The players of Lotos Trefl Gdansk, making their first final of Polish league appearance in their history, delivered a strong performance against PGE Skra Belchatów. They played with confidence and most importantly, team spirit. – They are like my Spanish National Team when we won the European Championships in 2007. They are not very strong individually, but a great collective – said the coach, Andrea Anastasi.
Anastasi hasn’t coached a club for the past 9 years, dedicating himself entirely with various national teams including Italy, Spain and Poland. – I have a very clear vision of my work and of what I want to achieve. The idea seems to be the same with the project of the club – said Anastasi when he signed his contract with Gdansk. The club gave him a simple plan to follow. He had to secure at least 8th position in the regular season. Although Lotos Trefl has been doing well from the very beginning, winning their first eight games in a row, only to be defeated 2:3 by Skra Belchatow. It hasn’t discouraged the team at all. Only a week later Lotos won 3:2 with Resovia, adding to it another nine victories after. At the end of February 2015 when the main part of the league was over, Lotos was third. – We have to be honest with ourselves, no one including us expected that we would play such an amazing regular season – said italian setter Marco Falaschi.- We were very excited for the play-offs, we knew our possibilities and if we played on our current form, we could finish the season with a medal.
Following to the very end the successful principles that have characterised their outstanding display throughout the regular season, Lotos team presented an astounding level of performance in the play-offs. They finished the quarter-final series against Transfer Bydgoszcz with two straight victories 3:1 but the semi-final rival, Skra Belchatow, was meant to be a “no chance” kind of opponent. There weren’t many people ready to put any money on the team of Anastasi beating Belchatow.
While everyone was getting ready for the final games between Skra and Resovia, the team from Gdansk, without any stress followed their daily routine. Weights, ball, rest. The last point was the most important factor. Needless to mention, that Gdansk`s team was built upon 7 players and their condition for the most important games was priority. – Its easier to work us out, because everyone knows that we have two teams in one. First 7 players are always the same when we start our games – admitted Anastasi. Following the rules of the Polish league, the first semi-final game had to be played in Belchatow. The hosts were off to a good start but once again Lotos confirmed that away from home they play better. Despite of surprising victory of Gdansk team 3:2, the opinion about the final hasn’t changed. Skra still was the better team. – Now the pressure is on their side – said Murphy Troy after the victory in Belchatow. The battle moved to Gdansk, and Belchatow once again confirmed that they haven’t said the last word yet. Despite a good level of volleyball, the hosts didn’t play their very best to stand a chance against Belchatow, losing 1:3 in front of their own crowd.
When everybody thought, that the first victory against Skra was just an accident, teams met one more time in Belchatow and the host team didn’t get a chance to fight back. Gdansk’s team was confident, powerful and the theoretically stronger opponent didn’t even try to show their real abilities. The game reminded everyone the David-Goliath fight with another, this time a bit less surprising victory of Anastasi`s team. – To be honest, Skra despite being one of the best teams in Poland, didn’t deliver the performance we expected. It`s not our problem, i am happy we could use it and the most important now is to not lose our rhythm – said german national Sebastian Schwarz after the victory in Belchatow.
Because of Skra`s preparations for the Champions League Final Four, the 4th match had to be postponed for 18 days. Anybody who plays or used to play any sport professionally knows how long break that is. It hasn’t changed Gdansk`s attitude and after four days of rest, the team returned to practise waiting for the next game. Belchatow ended their Champions League dream in 4th position but were ready to continue the battle of Plus Liga.
The players of Skra had definitely travelled to Gdansk with different, much higher expectations than to play for the bronze medal but they could not quite deliver. Skra players tried to stop Lotos searching to compensate their imbalances with a greater serve variety but it wasn`t enough. Lotos swept aside yellow-black opponent to write a piece of history. Despite missing out on an opportunity to finish it off already in the fourth set, Lotos showed nerves of steel to eventually seize the day at the tie-break. – From the first game against Skra we respected the opponent on the other side, it is not a secret that they are stronger than us, so beating them three times and going to the big final is something totally incredible, i am still getting used to this fact – admitted middle blocker Wojciech Grzyb.
Before the play-offs, the coach, Andrea Anastasi promised a free italian dinner for the whole team if they manage to get to the semifinal, but the question of what was the prize for the eventual final stays open…
Lotos Trefl Gdansk – PGE Skra Belchatow 3:1 in games
Game 1. PGE Skra Belchatow – Lotos Trefl Gdansk 2:3
Game 2. Lotos Trefl Gdansk – PGE Skra Belchatow 1:3
Game 3. PGE Skra Belchatow – Lotos Trefl Gdansk 0:3
Game 4. Lotos Trefl Gdansk – PGE Skra Belchatow 3:2
Photo: www.lotostrefl.pl
Anna Wiecek
twitter: @aniauk83
