Everything depends on us

On Friday, Gazprom-Yugra will play a very important match from all points of view with Neftyanik from Orenburg. The game is important from a tournament point of view: Surgut residents need victories, including and especially in games with direct competitors in the fight for a place in the playoffs. The game is emotionally important: after a lost equal match in Minsk, rehabilitation is needed. The meeting is very important from the point of view of building the game itself and the mentality on the court. Almost a third of the smooth part of the championship has been completed - it’s time, what is called, be determined.

Neftyanik experienced the most extensive restructuring in the Super League in the off-season with a plus sign: the club's budget has increased, and with it ambitions, which the headquarters tried to confirm by signing a number of experienced, and young promising players. Former Gazprom-Yugra captain Dmitry Makarenko is responsible for the experience in the current Neftyanik, became captain of the new team, central blocker Alexey Samoilenko, who played in all the top clubs in the country, diagonal Denis Zemchenok, transferred from Zenit Kazan. Blocker Alexander Tkachev from Lokomotiv Novosibirsk can also be included in this category..

Young and promising are the finishing player Ilya Spodobets from Belogorye and the diagonal Egor Sidenko, still belongs to the Belgorod club system (in Orenburg, Egor is gaining experience in leasing, as before - in Nizhny Novgorod). However, these players are relatively young, Ilya 26 years old, Egor - 24 of the year. But, certainly, promising, It’s just that injuries prevented them from opening up before.

The line of setters in the club has also completely changed: Roman Zhos, a graduate of the Novosibirsk system, came from Ural, Igor Kovalikov arrived from Yenisei. With so many recruits, is it any wonder?, that Neftyanik’s head coach is new? New in Orenburg, in general, Pavel Borsch brought the Moscow “Luch” to the Super League in the same year, when ZSK-Gazprom, led by Rafael Khabibullin, made its way into the elite division, that is, more than twenty years ago. For a long time, Borsch was not directly involved in club coaching activities., but worked as a sports director in the Nizhny Novgorod "Guberniya", capital "Dynamo" and St. Petersburg "Zenith", was on the staffs of Zoran Gajić and Vladimir Alekno in the national team, and with 2020 of the year heads the Russian youth team U-19.

Besides the good old, but probably the not so relevant coaching duel with Rafael Khabibullin has another coaching intrigue in the upcoming game: former head coach of Neftyanik Alexey Rudakov is now head coach of Gazprom-Yugra.

From the old guard, remembering Rudakov on the coaching bridge, Sergei Panov, a finishing player, remained in Orenburg, started his professional career in Surgut, universal Ilnur Rahmatullin, capable of covering almost all positions on the site, libero Maxim Maksimenko and blocker Anton Andreev.

The new team must apply for names (and claims) one place higher than last year's 13th, and the only victory in the championship to date hardly demonstrates the potential level of the team. by the way, this very victory was won over “Belogorye”, which in itself says a lot. clear, that Borsch and Co. are eager to prove their claims with numbers and the match in Surgut is about the same story for them, same as for ASK, that is a chance. Nizhny Novgorod residents succeeded, will Orenburg succeed??

I think, with all due respect to the opponent, first of all it depends on us. Egor Sidenko, gave us four aces in a row last season, and is now capable of terrorizing an opponent no worse, the same Dmitry Makarenko knows Surgut and many Surgut residents on the site very well, Pavel Borsch has not forgotten how to deal with tactics and motivate. But in Surgut everything almost always depends on us.

We must show Neftyanik our strengths, based on team play, mutual assistance, energized to win. It is necessary to melt the burden of responsibility into gaming emotions, helping to get the most out of every episode, maintain your concentration level throughout the match. Well, of course, our fans should be our secret weapon, capable of additionally charging players, give magic pollen in the middle of the Siberian winter.

We are waiting for everyone at the Premier Arena on Friday, 8 December, start of the match at 19.00