Today starts play-off in Russian Superleague. Before first quarterfinals the head coaches of the best four russian teams speaks about the play-offs.
In which form your team start play-off and how did you prepare for the play-offs?
Boris Kolchins (Fakel):“Functionally, I am satisfied with all. We now have 14 players, quite enought for a full training process. And the break did not affected us, I believe. The team used to play in a certain rhytm and lose it is not desirable.”
Zoran Gajic (Iskra):”Our biggest problem is a serious injury of Giba. He no longer practise and definetely he will not take part in matches with Lokomotiv Novosibirsk. Otherwise I am happy. Thank God, the team finally was able to organize 7-day training cycle, which we have been deprived of the last two months. Break before play-offs helped us to pull “physics” to the proper level.”
Daniel Bagnoli (Dynamo):”Everyone knows about the numerous injuries that torment us since beginning of 2009. I am happy to report that the libero A. Gonzales is already fully training. There are positives developments in the state of A. Ostapenko, although recruit the best form after several monhts of inactivity he will not succed. In general Dynamo is getting stronger.”
Vladimir Alekno (Kazan):“In fact, we prepared thoroughly the regular championship matches. Short time we spent at the club training camp. I note that the phycical state of the team is now much more better than it was recently. Because of the tight schedule Zenit was faced with serious problems.
What do you think about the opponent in the quarterfinal and how do you evaluate play-offs in general?
Kolchins:“In the regular championship, we won both matches with Surgut only in tie-break, this confirms: there is no favourite. This will be a “great” derby. Nice volleyball, which we played so far, has ended. To have to start a war!
Gajic:“An example of not getting in the play-offs “Samotlor, which is at the end of regular championship destroyed all the leaders. If I can discard flights factor, there’s almost no difference with whom and where to play. Unfortunately, immediately after the second game in Novosibirsk, we have to fly to Prague for the “Final Four” Champions League. I am very concerned about whether the team will have time to recover.”
Bagnoli:“Ural is a very unpleasant rival. They have a number of experienced players who have excellent knowledge of what is the play-offs. I think our chances to go the semi-equal are 50 to 50.”
Alekno:“Belgorod won the CEV Cup. This is a very experienced team, the main power is the greatness of the players. They are familiar to me from the national team of Russia, and generally known throughout the volleyball world. Even the sixth and seventh team from regular season before the start of the season expected to get into the top three teams. In general, the chances of all eight quartefinal teams are absolutely equal.”
from sport-express
