A game without favorites
Missed the 12th round, Gazprom-Yugra had the opportunity to temporarily drop out of the race, look around, exhale, train and go to Nizhny Novgorod with renewed vigor. Was the pause beneficial or not?, We'll find out very soon.
Meanwhile our opponent, ASK, walked quite cheerfully in the last three rounds. To begin with, he got his first victory in the championship, beating MSTU in Moscow, then almost beat the capital's Dynamo at home, Well, in the fight I lost to Zenit in St. Petersburg. the main thing, With the return to duty of setter Dima Filippov, the team began to establish neural connections in the attack. Yes, broadcasts do not always find recipients perfectly, but progress is obvious.
And ASK always had enough healthy stubbornness. The players on this team are tenacious, experienced, persistent. The uncompromising Pavel Zheleznyakov beats his norm in the diagonal, delegating Denis Antonov to the final game, where rotation is vitally needed after the injury of team captain Alexander Pyatyrkin. Antonov's partner is currently paired with the most experienced Dmitry Makarenko, two seasons ago, former captain of Gazprom-Yugra.
In the center of the net, with the departure of Cuban Concepcion, a place was freed up for Maxim Titov, who, together with Alexander Zakhvatenkov, forms a blocking tandem. Here ASC is very narrow: There is no replacement for Titov and Zakhvatenkov. Probably, this is the main problem of ASK today - there is not enough rotation in positions. Yes, Filippova is insured by Alexander Khaibulov, who returned to Nizhny during the season, there is a diagonal Alexey Kolmakov who comes out to sharpen the serve, in the final game there is a reserve in the person of Sergei Nikitin, libero Danila Ishchenko has a partner Viktor Konev. But we must admit, that ASK plays with almost one six.
Nevertheless, traveling to Nizhny Novgorod will not be a cakewalk for Gazprom-Yugra, and there’s no talk of a walk at all. For the quality of the game, which ASK demonstrates in recent games, we can safely predict an extremely stubborn game without a clear favorite. Both opponents need victory like air, for ASK this is an opportunity to grab the opportunity to get out of the very basement of the tournament table, for Gazprom-Ugra – a chance to push your competitor one step further and gain a foothold in your current position.
