There will be a battle
Gazprom-Yugra in the 28th round takes the Nizhny Novgorod ASK that is desperately fighting for the playoffs. Surgutians performed the main task for the season, officially issuing a ticket to the qualification round after, How the Orenburg region defeated Nova visiting the 27th round, Which the Surgutians passed.
Nevertheless, We have options, in which we can move up from 11th place to one line up, and drop to 12th position. The second is less likely - for this, the same “Orenburg” needs to beat the capital’s “Dynamo” in the last round. However, no matter what tournament layouts exist for the last rounds, our goal is to go out and play to win every match.
I would not consider Gazprom-Yugra a favorite in the upcoming match, despite the significant factor of home court and a two-fold advantage in victories achieved. And that's not the point at all, that the opponent needs a victory more - I’m sure, that our guys will also give their best. It’s just that in the case of ASK you shouldn’t look at the standings: lost a lot of points in the first half of the season, when the main setter Dmitry Filippov did not play for a long time due to injury, who for Nizhny Novgorod residents is like a goalkeeper in football - half of the team. A Greek by passport and the son of the head coach of Krasnoyarsk “Yenisey” Yuri Filippov is a sophisticated master, cleverly balancing between reliability and inspiration.
Diagonal Pavel Zheleznyakov also did not play for some time., ASK's main strike weapon. Now the combination of Filippov and Zheleznyakov is fine, Pavel at maximum load, usually, exceeds grandmaster 50% sales and firmly occupied second place in the Super League in terms of points scored (our Vitaly Papazov is the eighth). In the center, ASK has the rapidly progressing Ivan Zakhvatenkov, son and namesake of the central blocker who played for ZSK-Gazprom in the first season in the Super League. During the championship, Nizhny Novgorod left the Cuban center Javier Concepcion, the loss of the fighter even forced senior coach Viktor Nikonenko to return to his playing form, who retired from his playing career two years ago. But in fact, the Cuban was quite adequately replaced by Maxim Titov.
In the final game, ASK has a lineup of experienced fighters: captain Alexander Pyatyrkin, national champion with Kuzbass Sergei Nikitin, former captain of Gazprom-Yugra Dmitry Makarenko and representative of the extensive and famous Antonov family Denis. Add here the talented libero Danila Ishchenko, branded viscous play from the defense and get an explanation, why is it difficult to play against ASK even for leaders. In the last round, the Nizhny Novgorod team seemed to lose to St. Petersburg Zenit., but the St. Petersburgers won two games out of three with a minimal advantage, да и в первом сете была равная борьба вплоть до концовки.
Us, of course, есть что противопоставить гостям. Заметно прибавил огневой мощи «Газпром-Югре» Александр Костадинов, все более уверенно выглядит Максим Кириллов; Papazov, Rodichev, Masko, Shevlyakov, Nagaec, да все ребята способны продемонстрировать высокое мастерство и несгибаемый дух. В нынешнем сезоне мы не числились в фаворитах, probably, ни в одном матче, но посмотрите на таблицу: восемь достойных побед, умопомрачительные камбэки. Такой командой можно только гордиться – независимо от исхода оставшихся матчей. В которых, repeat, наши ребята снова выложатся сто процентов. The income 27 февраля на «Премьер-Арену» и убедитесь в этом лично!
