December 13, 2007
Aarhus + Pokal Semi
After not doing anything for what felt like months, we finally got the chance to play again last weekend. Because of DHG dropping out of the elite and the national team playing in Hungary our schedule has been really sparse for a long time. It was really nice to play a match again.
So, going into Aarhus we had no idea what to expect. After such a long lay off we didn’t know how we would react and we had heard all sorts of rumors about what kind of team Aarhus would play with, so it was interesting to finally see what we were up against. They did have a new Brazilian middle, but the Tunisian has apparently gone back to Northern Africa. Lars Hoppe also stayed in street clothes on the sideline as an assistant coach.
We didn’t really show any signs of rust and played a good all around match. Our serving improved as the match developed and that made things easier and easier for us. We played especially well in the second set and generally had a really good time being back on the court. The highlight was definitely Shaun’s four or five stuff blocks on the outside.
It was an important match for us as we knew that we had to be ready for Tuesday’s pokal semi-final and this was our only real chance to get up into match gear.
Tuesday started incredibly poorly. Down 7-1 is not the way you want to start a big match with a big home crowd. Luckily, we rebounded pretty well and got the points back pretty quickly. I’m not saying that this happened to Gentofte but sometimes it seems like it can be a bad thing to jump out to a big lead right at the start of a match, it can make you drop your guard a little bit and start to think that everything is going to come easily. Then when the other team steps up their tempo it is hard to get back into the game.
Anyways, in my opinion, the game was a really good one. It seems that Gentofte matches up better against us than anyone else in the league. Clearly, our two matches against them have been closer than any of the others we have played. Maybe it’s because they have a good game plan against us or because they get excited to play us or because they play a style that is harder for us to stop than others. But there is no question that they have pushed us more than any other team.
Shaun and Geo carried us when things got close but everyone played solid. After the initial 7 point run, our passing settled down and did an incredible job all match long. I think Gentofte missed a lot of serves but the ones that they hit in were generally good serves and our passers dealt well with them. That made it easy to distribute the ball. I also think that our serves gave us a few more easy points than they got. In the end, we did enough to keep ourselves a few points ahead almost the whole time and even though it stayed fairly close they couldn’t quite get over that hump.
We’re excited to be in the finals in January. I’ve only played in one other Pokalfinal and I’m really happy to be going back. It’s always fun to get the chance to play against a good team in front of a lot of people and the fact that it is another team from Fyn should make the whole thing a little bit more interesting.
Now we look ahead to our last match in Hvidovre on Sunday. I don’t know how we will react after a, to be honest, little bit draining last few days. I also don’t know how healthy we are going to be but hopefully we’ll have enough to play well and go into the Christmas break with a good performance.
So, going into Aarhus we had no idea what to expect. After such a long lay off we didn’t know how we would react and we had heard all sorts of rumors about what kind of team Aarhus would play with, so it was interesting to finally see what we were up against. They did have a new Brazilian middle, but the Tunisian has apparently gone back to Northern Africa. Lars Hoppe also stayed in street clothes on the sideline as an assistant coach.
We didn’t really show any signs of rust and played a good all around match. Our serving improved as the match developed and that made things easier and easier for us. We played especially well in the second set and generally had a really good time being back on the court. The highlight was definitely Shaun’s four or five stuff blocks on the outside.
It was an important match for us as we knew that we had to be ready for Tuesday’s pokal semi-final and this was our only real chance to get up into match gear.
Tuesday started incredibly poorly. Down 7-1 is not the way you want to start a big match with a big home crowd. Luckily, we rebounded pretty well and got the points back pretty quickly. I’m not saying that this happened to Gentofte but sometimes it seems like it can be a bad thing to jump out to a big lead right at the start of a match, it can make you drop your guard a little bit and start to think that everything is going to come easily. Then when the other team steps up their tempo it is hard to get back into the game.
Anyways, in my opinion, the game was a really good one. It seems that Gentofte matches up better against us than anyone else in the league. Clearly, our two matches against them have been closer than any of the others we have played. Maybe it’s because they have a good game plan against us or because they get excited to play us or because they play a style that is harder for us to stop than others. But there is no question that they have pushed us more than any other team.
Shaun and Geo carried us when things got close but everyone played solid. After the initial 7 point run, our passing settled down and did an incredible job all match long. I think Gentofte missed a lot of serves but the ones that they hit in were generally good serves and our passers dealt well with them. That made it easy to distribute the ball. I also think that our serves gave us a few more easy points than they got. In the end, we did enough to keep ourselves a few points ahead almost the whole time and even though it stayed fairly close they couldn’t quite get over that hump.
We’re excited to be in the finals in January. I’ve only played in one other Pokalfinal and I’m really happy to be going back. It’s always fun to get the chance to play against a good team in front of a lot of people and the fact that it is another team from Fyn should make the whole thing a little bit more interesting.
Now we look ahead to our last match in Hvidovre on Sunday. I don’t know how we will react after a, to be honest, little bit draining last few days. I also don’t know how healthy we are going to be but hopefully we’ll have enough to play well and go into the Christmas break with a good performance.
Thursday, November 22, 2007
Aalborg + What If...
The first time we played Aalborg, in Aalborg, we played one of our best matches so far this year. We were on top the whole time and never really gave them a chance to get anything going on their side of the net.
This time was different. We definitely didn't play as well as we did the first time. Aalborg was also back in their best lineup with a full complement of opposites and outside hitters so they were more comfortable.
In the end, it was the classic battle between serve/serve receive that decided the match. Aalborg missed way too many serves and we passed well enough when they didn't make a mistake to win. After the first set there was little doubt about who would win, but this was clearly not a pretty match to watch.
We have to work more on scoring points in the defensive and block phases of the game. We rely too heavily on our serve to score points and sooner or later we're going to have to scratch out some points by blocking, digging or transitioning, otherwise we're going to get into trouble.
Now, on to something totally different.
Just for the hell of it, and maybe because I had six hours of total travel time to Aalborg this week, I thought it would be fun to extend the question of the FIVB enforcing a limit on the amount of foreigners and explore what the Danish Elite could look like if all the national team guys were forced to come home.
(For the purposes of this fantasy I'm assuming that, all of a sudden, there would be no place anywhere for any of the Danish national team players outside of the country. Of course, this wouldn't happen, but it's necessary for my purposes.)
First, let's list the guys out there - Outside Hitters: Lundtang, Knudsen, Ditlevsen. Opposite: Lyck. Centers: No one (ugh!) (Maybe Korsbak counts. But he wouldn't be affected by the rule change) Setter: Axel.
Lundtang is already practicing with Gentofte so I guess it's safe to say that he would end up there. This would certainly make a huge difference for Gentofte, giving them a strong veteran leader and really, really stable passer/attacker with a whole bunch of experience. I think Jesper could make a huge impact on this team if he ended up there.
Knudsen is an interesting question. He's from Kolding right? So, you could maybe make a case for a team like Middelfart or possibly Aarhus since they are closest. But, it's hard to imagine Kristian playing everyday in a place like Middelfart without the bright lights of the big city close by. He'd probably end up in Gentofte as well but just for arguments sake, let's say he would decide to go the Jylland route and play in Aarhus. Boom, instant contender. No one in the Danish Elite can match up with him. He plays at a completely different level than pretty much any one else. And you'd have a quality setter like Soren Hansen giving him the ball about 400 times per match. Add a couple of foreigners and Aarhus looks really good.
I don't see any reason why Peter and Mads don't come home to Fyn for, at least, one or two years. Maybe they would be attracted to the bigger stage of Copenhagen but as long as Marienlyst can offer a nice environment for the players I think they would enjoy the idea of coming back. That would give Marienlyst a pretty strong team, four national team starters and at least one back up. A couple of foreigners here to plug in where there are needs and the team would look really good. Hopefully, they would still want me around and not make a move to get a different setter...
...Which brings us to Axel. Gentofte has a young setter in Sebastian that is doing a good job, grew up in the club, has a bright future and that they are (rightfully) proud of. I don't see him being welcomed there. Aarhus has Soren Hansen, although I'm sure they would take Axel anyways, let's assume he wants to be the number one guy. Like I said before, I hope I would still have a home in Marienlyst, so who's left? Did you guess it? Middelfart baby! This is the obvious choice. Kind of like the Argentinian Martin Stenderup, they could pick him up and not miss a beat. A couple more foreigners and another one for practice purposes and this could be an okay team. I'd like to see it at least.
Obviously, this is an unscientific look at what could happen. What would probably happen is that they would all go to the same club, somewhere in Copenhagen, Holte maybe and just form a national team club team. I think it's interesting to think about anyways. It's also kind of nice to recognize that by adding five to six quality Danish players the entire league would be both more competitive and more exciting. A little more development and things look a lot better for the future...
This time was different. We definitely didn't play as well as we did the first time. Aalborg was also back in their best lineup with a full complement of opposites and outside hitters so they were more comfortable.
In the end, it was the classic battle between serve/serve receive that decided the match. Aalborg missed way too many serves and we passed well enough when they didn't make a mistake to win. After the first set there was little doubt about who would win, but this was clearly not a pretty match to watch.
We have to work more on scoring points in the defensive and block phases of the game. We rely too heavily on our serve to score points and sooner or later we're going to have to scratch out some points by blocking, digging or transitioning, otherwise we're going to get into trouble.
Now, on to something totally different.
Just for the hell of it, and maybe because I had six hours of total travel time to Aalborg this week, I thought it would be fun to extend the question of the FIVB enforcing a limit on the amount of foreigners and explore what the Danish Elite could look like if all the national team guys were forced to come home.
(For the purposes of this fantasy I'm assuming that, all of a sudden, there would be no place anywhere for any of the Danish national team players outside of the country. Of course, this wouldn't happen, but it's necessary for my purposes.)
First, let's list the guys out there - Outside Hitters: Lundtang, Knudsen, Ditlevsen. Opposite: Lyck. Centers: No one (ugh!) (Maybe Korsbak counts. But he wouldn't be affected by the rule change) Setter: Axel.
Lundtang is already practicing with Gentofte so I guess it's safe to say that he would end up there. This would certainly make a huge difference for Gentofte, giving them a strong veteran leader and really, really stable passer/attacker with a whole bunch of experience. I think Jesper could make a huge impact on this team if he ended up there.
Knudsen is an interesting question. He's from Kolding right? So, you could maybe make a case for a team like Middelfart or possibly Aarhus since they are closest. But, it's hard to imagine Kristian playing everyday in a place like Middelfart without the bright lights of the big city close by. He'd probably end up in Gentofte as well but just for arguments sake, let's say he would decide to go the Jylland route and play in Aarhus. Boom, instant contender. No one in the Danish Elite can match up with him. He plays at a completely different level than pretty much any one else. And you'd have a quality setter like Soren Hansen giving him the ball about 400 times per match. Add a couple of foreigners and Aarhus looks really good.
I don't see any reason why Peter and Mads don't come home to Fyn for, at least, one or two years. Maybe they would be attracted to the bigger stage of Copenhagen but as long as Marienlyst can offer a nice environment for the players I think they would enjoy the idea of coming back. That would give Marienlyst a pretty strong team, four national team starters and at least one back up. A couple of foreigners here to plug in where there are needs and the team would look really good. Hopefully, they would still want me around and not make a move to get a different setter...
...Which brings us to Axel. Gentofte has a young setter in Sebastian that is doing a good job, grew up in the club, has a bright future and that they are (rightfully) proud of. I don't see him being welcomed there. Aarhus has Soren Hansen, although I'm sure they would take Axel anyways, let's assume he wants to be the number one guy. Like I said before, I hope I would still have a home in Marienlyst, so who's left? Did you guess it? Middelfart baby! This is the obvious choice. Kind of like the Argentinian Martin Stenderup, they could pick him up and not miss a beat. A couple more foreigners and another one for practice purposes and this could be an okay team. I'd like to see it at least.
Obviously, this is an unscientific look at what could happen. What would probably happen is that they would all go to the same club, somewhere in Copenhagen, Holte maybe and just form a national team club team. I think it's interesting to think about anyways. It's also kind of nice to recognize that by adding five to six quality Danish players the entire league would be both more competitive and more exciting. A little more development and things look a lot better for the future...
Monday, November 12, 2007
Gentofte
For whatever reason, we didn't play very well on Saturday. Whether it was because a couple of our guys were affected by playing against their old club as has been posited other places, or whether Gentofte had a good game plan and played well, or whether our numerous injuries are starting to catch up with us or whatever else doesn't really matter. We played one really good set and ended up doing enough to win. Really though, the match could have easily been 3-1 to Gentofte and it could just have easily been 3-0 to us, so there wasn't a big difference between the two teams.
One of the biggest factors was our inability to win any points in our own serve. I think it was a combination of not serving well enough and Gentofte passing/siding out really well. Clearly though, we didn't block or play defense at an acceptable level. Hopefully we'll be able to do a better job of that in the future.
After experiencing both teams, it's hard to imagine Gentofte losing to Aalborg like they did last weekend, but I guess surprise is the spice of life...
We're on pace for an absurd three matches played in a span of like eight weeks. Aalborg next weekend and then another huge pause for the national team. Any rhythm as far as playing is concerned is basically gone at this point.
One of the biggest factors was our inability to win any points in our own serve. I think it was a combination of not serving well enough and Gentofte passing/siding out really well. Clearly though, we didn't block or play defense at an acceptable level. Hopefully we'll be able to do a better job of that in the future.
After experiencing both teams, it's hard to imagine Gentofte losing to Aalborg like they did last weekend, but I guess surprise is the spice of life...
We're on pace for an absurd three matches played in a span of like eight weeks. Aalborg next weekend and then another huge pause for the national team. Any rhythm as far as playing is concerned is basically gone at this point.
Monday, October 22, 2007
Aalborg
We didn't really know what to expect when we walked into the gym in Aalborg on Saturday. We haven't seen very much of them yet this year and, beyond that, their results have been hard to decipher. Fortunately for us, we broke out to an early lead and never looked back.
Or serving and transition play made the biggest difference in the match. They gave us far too many free and semi free balls that turned into easy points for us. For a short portion of the second set, they passed better and we served worse, and it was like playing against a totally different team. If they iron out their passing issues then they will be a much harder team to play against. Their middles are still very effective when they can get the ball to them.
On our side, we were able to play free and aggressive for most of the match. When we play that way, we are hard to stop because we have so many options. It's also a huge benefit for us that when we play good defense we can just set the ball high to the outside on either side and
win a high percentage of those balls as well.
Congratulations to Michael and Matthias on the incredible amount of blood contained inside their respective heads. I'm not sure how many towels it took to mop up after their collision during the second set but it was certainly more than three. I didn't see Fyens yesterday but I do hope that the headline was "Bloodbath in Aalborg".
Shaun gets this week's award for biggest violation during a rally that the referee didn't see by slapping the net with both hands on the way up to block and then, for good measure, touching the attack on its way out of bounds. Truly, an impressive piece of rule-breaking. Although, the award would have gone to Martin if he could have blocked that one ball that he tried to block while he was in the backrow.
This was just the start of our monumental streak of away games. Hvidovre next week...
Or serving and transition play made the biggest difference in the match. They gave us far too many free and semi free balls that turned into easy points for us. For a short portion of the second set, they passed better and we served worse, and it was like playing against a totally different team. If they iron out their passing issues then they will be a much harder team to play against. Their middles are still very effective when they can get the ball to them.
On our side, we were able to play free and aggressive for most of the match. When we play that way, we are hard to stop because we have so many options. It's also a huge benefit for us that when we play good defense we can just set the ball high to the outside on either side and
win a high percentage of those balls as well.
Congratulations to Michael and Matthias on the incredible amount of blood contained inside their respective heads. I'm not sure how many towels it took to mop up after their collision during the second set but it was certainly more than three. I didn't see Fyens yesterday but I do hope that the headline was "Bloodbath in Aalborg".
Shaun gets this week's award for biggest violation during a rally that the referee didn't see by slapping the net with both hands on the way up to block and then, for good measure, touching the attack on its way out of bounds. Truly, an impressive piece of rule-breaking. Although, the award would have gone to Martin if he could have blocked that one ball that he tried to block while he was in the backrow.
This was just the start of our monumental streak of away games. Hvidovre next week...
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Aarhus
Kind of a weird match on Saturday. Aarhus had requested a change to the normal start time of our matches from 15:15 to 13:00 so that they could get back to Aarhus and work during the football game that night. I don't know why, but moving the match up two hours somehow made a huge difference. 1 o'clock felt like 8am.
Anyways, that was the most interesting thing about the match. Aarhus is clearly not a complete team yet so I am going to reserve any judgment for when they figure out their full roster. When your libero is starting as a middle you usually don't have much chance to win.
The match wass never really close. I think in the third set we were even until like 14-14 or something like that but that was as tight as it got. We served better than we have all year and it created lots of problems for the Aarhus passers. Our sideout was also pretty efficient. All in all, not the most exciting game for the fans, but a good performance by us.
Otherwise, I've been cruising the blogs and have been delighted to see a little bit of controversy out there. I'm not really sure that I have an opinion on who is right or wrong, but I definitely don't have a problem with people voicing their opinions. I don't think anyone can be upset about someone writing their honest thoughts, or for that matter, reacting to those thoughts. It's not like anyone is out there threatening someone else physically. A little bit of colorful "discussion" has never hurt anyone (Especially when it is well done and entertaining).
Furthermore, not everyone has to like everyone else. Sometimes, better competition is born out of a few well-placed remarks...
Anyways, that was the most interesting thing about the match. Aarhus is clearly not a complete team yet so I am going to reserve any judgment for when they figure out their full roster. When your libero is starting as a middle you usually don't have much chance to win.
The match wass never really close. I think in the third set we were even until like 14-14 or something like that but that was as tight as it got. We served better than we have all year and it created lots of problems for the Aarhus passers. Our sideout was also pretty efficient. All in all, not the most exciting game for the fans, but a good performance by us.
Otherwise, I've been cruising the blogs and have been delighted to see a little bit of controversy out there. I'm not really sure that I have an opinion on who is right or wrong, but I definitely don't have a problem with people voicing their opinions. I don't think anyone can be upset about someone writing their honest thoughts, or for that matter, reacting to those thoughts. It's not like anyone is out there threatening someone else physically. A little bit of colorful "discussion" has never hurt anyone (Especially when it is well done and entertaining).
Furthermore, not everyone has to like everyone else. Sometimes, better competition is born out of a few well-placed remarks...
Tuesday, October 09, 2007
Middelfart
Early, early, early season match that meant nearly nothing in the long run. Of course, we're glad to win, and it means something in the standings, but as far as finding out where we stand in relation to the rest of the teams in the league, this match didn't really tell us anything.
Clearly Middelfart is going to be better next time. We're also going to be better.
The only really interesting thing that happened in the match was the sudden turn around in the first set when Middelfart scored five straight points to go from 19-24 to 24-24. I don't have a whole lot of answers as to why it happened. Their serves weren't uncontrollable, the sets were fine, the hits were okay but somehow we just couldn't put a ball away. It's actually a problem that we've been dealing with. I don't know why, maybe because we're too worried about making mistakes, but we seem to lose the ability to swing freely at the ball at times. We get into a kind of safe mode and give the other team the opportunity to play defense. It's an area we'll have to get better in.
Otherwise, we played well enough to win the match in three sets. Middelfart never really threatened us after the first set. We won the next two with at least a four or five point margin. We didn't do anything spectacular, but we were solid when it mattered. They put a little bit of pressure on us with some good serving, but Shaun put away a lot of trouble balls and made it easy for us to sideout even when the passing wasn't perfect. Daniel also did a good job of hitting the ball in transition and forcing them to respect the middle at all times.
All in all, a fairly uneventful match. We'll be back in Middelfart later in the year and I expect it to be a whole different game.
Clearly Middelfart is going to be better next time. We're also going to be better.
The only really interesting thing that happened in the match was the sudden turn around in the first set when Middelfart scored five straight points to go from 19-24 to 24-24. I don't have a whole lot of answers as to why it happened. Their serves weren't uncontrollable, the sets were fine, the hits were okay but somehow we just couldn't put a ball away. It's actually a problem that we've been dealing with. I don't know why, maybe because we're too worried about making mistakes, but we seem to lose the ability to swing freely at the ball at times. We get into a kind of safe mode and give the other team the opportunity to play defense. It's an area we'll have to get better in.
Otherwise, we played well enough to win the match in three sets. Middelfart never really threatened us after the first set. We won the next two with at least a four or five point margin. We didn't do anything spectacular, but we were solid when it mattered. They put a little bit of pressure on us with some good serving, but Shaun put away a lot of trouble balls and made it easy for us to sideout even when the passing wasn't perfect. Daniel also did a good job of hitting the ball in transition and forcing them to respect the middle at all times.
All in all, a fairly uneventful match. We'll be back in Middelfart later in the year and I expect it to be a whole different game.
Monday, October 01, 2007
ASV
There wasn't a lot of mystery left for our match against ASV on Friday. We had already played them twice in the pre-season and won decisively both times. Other than their addition of a tall Brasilian, the third time didn't really offer anything different.
Even though we won 3-0, and were never really in danger of losing, each set was a completely different experience from the last.
We started well, aggressive, making points in serve, block, defense and transition and built up an instant lead. All in all, probably our best set so far this year and ASV could not match us.
The second set, which you can see in compressed form on Flemming West's blog, left a lot to be desired from our side. (You might also notice that we are on the wrong side of the court - Usually we start on the side opposite the clock when we play at home - because ASV won the coin toss and decided to switch sides...Interesting choice...) Personally, I couldn't set the ball to Shaun to save my life, and generally let too many sets die too far inside the pins. It put the hitters in difficult situations and that's the main reason we didn't win the set with a bigger margin. I think it ended 25-22 but we had so many chances to score that it could easily have been 14 or 15.
Third set was unremarkable. We played a little better than the second set and got a few guys off the bench some playing time. The end was never really close.
I've said it before, ASV will be better than people expect, they'll upset some people at some point this year. In this match, they simply made too many errors, in serve especially, to really be able to make us uncomfortable.
Even though we won 3-0, and were never really in danger of losing, each set was a completely different experience from the last.
We started well, aggressive, making points in serve, block, defense and transition and built up an instant lead. All in all, probably our best set so far this year and ASV could not match us.
The second set, which you can see in compressed form on Flemming West's blog, left a lot to be desired from our side. (You might also notice that we are on the wrong side of the court - Usually we start on the side opposite the clock when we play at home - because ASV won the coin toss and decided to switch sides...Interesting choice...) Personally, I couldn't set the ball to Shaun to save my life, and generally let too many sets die too far inside the pins. It put the hitters in difficult situations and that's the main reason we didn't win the set with a bigger margin. I think it ended 25-22 but we had so many chances to score that it could easily have been 14 or 15.
Third set was unremarkable. We played a little better than the second set and got a few guys off the bench some playing time. The end was never really close.
I've said it before, ASV will be better than people expect, they'll upset some people at some point this year. In this match, they simply made too many errors, in serve especially, to really be able to make us uncomfortable.
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Midtfyns
Playing the early matches in the Pokal tournament is an interesting experience. You get to play against teams that you normally don’t see during the season. Also, when you play them, they have usually gone out of their way to promote the match and get people to come watch the game.
Midtfyns was no exception. They were opening a new gym and had attracted a small, but engaged, crowd.
The match was nothing special. They were excited and did what they could to press us. We played a little tight in the beginning and the first set was close until around 15-15. After that, we picked up a few balls in defense, they made some mistakes and we finished strong.
The second set was more or less the same.
The third set turned out to be pretty close all the way. We couldn’t score in transition and made too many cautious mistakes. Not playing aggressively is the biggest mistake that a “favorite” can make when playing a lower ranked team. When you let an underdog gain momentum, confidence and energy the match takes a drastically different direction.
It’s funny, but it’s happened a million times: A so-called “better” team will come into a match and make a lot of mistakes. It doesn’t really matter why, lack of motivation, preparation or a bad day, but the mistakes lead to more mistakes. And before you know it, because of the mistakes, the team starts hitting at 80%, serving rainbows to the other team and passing the ball two meters off the net, all because they are afraid of making more mistakes.
It’s a natural reaction. We all want to play the game without making mistakes. If anything though, I would argue, when a team is struggling, they should play more aggressively. Not crazy, just more aggressive. Have confidence that serves will start going in. Hitters will start to find the court. And when they do, they will be more effective. The problem with backing down and playing safe is that it elevates the other team.
When a team makes a lot of serve mistakes. It can actually throw the other team off their game. If they sporadically receive the ball, they can’t establish any side out rhythm. The setter doesn’t get to set the ball, the hitters don’t get to hit the ball and the passers don’t get to pass the ball. When they finally get the chance, a lot of times they are over excited or even cold. On the other hand, if they are sitting there and receiving lollipops the whole time, they are probably going to be siding out at a very high percentage and gaining more and more confidence.
Once a team gets into a cautious/safe mode it is very hard to transition to a stronger more aggressive attitude.
Okay, that was my tangent for the day. We let up quite a bit in the third set and it cost us. It is unacceptable to win two sets – 17 and 12 – and then let the third set be so close. You have to finish teams when you get up on them and this clearly did not happen on Sunday. So, we’ve got some stuff to work on.
Otherwise, we used a lot of our guys, worked with some combinations and other things we have been training and most importantly, advanced to the next round of the Pokal. Now, it’s time to start the regular season grind with ASV on Friday.
And don’t worry, the world famous betting preview will be back for this weekend so everyone will have a chance to win millions…
Midtfyns was no exception. They were opening a new gym and had attracted a small, but engaged, crowd.
The match was nothing special. They were excited and did what they could to press us. We played a little tight in the beginning and the first set was close until around 15-15. After that, we picked up a few balls in defense, they made some mistakes and we finished strong.
The second set was more or less the same.
The third set turned out to be pretty close all the way. We couldn’t score in transition and made too many cautious mistakes. Not playing aggressively is the biggest mistake that a “favorite” can make when playing a lower ranked team. When you let an underdog gain momentum, confidence and energy the match takes a drastically different direction.
It’s funny, but it’s happened a million times: A so-called “better” team will come into a match and make a lot of mistakes. It doesn’t really matter why, lack of motivation, preparation or a bad day, but the mistakes lead to more mistakes. And before you know it, because of the mistakes, the team starts hitting at 80%, serving rainbows to the other team and passing the ball two meters off the net, all because they are afraid of making more mistakes.
It’s a natural reaction. We all want to play the game without making mistakes. If anything though, I would argue, when a team is struggling, they should play more aggressively. Not crazy, just more aggressive. Have confidence that serves will start going in. Hitters will start to find the court. And when they do, they will be more effective. The problem with backing down and playing safe is that it elevates the other team.
When a team makes a lot of serve mistakes. It can actually throw the other team off their game. If they sporadically receive the ball, they can’t establish any side out rhythm. The setter doesn’t get to set the ball, the hitters don’t get to hit the ball and the passers don’t get to pass the ball. When they finally get the chance, a lot of times they are over excited or even cold. On the other hand, if they are sitting there and receiving lollipops the whole time, they are probably going to be siding out at a very high percentage and gaining more and more confidence.
Once a team gets into a cautious/safe mode it is very hard to transition to a stronger more aggressive attitude.
Okay, that was my tangent for the day. We let up quite a bit in the third set and it cost us. It is unacceptable to win two sets – 17 and 12 – and then let the third set be so close. You have to finish teams when you get up on them and this clearly did not happen on Sunday. So, we’ve got some stuff to work on.
Otherwise, we used a lot of our guys, worked with some combinations and other things we have been training and most importantly, advanced to the next round of the Pokal. Now, it’s time to start the regular season grind with ASV on Friday.
And don’t worry, the world famous betting preview will be back for this weekend so everyone will have a chance to win millions…
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
Over?
Coming from the University system in the States,where the volleyball season is much shorter than in Europe, it's surprising how fast the last eight months have gone by. Like I said in the last post: you play and play and play and all of a sudden it's the playoffs and you have one match that decides everything.
Now, the season is over and it still hasn't really registered with me.
Coming into our last match in Unterhaching, and for the first time in a long time, I didn't really have an idea of how everything would turn out. Somehow neither winning nor losing seemed probable. So it was just as much as a spectator looking forward to a great match as a player that I walked into their gym last Tuesday.
It turned out to be a bad experience in both respects.
The match was ugly for us. Nothing really worked at any point. Setting rhythm, serving, blocking, defense, nothing looked sharp. It's not the first time that we took a beating in an away game this year but it certainly was the most disappointing. No one wants to come up empty in a match with so much significance. That's perhaps the best way to describe the feeling afterwards: empty. In a way, it's a fitting end for our team, it's been a roller coaster year, full of ups and downs - most of the ups coming at home and most of the downs coming away - and everytime we had a chance to really break through we took a step backwards instead. It happened in the pokal quarter final, it happened away against Delitzsch and Leipzig and it happened again on Tuesday. All I can say is that hopefully the disappointment turns into motivation and experience for the future.
Personally, I've got all sorts of mixed emotions. While I feel like I contributed a lot to this team, if not in the matches where I played, then definitely in training, I also feel like I never got enough playing time to really get comfortable and make the kind of difference that I wanted to make. I developed my game like crazy and I found out that I am absolutely good enough to be a player in the league, I also had a chance to play significantly and beat a team like SCC Berlin, and that feels good.
As I look forward to next year, I have no idea what is going to happen. Wuppertal has expressed interest in keeping me here, and that would be great, but expressing interest and offering something concrete are two completely different things. Surprisingly, considering the amount of playing time I got this year, I've aready received quite a few phone calls asking about availability for next year. It's always flattering to hear that kind of thing.
At this point, I've got no idea what I want to do. And I'll definitely write more as I work my way through the confusion in the next couple of weeks. Until then, as you can see above, I'm on vacation!
Monday, March 26, 2007
We Win, the Bundesliga Standings are Unimpressed.
Coming into this weekend, there were still a lot of different playoff scenarios. The three teams below us in the standings all had the possibility of finishing above us. We also had the ability to move up to fourth place and get home court advantage for the first round of the playoffs if Unterhaching lost to Eltmann.
Well, we did our share and won: 3-1 against SCC Berlin. Unfortunately Unterhaching won also.
So, now the situation is that we are most likely going to finish fifth. Our win over the weekend makes it impossible to finish any lower than fifth which is a good thing. But we'll need a lot of help if we are going to move up.
The match was really positive for the team and for me personally. We've been playing well in the last couple of weeks, beating Friedrichshafen, playing a solid match in Dueren and now beating SCC Berlin. That's 2-1 against the top three teams in the league...not bad.
We started well, playing consistent high level volleyball. They played good defense but couldn't really turn anything into points. They looked a little out of rhythm and didn't really challenge us in the first.
The second set saw the roles reversed as we started making mistakes, attacking and passing, and they worked themselves into the game. The outcome was never in doubt as they stretched a lead in the middle of the set to six or seven points. I got to come in late in the set but it didn't change much as they continued to side out.
I got the chance to start the third set and from the first point I could tell it was going to be a good day. I had good touch and the passing was really solid so I could do a lot of the things I wanted to do. We sided out at a high level and picked up enough points here and there to win the set.
The fourth set was pretty much the same. We got a lead early and did enough to protect it until the end. Tomas' kill down the line ended it 25-22 and 3-1 in our favor. Needless to say, I was very happy.
For me, this weekend was extremely important. Over the season I've had chances to come in and play quite a bit. I've come in and helped us to wins over Rottenburg, VCO Berlin, Koenigswusterhausen and a few others. But this weekend's match against SCC Berlin was particularly satisfying for a few different reasons.
First, Berlin is one of the best teams in the league. So, getting a chance to play against them and especially to have success is a really good feeling.
Second, in my own opinion, I've been playing really well in practice for about the last month. I feel like I'm constantly improving but haven't really had a chance to show it on the court during a real match. To get that opportunity and for it to work out the way it did was really important for me.
Third, it's just hard in general to be on the bench. Playing a significant role in our win, simply put, felt good. It gives confidence and it serves as a reminder of why this game is so much fun.
In the end, we got a big win that doesn't seem to help us that much in the standings. While we are assured of fifth place, it doesn't look likely that we'll pass Unterhaching for fourth place. The playoffs start in a couple weeks, things are starting to get exciting.
Thursday, March 22, 2007
Dueren and Some Other Things
Last weekend was Dueren, another Champions League team, and after our defeat of Friedrichshafen, the number one team in the Bundesliga. To add to the level of difficulty we had to play in Dueren which is not an easy task. From what I've been told, beating Dueren at home is extremely tough. Apparently, last year's finals were decided by home court advantage. Dueren won all of their games at home and Friedrichshafen won all of their home games. Luckily for Friedrichshafen, they got to host the final game of the championship series. Maybe some unnecessary information, but I just wanted to set the stage for how important home court advantage can be sometimes.
Anyways, I take back my statement about Rottenburg being the best gym in the league, Dueren is definitely better. The crowd was louder, more intense and generally more full of energy. Of course, when your team wins all the time, it is easier for the fans to be excited and to create a really cool atmosphere.
The game was actually fairly positive for our team. We played well enough at times to take strings of points and were never completely blown out of the match until the last ten points of the last set. We had opportunities to win the first set and we won the third set in convincing style. In the end, their serving was better than ours, or at least it caused more problems than ours did, and they were able to score more transition points. Possibly because they had the option of setting to their opposite - Quero - who I decided during the match has a fifty-fifty chance of killing the ball no matter what situation he is in. What I mean is, if the set is low and tight and there is a well set up three man block in front of him, he has just as good a chance at killing that ball than if he is looking at a perfect set in a one on one situation. He's a great hitter who is like a box of chocolates. And we all know what that means.
We lost the match and now we move towards the end of the season. We're sitting solidly in fifth with a very small chance of finishing lower. There is still the opportunity to move up at least one place and finish fourth which would mean a great deal to us as we would have home court advantage in the first round of the playoffs. After this weekend everything should be a lot more defined.
On another note, we've pretty much run out of middle blockers. Dirk is done for the season with his judo inflicted shoulder injury. Artur is questionable for the time being with a quadricep problem - he has not practiced this week. And that leaves Andy as our last remainig true middle. Nate has done a little work out of the middle for us and we have a second team middle who helps us out at practice but neither is a great solution for our problems. A good story that I think sums up the whole situation comes from yesterday: Jens contacted a former Bayer middle blocker who played on the team a couple of years ago but hasn't touched a ball in about a year to see if he would help us out in training and in the game this weekend. He said he would and came to training yesterday with the plan of easing his way back into things. What happened after about forty five minutes of playing? Jammed his thumb blocking on an attack from Peter. The joint capsule is messed up and the doctor says that it is very unlikely that he can play this weekend. Apparently the gods are against us at the moment.
So, we'll give it a shot and see what happens. I guess the best we can hope for is that no one hurts themselves before we play on Saturday...
Anyways, I take back my statement about Rottenburg being the best gym in the league, Dueren is definitely better. The crowd was louder, more intense and generally more full of energy. Of course, when your team wins all the time, it is easier for the fans to be excited and to create a really cool atmosphere.
The game was actually fairly positive for our team. We played well enough at times to take strings of points and were never completely blown out of the match until the last ten points of the last set. We had opportunities to win the first set and we won the third set in convincing style. In the end, their serving was better than ours, or at least it caused more problems than ours did, and they were able to score more transition points. Possibly because they had the option of setting to their opposite - Quero - who I decided during the match has a fifty-fifty chance of killing the ball no matter what situation he is in. What I mean is, if the set is low and tight and there is a well set up three man block in front of him, he has just as good a chance at killing that ball than if he is looking at a perfect set in a one on one situation. He's a great hitter who is like a box of chocolates. And we all know what that means.
We lost the match and now we move towards the end of the season. We're sitting solidly in fifth with a very small chance of finishing lower. There is still the opportunity to move up at least one place and finish fourth which would mean a great deal to us as we would have home court advantage in the first round of the playoffs. After this weekend everything should be a lot more defined.
On another note, we've pretty much run out of middle blockers. Dirk is done for the season with his judo inflicted shoulder injury. Artur is questionable for the time being with a quadricep problem - he has not practiced this week. And that leaves Andy as our last remainig true middle. Nate has done a little work out of the middle for us and we have a second team middle who helps us out at practice but neither is a great solution for our problems. A good story that I think sums up the whole situation comes from yesterday: Jens contacted a former Bayer middle blocker who played on the team a couple of years ago but hasn't touched a ball in about a year to see if he would help us out in training and in the game this weekend. He said he would and came to training yesterday with the plan of easing his way back into things. What happened after about forty five minutes of playing? Jammed his thumb blocking on an attack from Peter. The joint capsule is messed up and the doctor says that it is very unlikely that he can play this weekend. Apparently the gods are against us at the moment.
So, we'll give it a shot and see what happens. I guess the best we can hope for is that no one hurts themselves before we play on Saturday...
Monday, February 26, 2007
Rottenburg
The Map24 printout said that the trip to Rottenburg would take about four hours. Apparently, the computer didn't adjust for Friday afternoon traffic...
Rottenburg is a college town with a lot of things going for it. The location is excellent, deep in the South of Germany, reasonably close to the border and surrounded by natural scenery.
The club is also fairly impressive. As one of the worst teams in the league, they average 2500 spectators per home game. The gym is a perfect place to play volleyball: the right size, high ceiling, nice atmosphere...and covered in pink paint. In my opinion, it's the best gym in the league.
Unfortunately for them, all of this hasn't been enough to create any success on the court.
Our guys came into this one with a slight tinge of urgency. We've lost two straight away matches and neither of those were pretty games. We all knew that if we played the same way we had we'd be looking at another disappointment. Besides that, we're in a dogfight for a good seed in the upcoming playoffs. The match against Rottenburg represented the last "easy" match of the year as we have Friedrichshafen, Dueren, Berlin and Eltmann remaining on the schedule. Two points were an absolute must.
To our credit, we came out playing well. Surprisingly, Rottenburg didn't just lay down in the face of the Wuppertal juggernaut, they decided to play a good match as well. We weathered their first set assault and won a close one.
As we have done so many times before this season, we lost intensity in the second set, and ended up losing that one without putting any real pressure on them.
After a little talking to in the locker room we got our game together and figured out a way to win the last two sets.
Overall, the game was fairly unremarkable. We played fairly well in the three sets that we won and we have to be happy with that. But, this was a match that we had to win so there can't be too much celebrating about it. I think we're satisfied and happy enough to move on towards what is going to be a hard final stretch of the season. If we can get a few wins we'll be in great shape for the playoffs. If not, it's going to be interesting to see how it all shakes out.
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