“How can it? Give me the red now! Dramatic final of the Russian Volleyball Cup

The semi-final matches of the men’s Russian Cup were exciting, both in five games. Lokomotiv received Zenit-Kazan, Zenit St. Petersburg – Dynamo. If in the first point a five-set thriller could be assumed, then the result of the second was a sensation, knowing the stability of the Muscovites and the personnel problems of the St. Petersburg team: for Viktor Sidelnikov’s boys, or the setter becomes a diagonal player, or the libero becomes a finishing player.

Russian Cup (m). 1/2 finals. 1st match

November 25, 2023, Saturday. 15:00 Moscow time

Locomotive

Novosibirsk

Zenit-Kazan

Kazan

Lokomotiv: Martynyuk, Melkozerov, Tisevich, Atanasov, Molotkov, Abaev, Savin, Brazhnyuk, Ashifin, Vishnyakov, Gulyaev, Nutfullin, Kruglov, Lyzik, Kazachenkov, Efremov, Kurkaev, Dragunov, Kurbanov, Alexander

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

“Give me the red one now!”

Five games of drama, seasoned with juicy fights on the grill. And we’re not just talking about practical jokes, but also about Zenit’s altercations with the judges. Alexey Verbov put pressure on the referees three times, so at some point his colleague Plamen Konstantinov’s nerves could not stand it, and she even muttered during the break: “How much is possible? Give me the red now!

Both teams played a great game in defense: and even if point guard Konstantin Abaev left the attack to Omar Kurbanov or Ilya Kazachenkov in a block at the beginning of the game, the Loko boys softened or rose in defense. Therefore, the teams were even and the advantage did not even reach three points. Four consecutive service errors by Loko were offset by two aces by Ilyas Kurkaev late in the match. And the substitution of Igor Tisevich and the removal of Sam Dero from him decided the result of the match: 25:23.

With the same first, Martin Atanasov managed to reduce the distance with the Kazan players who had escaped at the beginning of the second set and achieved an ultra series of four aces in a row; Not even Verbov’s timeout discouraged the Bulgarian.

“We ourselves gave you the opportunity to take risks,” Verbov scolded the players during the break. And then he did the same thing with the judges. With the score 13:14, the ball, after an attack by Kazan, flew from the foot of Dima Lyzik. The referees gave the point to Zenit, but immediately ordered a replay after the hosts’ entrance, saying that the whistle blew before the ball touched the court and supposedly prevented the end of the play: there was an opportunity to continue.

“The ball flew away,” Verbov shouted, fighting for a break point, because the score after the replay was 15:13. We missed the opportunity, but we still managed to take the game. Lokomotiv collapsed after a mistake by Lyzik, who put the ball into the opposite side’s net.

As soon as the game calmed down, the referees turned on again and continued teaching the players the formation. More recently, Sergei Grankin was whistled three times in a row for leaving the first zone too early in the Centenario Cup. This is a new requirement for referees to more closely monitor the position of players. Now it was the Zenit Kazan player who did it: Mika, even before the opponent’s serve, began to move towards the net and made a positional error.

Dramatic final of the Russian Volleyball Cup

Photo: images of the transmission.

“We should have made it 3:0”

Everyone attacked the second judge, and Verbov even asked the statistician to run out and show the moment from his camera. But Alexey Igorevich’s attempts to do justice failed: the moment was played and Zenit reduced the gap from 18:12 to 18:16. And then he completely took away the almost lost set.

With the score at 24:21 and Loko’s set point made, Verbov asked Ilyas Kurkaev for a replay when he touched the net, and he made no mistake. They then pinned Kazachenkov, couldn’t handle Max Mikhailov’s serve and lost the set.

“You’re already waiting for the game to end. It’s like in the movies. I feel sorry for those who took the jackets and didn’t inspect them. I think there is no reason to get angry, but it is important to draw conclusions: until the last whistle, concentration must be maximum. And it is important to stay focused on the ball,” Kurkaev said during the post-match interview.

The match turned out to be as multifaceted as possible. In any case, victory and our advantage are important. Well, before we won at home. We understand that the parties that lost lost themselves. In fact, we should have made it 3:0. But this is the semi-final and this is Kazan. Maybe there is some misunderstanding regarding nervousness: some aspects have to be eliminated to make the filming better, when we are still at +4,” Kurkaev continued.

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In both the second and third games they led by four or five points and lost. There are bells in our insecurity, when they try to reach us. This seems to influence us a little. It’s a shame because it could have been faster and the advantage could have been more noticeable. But victory is not chosen.”

Loko’s most productive player was Ilya Kazachenkov: 24 points, 20 of them from the field (47% shooting), three blocks and one ace. Martin Atanasov contributed to the team with 23 points and 13 field goals (50% shooting), seven aces and three blocks.

“It’s a shame that we weren’t enough in the fifth game. We made a lot of our own pure mistakes that we hadn’t made before. Whoever held it won the fifth game. We were impatient, maybe we collapsed from emotions, and it is clear why,” concluded Alexey Verbov.

Zenit Saint Petersburg comes back 0-3

Dinamo Moscow lost to Zenit Saint Petersburg (2-3) in the first semi-final match of the Russian Cup.

Russian Cup (m). 1/2 finals. 1st match

November 25, 2023, Saturday. 16:00 Moscow time

Zenit Saint Petersburg

St. Petersburg

Dynamo M

Moscow

Zenit St. Petersburg: Kovalev, Kobzar, Ananyev, Tikhonov, Safonov, Grebennikov, Yakovlev, Krivitchenko, Voronkov, Titich, Kosmin, Shepetis, Zheleznyakov, Zastupov, Poletaev, Klyuka, Polyansky, Manzhosov, Byarda, Kupryashkin

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

Konstantin Bryansky’s boys were focused in the first set: they pressed on serve, in blocking and in defense, with a high percentage of attack (71% against 29% for Saint Petersburg) and reception (88% for Moscow). Halfway through the match, the blue and whites already had the advantage (13:8), and the finisher Anton Semyshev won three points with spectacular discounts, the Muscovites finished the match with the first pace of Dmitry Zhuk – 25:13.

The guests also confidently took the second set and did not make a single error in attack. When the score was 4:10, home coach Viktor Sidelnikov used two timeouts. Zenit’s chase that began (13:15) was completed with a cold attack from Semyshev and a pass from Pankov. Dynamo played the end of the match with confidence: they looked better in attack, reception and blocking – 25:18. And it seemed that the fate of the match was decided.

“Dynamo”

Photo: vcdynamo.ru

And then, a decline and low quality of play. The Muscovites took the lead, held on to the match and gave the hosts the opportunity to come back.

“We just got up. She inexplicably stood up”

In the third set, Zenit reduced the number of its own errors and the guests, on the contrary, multiplied them. The local block woke up: Dynamo had four against one, the Muscovites could not handle the reception either: a catastrophic 5% excellent. And in the middle of the game, the hosts had several break points (12:8), but six errors on serve did not allow the team to hold on to the set: 20:25.

The beginning of the fourth game becomes a continuation of the previous one. Dinamo made many mistakes and the St. Petersburg team bravely won the most difficult goals: 15:7 in favor of Zenit in the middle of the set. After the ace of blocker Ilya Vlasov, the Muscovites’ gap was reduced to two points (20:22), but the hosts were more reliable in the decisive episodes: 25:20.

In the fifth game, Dinamo continued to make a lot of mistakes, which gave the opponent a three-point lead (10:7). The Muscovites restored the balance, but in the end Zenit continued to put pressure on the team thanks to the efforts of Fyodor Voronkov, who with 17 points and 47% of sales became the most productive in the match. Pavel Zheleznyakov also advanced in attack with the same 17 points (38%).

“We just got up. And inexplicably they stood up. There was a colossal flaw in every element. We need to deal with this. We have to turn this around, because it is impossible to make a series of mistakes, even though the opponent allowed us to take advantage of our opportunities at times. However, we do not take advantage of these opportunities. I think this is mental, not physical,” Bryansky said after the match.

The second legs of the Russian Cup will be played on December 2 in Kazan and Moscow.