The 2013 World League started this past weekend with six games from Pool C. The competition for the top teams though, placed by the serpentine system in pools A and B, launches this week on Friday.
Germany is coming off of its most successful period in recent volleyball history. In 2012 the extravagant Belgian head coach Vital Heynen and his boys grabbed two fifth finishes – in the World League finals in Sofia, Bulgaria, making their debut in the ultimate stage of the tournament, and a month later in the London Olympics. A straight-set defeat to Bulgaria – quite a common opponent of Heynen’s squad in the last two years, in the quarterfinals sent the Bundesteam home, but they nevertheless enjoyed a great season.
Unlike the rest of the world, Europe’s most important competition in 2013 is considered to be the continental championship at the end of September. This is why in the World League we will see many changes and new unfamiliar faces. Most coaches in Europe gave some rest to key players after the long club season. There are also players undergoing surgeries or recovering from such and as a result they will most probably miss the Intercontinental round of the League. Adding to all those circumstances the fact that it is a post-Olympic year and a time for some experienced stars to take a well-earned national team retirement, you can get why the volleyball summer might lose some of its splendour. Germany is no exception in this matter. Vital Heynen’s preliminary World League list was a subject of long discussions, but it came out perfectly clear that it would be all made subordinate to the participation in the big event in September later this year.
Missing names
Practically, Heynen had to give up on an almost entire team of Olympians for the World League. The bombardier Gyorgy Grozer, a recent Russian Superleague winner with Belogorie Belgorod, announced he would skip the League games, but is expected to return on time for the European championship preparation. Such is the case with the best local setter Simon Tischer and Sebastian Schwarz.
There is, unfortunately, a pretty substantial number of players, who will not appear with the German jersey even in Gdynia in September. To start with, the Bundesliga MVP Robert Kromm, who won the title with Berlin Recycling Volleys, is not even in the preliminarily submitted group. Both sides deny a conflict, but there could be no other explanation for the absence of Kromm, whose experience would’ve been crucial for this new German team. Vital Heynen has stated many times that anyone can theoretically join the national team, but it seems to be surprisingly valid for everyone but Kromm.
The captain Bjorn Andrae is rumoured to have quit his international career, so he is unlikely to appear on court any time soon. Besides, Marcus Popp and he are preparing for a beach volleyball season together, so they should be both left out of the game equation.
The other missing names in the roster are Christian Duennes and Max Gunthor, who are both taking the summer off, as well as the middle blocker Lukas Bauer and the Generali Unterhaching libero Sebastian Pruessener.
The roster
Lukas Kampa and Patrick Steuerwald will have the conductor’s role in the young formation. Jochen Schoeps, a champion of Poland with Asseco Resovia Rzeszow, will be the main attack weapon, with Christian Fromm and Simon Hirsch awaiting their moments as back-up opposites. Marcus Boehme will lead a whole new line of middle blockers, in which Felix Fischer (Berlin Recycling Volleys) and Tim Broshog (Moerser SC) have good chances of making it to the twelve-men roster.
Undoubtedly the most problematic position for Heynen this summer will be position 4. Denis Kaliberda and Dirk Westphal will most probably receive credit as starters. Kaliberda did not enjoy an splendid season abroad in Tonno Callipo Vibo Valentia, where he was often substituted due to reception problems. Westphal won the Belgian championship and Cup with Knack Roeselare, but I would not consider him super reliable when it comes to the international stage. Bjorn Hoehne (Berlin Recycling Volleys) and Tom Strohbach (Generali Unterhaching) are two of the most improved domestic players and are valuable assets to Heynen’s team, but are yet to prove their worth and place in the wide roster.
Friendly games
Muska Sobota in Slovenia was the place at which the Bundesteam started their series of official practice games. Days before the departure to Slovenia it was announced that Mark Lebedew, the 46-year-old Australian coach of the champions Berlin Recycling Volleys, will support Vital Heynen throughout the preparatory phase.
Germany lost the first game against their hosts in four sets (25-23, 16-25, 23-25, 18-25). However, four of the five debutants in the group made their first appearance with the jersey, even if just in a friendly. These were Tim Broshog, Felix Isaak, Tom Strohbach and Bjorn Hoehne. Christian Fromm with 15 points was the highest scorer for Germany, while the best Slovenian opposite Alen Sket topped the individual ranking with his 26 points.
The second game turned out to be in favour of the visitors who grabbed a 3-1 win (25-23, 25-22, 21-25, 25-14). Marcus Boehme played as an opposite and scored 15 points for the win, whereas Mitja Gasparini finished with 16 for the home side.
Back in Germany, France was the opponent for a series of friendly games over a three-day period. Stuttgart and the nearby cities of Ludwigsburg and Ruit were the arenas for two defeats and a win for Heynen’s squad.
World League Pool B
A four-year time frame prior to Rio de Janeiro 2016 starts for national teams. As discussed, permanent changes in team lists and debuts of youngsters are best made a year after each Olympics, 2013 in this case, when usually the Intercontinental round of the League suffers a bit from a quality decrease due to exactly these squad transformations.
Russia will surely be looked closely on as a dominant power in men’s volleyball for the last two years. However, they will also prepare carefully for the Euro Championship, assuring time for rest to players like Mikhaylov, Khtey, Grankin, Butko, Biryukov, Volkov. Dmitriy Muserskiy, Evgeny Sivozhelez, Nikolay Apalikov and the experienced Sergey Makarov will have to lead the 2011 World League winners for the first weekend against Iran at home. The star players of Andrey Voronkov might be called up only for the Final Round in Mar del Plata, as long as Russia qualifies, so it would be tricky to make any predictions about the names representing “sbornaya” in the next weeks. Nevertheless, even with the ones available right now Russia is still favourite number one to top Pool B.
The Olympic bronze medalists of Italy parted with a few names that wrote golden pages in Italian volleyball history over the last twenty years. The long expected rejuvenation of “squarda azzura” will continue taking place this summer, as the legends Samuele Papi, Luigi Mastrangelo and Alessandro Fei bid farewell to the international stage. Two recent defeats against France in Cuneo and Piacenza showed Mauro Berruto that he has a lot of work to do with his youngsters. The core of the “blues” remains unchanged – Travica, Zaytsev, Savani, Birarelli, Parodi, but there are many young players looking forward to game time, among who Luca Vettori, Thomas Beretta, Salvatore Rossini, who are all yet to establish themselves under Berruto’s supervision. The big name missing for Italy is Michal Lasko, he is supposed to get married this summer and everyone in the southern country hopes that he will be back for the tournament in Poland and Denmark. Friday evening in Modena will be the first test for Italy when precisely Germany will arrive in quest for initial positive results.
Cuba always has an interesting group of players to discuss. The communist regime in the island, on the other hand, makes Orlando Blackwood‘s life difficult year after year. We are not going to mention all Cubans that left the country to find a foreign team and happiness abroad, but it would be more than enough to state that had they all been given the chance to represent their national team again, Cuba might’ve seriously challenged Brazil’s recent volleyball dominance. This year we will not see the wonderkind Wilfredo Leon, the setter Raydel Hierrezuelo and the energetic opposite Fernando Hernandez. The two main attackers for this extremely young but still talented Cuban side will be Rolando Cepeda and Yordan Bisset. Three consecutive friendly defeats in Argentina proved the long way this new Cuban generation has to go and what is worse, they seemed even weaker in one of those games without Bisset on the opposite position. It will be causa perduta for Blackwood and his lads to reach again Argentina, this time for the Final Six, but one of the most athletic nations in the world is never to be underestimated.
The reigning European champion Serbia could not enjoy a fruitful 2012 season. A tie-break defeat to Germany, and they will face each other again pretty soon, left Kolakovic and his delegation without a quarterfinal berth in London. A positive for Serbia is their squad renewal months after the bronze they achieved in the World Championship in Italy. Not only do they now have a young and versatile team, but the legendary Ivan Miljkovic helped his “green” teammates build enough confidence by grabbing the European title in Vienna in 2011. With a very competitive selection both in the domestic league and inside the junior and youth representations, Serbia can be extremely confident about the near future of their volleyball. Only results will, however, show what these players are made of, but bets and time are on their side. Names to follow for the ancestors of former Yugoslavia include Marko Ivovic, Mihajlo Mitic, Aleksa Brdjovic, Srecko Lisinac, Nemanja Petric and Milija Mrdak, put next to the already experienced Kovacevic brothers, Podrascanin, Stankovic and Atanasijevic.
Last, but definitely not least, I expect some major positive upsets caused by the Asian champion Iran. Julio Velasco did a hell of a job with this interesting team and results started to heap. The Persians “crucified” Japan in the preliminary qualies to make their World League debut in 2013. Remembering Iran from the 2011 World Cup, one could not help but wonder how far they can actually go now. Of course, the sheer fact of being newcomers and then drawn in an extremely competitive pool makes all predictions risky, but the sports hall in Tehran would be a nightmare for Serbia and Germany with all those frenzied supporters. The first games in Kaliningrad against Russia will act as a barometer for the real capabilities of Iran. A few days ago in Sofia the Asians made Bulgaria sweat with a great combination of powerful hits and astounding jump float serves – their true volleyball war tools. Watch out for Mousavi, Fayazi, Ghaemi, Tashakori and Ghafour, for they would not let this World League edition pass without their mark.
Pictures: Internet
