There is a great match today in Russia – Kazan versus Krasnodar. If you want to see hard spikes and high blocks, watch it.
Kazan had a great season last year. They reached to Championships of Champions League and Russia Super League. Larson, Del Core and Gamova led them to reach the top. But this season they don’t have Larson who was one of two main spikers and main receivers of the team. She also contributed to blocks and serves. Larson showed us how she can take the responsibility in her national team when the team needs her. This season she is going to play for Eczacibasi (TUR) and Kazan has Eva Yaneva (BUL) instead of Larson. Yaneva was part of the Cannes which is champion of France last year. She showed very good performance in Champions League too. Yaneva is very good player but is she as strong as Larson? It is not logical to expect her to contribute as Larson because she just needs time to be part of the team and adapt to the atmosphere.
On the other hand, Krasnodar has two great receivers – Fe-Garay and Sokolova. Garay is a winner spiker who can take responsibility while Sokolova can use her experience when needed. Reception is the biggest problem of Russia teams but it is to hard to break Krasnodar’s reception. Anyway, they changed their setter who is second setter of Brazil national team in 2014. Changing first setter can be a problem for the teams. Fabiola knows Garay, they don’t need time to adapt each other. Sokolova is very experienced so I don’t think she has any troubles with sets. Calderon just needs high sets to hit so it is not very hard for Fabiola. The hardest thing is compliance with middle blockers with Fabiola. But they are talented and experienced players to defeat it.
Our favorite for wining the match is Krasnodar despite the fact Gamova didn’t play very well in Italy. Krasnodar is a new team and they are more excited than Kazan.
For sure, this will be a great match.
