Ninth victory in the Russian Cup in 10 years! Zenit Kazan’s unreal dominance

Ninth victory in the Russian Cup in 10 years! Zenit Kazan’s unreal dominance

Sofia Kolodkina December 24, 2023, 23:40 Moscow time Audio version: Your browser does not support the audio element.

Alexey Verbov’s team won the third title this calendar year.

Zenit has 12 national cups and the ninth in 10 years. Just think about it! During this time, the Kazan team’s unreal streak was interrupted only once by Dinamo Moscow: in 2020, Konstantin Bryansky’s boys defeated the St. Petersburg team. And this year they bought the right to host the final; They thought that in Moscow the walls of the houses would help. But it does not work.

Betcity Russian Cup (m). The end

December 24, 2023, Sunday. 16:30 Moscow time

Dynamo M

Moscow

Zenit-Kazan

Kazan

Dinamo M: Podlesnykh, Vlasov, Pankov, Rainson, Shkulyavichus, Baranov, Pado, Bogdan, Sventitskis, Zhuk, Belogortsev, Kostylenko, Kasatkin, Tsibulsky, Syomyshev, Sokolov, Zubov, Tselishchev, Danilov, Kerminen, Likhosherstov

Zenit-Kazan: Surmachevsky, Volvich, Deru, Rukavishnikov, Labinsky, Klets, Romanovsky, Christenson, Chanchikov, Kononov, Shcherbinin, Volkov, Fedorov, Mikhailov, Kashtanov, Khlyakin, Zhogov

The locals did not know how to take the initiative.

Zenit maintains a comfortable lead

At the beginning of the meeting, everything was decided by the block and the serve, or rather, the lack of them on the part of the Muscovites. Then, thanks to Roman Romanovsky’s first, the guests took the lead 6:4. And Alexey Kononov blocked Tsvetan Sokolov twice in a row (13:10). Zenit made it difficult to serve and moved away from the net, and the hosts were unable to establish a reception, hence the modest 23% in the first set.

Dynamo’s blockade was broken only in the middle of the game: at 15:18, Dmitry Zhuk made his first block in the match, while Zenit at that time could boast of six of them. Dinamo set the first pace and came back with a score of 19:22 – Ilya Vlasov scored at his usual height. In the extended final, Sam Dero and Maxim Mikhailov played well in attack for Zenit, while for Dynamo Denis Bogdan played two set points. Mikhailov again overtook Kazan, and then Anton Semyshev made a mistake when trying to find the fingers of Maxim himself. But the diagonal of the triple block hid his hands and Semyshev shot the ball over the block (26:28).

“Zenit-Kazan”

Photo: RIA Novosti

And if the attack numbers of the Muscovites were higher: 58% against 44% of their opponents, then three aces and six blocks helped. This was enough to cover Sokolov: in the end the diagonal simply went wide.

Christenson’s unjustified risk

In the second set, Dinamo took the first rhythm, as did Pavel Pankov’s plan: breaking the opponent’s block. The technique made it possible to restructure the attack, finally start flirting with the centers, in particular with Zhuk. It was Dmitry who caught Alexey Kononov on a Kazan double set point (23:24). And then Tsvetan Sokolov tied it from the second zone. In both cases, Micah Christenson acted inexplicably: the setter twice played with the first tempo with smooth and accelerated edges, and twice the Muscovites dragged the attacks from the center.

Zenit had two chances to close the second set, but in the end Pavel Pankov took the game with his serve: the setter closed the set with an ace (the first of the match) – 32:30. In a situation of eternal tension and persecution, the owners did not allow themselves to make wrong decisions or take unjustified risks. Therefore, 64% in attack and 18 attacks without errors: Dynamo simply played more disciplined.

Dynamo (Moscow)

Photo: RIA Novosti

“Whoever has a good serve wins”

At the beginning of the third set, the Kazan team already showed the power of its serve: Romanovsky and Mikhailov eliminated the Dynamo players in their reception (36%), which was also reflected in the attack of the Muscovites – only 10 goals in attack. . Dero scored the pass – 7:2. The Muscovites reduced the distance to “-2”, but the Zenit players did not allow any more. Dynamo had a hard time with Sokolov: the Kazan team withstood his attacks. Romanovsky ended the game with an ace. The Kazan team attacked better with a bad reception than with a good one: the wingers seemed very confident: the team’s top scorers, Volkov and Deru, contributed 17 points each, another 13 from Mikhailov.

The Kazan team started the fourth game with a block by Artyom Volvich, who beat Bogdan (5-2), Mikhailov – Sokolov (6-2) and Mike Christenson – Syomyshev (8-3). Zenit maintained a comfortable lead until the end of the match, but Deru’s serve buried the chances of pursuit: from 16:13 the guests brought the score to 19:13. Artyom Volvich scored Zenit’s victory also in the first – the team’s eighth ace.

“We played the first two games and played well, on equal terms. But in the end they didn’t have time: in the last two games, Kazan took a little more risk with the serve, and it worked. With us it is the other way around. It often happens like this: the one who has a good serve wins,” Tsvetan Sokolov said after the match.

“On the one hand, I didn’t like how we weakly gave away the second batch with our own hands. Don’t put your finger in the Dynamo’s mouth: if they feel blood, they can enter the game. He was worried inside. But we started the third and fourth games well: the initiative was in our hands. I am very happy that the team did not lose heart and showed character. In games like this it is very difficult to be surprised, we played a lot with Dynamo. So, here, first of all, moral and volitional qualities play a role. The match was not clean, although there were interesting moments. We have won, which means that we are stronger at the moment,” concluded Alexey Verbov.

Zenit-Kazan at the awards ceremony

Photo: RIA Novosti

Now Alexey Verbov’s team owns three national cups (the victory in the Russian Championship in the 2022/2023 season was followed by the Super Cup and the National Cup), and all this in one calendar year. It is symbolic how a club, which won everything a few years ago, today literally blessed the new dominators of Russian volleyball.