Let there be a battle!
On Saturday at the Premier Arena we play with Kuzbass. Alexey Babeshin’s team is the most interesting: Super League record holder for five-set matches. The team has a total of ten of them, including a six-game series, in which Dynamo and St. Petersburg Zenit were beaten, and also there were two tiebreakers with Kazan and Novosibirsk.
In the last round, the Kemerovo team lost to Yenisei on their site. 1:3. Conceded 0:2, pulled out a super-long third set 37:35 and, it seemed, will be able to return to their usual “five-house” format, but... Obviously, that Kuzbass is going to Surgut with some understatement and a desire to correct karma.
The abundance of long games suggests that, that the team plays with fluctuations. Players get good days every now and then: finishers Asparukh Asparukhov and Alexander Markin give great matches, they look pale. But rotation works: in particular, they tried to pull out the match with Yenisei with the help of Kirill Fialkovsky, well known to Surgut residents, which looked quite decent. Only Roman Pakshin has an unshakable place in the final game, who turns into a team leader as the season progresses.
Diagonal Dusan Petkovic is also unstable, but there is Dmitry Yakovlev. If Yegor Krechetov’s game is not going well, he is insured in the position of setter by Slavi Kostadinov. Rotation is key, which allows the team to 11 victories to continue the race for a place in the top four. In the center, by the way, reached his usual level (we know him) Denis Chereiskaya, who could be paired with Alexey Lobyzenko or Inal Tavasiev. Libero Valentin Golubev also, primarily, leaves no doubt about his high qualifications, he is supported by young Mikhail Kashtanov.
By place in the standings and, formally, Kuzbass is stronger than Gazprom-Ugra in selecting performers. But that doesn't mean at all, that we cannot beat our opponent in a particular match. For this, of course, in addition to high morale and focus on winning (there is no doubt about it), a number of other factors must come into play.
At first, innings. It doesn’t always fly in our home hall. Innings (Let's go with the truisms) pushes the opponent's attack away from the net and deprives it of speed, gives extra chances to the block. Secondly, pre-game moments – and they will be there anyway. We don’t always manage them well, but it is in them that the key to victory lies. Thirdly, team clean game, in which I would highlight insurance by zones and separately the work of setters. Maxim Kirillov has already shown, that can play the game quite varied and interesting, need to be picked up as gear, Vadim Ozhiganov is good in his own way: two binders can give two game patterns.
Plus our bench is also capable of a lot: Alekseev, Rudnev, Skvortsov, Krasikov is able to increase pressure as in individual episodes, and over longer periods. Well, of course, native stands. In the Super League they always use Kuzbass fans as an example., always filling the hall and loudly supporting their favorites. The atmosphere at matches in Kemerovo is one of the best in the country. But once upon a time they used Surgut fans as an example, our hall was a real “cauldron” for the opponent and a powerful incentive for the Gazprom-Yugra players. There is a proposal to revive its former glory and show it to Kemerovo residents, that in Surgut they also love their team and know how to support it. Everyone for the game with Kuzbass 3 February, let there be a battle!
