Russia won, but was left without a “final six”. Russia won, but was left without a “final six” Aspects of the game need polishing

The Russian women's team lost to the Serbian team at the third stage of the Grand Prix and with one defeat in nine matches reached the final stage of the competition.

The final game week gave the Russian national team a long-awaited test of strength in a meeting with a serious opponent, it seems, not only for the fans, but also for the coaching staff. Before this, only Turkish and Italian girls showed resistance to our girls; we won against both teams in difficult five-set matches. However, with all due respect to these rivals, on the eve of Rio I wanted to look at the team against the background of someone from the elite of world volleyball.

ASPECTS OF THE GAME NEED GRINDING

The Serbian team, of course, is not Brazil, China or the USA, but it can impose a fight, and a serious one. The previous confrontation with the Serbians at the World Cup deprived us of an Olympic ticket, but it was not possible to take revenge - Yuri Marichev’s team lost (2:3) in the decisive game. The first two sets were left to the Russian team, although they were extremely difficult. The starting one was saved by Tatyana Kosheleva with the help of Ksenia Ilchenko, and in the second, it was possible to organize a comeback from a score of 17:21 thanks to the work of our block and the efforts of Natalia Goncharova.

On the eve of the third stage, silver medalist of the Sydney Olympics Tatyana Gracheva, in an interview with SE, complained that number 8 of our team still looks like the one and only lifesaver in any situation, which is fraught. And so it happened. The Serbians were much better at blocking at crucial moments; they were unable to concentrate on receiving, and the locomotive of the Serbian attacks, Veljkovic and Boskovic, looked fresher than our Kosheleva and Goncharova.

The next day, Yuri Marichev fielded the same lineup against the Thai team. It differed from the six a week ago in the presence of Tatyana Kosheleva, who missed the match with the hosts of the “Final Six” in Bari. Once again, the Russians started the match very confidently, winning the first set with a 9-point lead - 25:16. But the next two games became an example of how our team can create problems for itself.

As soon as the Russians lost concentration a little, mistakes began to appear when putting the ball into play and in defense, and now the set urgently needed to be saved. In the first case, Anna Malova heroically crawled across the court and Marina Babeshina found her serve, but in the second, no one could help out at the decisive moment. The final set was dictated by our girls, who were quite angry with themselves for mistakes at the end of the third game. The result is 25:12 and 3:1 in sets. “We need to strengthen our serve to make life easier for ourselves in the future. However, many other aspects of our game also require polishing,” Marichev said after the match.

GONCHAROVA - AGAIN THE BEST

The Japanese team provided the atmosphere and material for this very grinding with pleasure. The five-thousand-seat arena was filled to capacity and its owners were determined to please the fans at all costs. When the Japanese took the first set with a score of 25:20, the euphoria in the stands was as if the team had won at least the World Championship. The third set turned out to be the key in the match. The Japanese women were leading 13:9, 20:15 and even 24:20, while our girls, as Marichev aptly put it, “absolutely nothing was going well” in one of the timeouts.

Realizing that there was nowhere to retreat further, the Russians perked up: Goncharova managed to put together a block that seemed to be crumbling, Kosheleva perked up, and was getting into shape literally before our eyes; Shcherban began to succeed. 26:24 - the set that literally escaped from their hands broke the Japanese team. No, they did not give up fighting - this is not at all in the spirit of the representatives of the Land of the Rising Sun, but some kind of doom appeared in their actions. The final success in games is 3:1. Russia enters the Final Six with eight wins in nine matches, and Goncharova is again the absolute best on our team.

Japan - Russia - 1:3 (25:20, 23:25, 24:26, 20:25)

THE GRAND PRIX. Women

In the Final Six of the Women's Grand Prix Russian team defeated national team Thailand and will play against the Americans in the semifinals.

In Group K, where the national teams ended up Russia, Brazil And Thailand, the final position of the teams was more or less clear even before the start of the tournament. That someone will be able to defeat the champions of the last two Olympics, Brazil national team, it was hard to believe. Just as it would be super sensational to have at least one victory of the Thais, who got into this stage of the “Grand Prix” only because of their status as hosts of the tournament, over our national team. Therefore, no one was surprised by the dry results in the group.

ANTI-RECORD WITHOUT PURCHASE

Without Tatiana Kosheleva, who injured her back and is being treated in Moscow, the Russians became noticeably weaker in the final game. If in the first set of the match with the Brazilians there was some intrigue on the court, then the second game Yuri Marichev lost crushingly - 10:25. This became an anti-record for our team. Previously, the worst result was 11 points in meetings with Azerbaijan in 2005 and Poland in 2008. The Latin women simply finished the third set and confidently won the match - 3:0.

Russian team in this match demonstrated a high percentage of defects and low quality of reception. And this is difficult to explain simply by the absence Kosheleva. By the way, the performance of the team leader at the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro is also, alas, in question.

Her rehabilitation will be carried out by highly specialized specialists, - answered a question regarding the return Tatiana Kosheleva curator of VFV Russian women's volleyball Vladislav Fadeev. - It is too early to assess the chances of her participation in the Olympics. We must first begin to restore Tanya. There is still enough time before the Olympics. We will try our best to get her back on track. If there is even the slightest chance to recover and return to the team, Tanya will always cling to this chance. She is a real fighter and has already had to overcome an ankle injury this season.

But so far the Russians, without their leader, are losing to the Brazilians without a chance. However, in the match Brazil - Thailand everything was also very clear - 3:0 without any hint of at least an additional set.

DISCOVERY OF AMERICA

The fate of second place, and with it a ticket to the semi-finals of the tournament, was decided in a head-to-head confrontation between the teams Russia And Thailand. Our team, I must admit, really tickled the nerves of its fans. The Russians won the first set with difficulty (27:25), and could have lost the second set altogether. The Thais themselves came to the aid of our girls in time, but at the decisive moments they could not concentrate and lost their three-goal advantage at the end of the set. In the last segment of the game, the Russians either took the lead or gave national team Thailand catch up with themselves, but the final spurt 6:0 buried all the Asians’ hopes for a miracle - 19:25 and 0:3 at the end of the match in favor Russian national team.

In the other group, meanwhile, one surprise did occur: Holland not without difficulty (3:2) beat China and took second place. Let u China and there are objective reasons for this: the national team brought a second squad to Bangkok. Moreover, even the head coach of the national team did not come Lan Ping, which, according to official information, is “preparing for the Olympic Games.”

But for Russian national team the situation does not change from the victory of Holland, because the Russians will still have to play in the semifinals with the team that took first place in the parallel group. Our girls’ rivals will be the Americans, who did not lose a single set in the Final Six and, along with Brazil national team, are the main contenders for victory in the Grand Prix.

It is worth noting that the vicissitudes of the calendar, according to which the only day of rest for our team was on the very first day of the tournament, has now played out against our opponents, who are also now forced to play their matches on a daily basis.

"The Grand Prix". "Final Six". Group K. Thailand - RUSSIA - 0:3 (25:27, 24:26, 19:25)

Judge: Budaya T. (Tunisia). Time match: 1.25 (29+30+26). T: Tinkaov (13), Kongyot (17). R: Shcherban (11), Zaryazhko (5), Goncharova (27), Pankova, Fetisova (7), Ilchenko (12), Malova (l), Babeshina (0), Startseva (0), Malykh (0). Group K. USA - China - 3:0 (25:21, 26:24, 25:22).

POSITION OF TEAMS AFTER THE GROUP TOURNAMENT

GROUP J

GROUP K

Start time of matches - Moscow

RUSSIA - DOMINICAN REPUBLIC - 3:0 (25:21, 25:20, 25:16)

Points scored - 75:57 (attack - 43:26, block - 5:5, serve - 5:0, opponents' errors - 22:26).

For our women's team, the current Nations League has become a real test. Some have never flown as much in their entire lives as the Russians have in the last month. Igor Kobzar Recently he complained that the men’s team doesn’t have time to train due to their busy schedule. But our guys have all five stages in Europe. What can we say about the girls who managed to visit Asia twice? In the men's tournament, by the way, the Italians were just as lucky with the draw. And if in Serbia they beat the Germans, the hosts and even the Brazilians, then in the next two rounds, which they had to spend in Argentina and Japan, they lost four times to much less formidable opponents. Now they risk not making it to the Final Six.

LIBERO CIRCUIT IN THE TEAM

Our chances of reaching the decisive round before the final round were generally only theoretical. In incredible scenarios, the Dutch could be kicked out of the Final Six participants. But for this, they should not win more than one game in any of the three matches in Stuttgart, and the Russians, in turn, could not be given more than a game for a game in their group. Then we would have caught up with Holland in terms of the number of victories, and surpassed them in points. But it is almost impossible to believe that the European vice-champions against Turkey, China and Germany will never be able to reach at least a tie-break.

In any case, our girls need to think not about someone else’s possible failures, but about their own game. Moreover, against the backdrop of wild under-recovery and a short bench, anything could happen. Even in the game against the Dominican Republic - by no means a team that should be feared.

In addition, it turned out that the composition of the Caribbean team was also not optimal. There are no number of leading players led by Bethania de la Cruz, known for her performances for Dynamo Moscow. The main star of the current team is the 21-year-old diagonal Brailyn Martinez, whose height is 2.01 m. She became the best of the Dominicans this time too, but this did not help her team.

Russia played much more solidly. She constantly led the score, only occasionally allowing her rivals to get closer. And she didn’t leave much of a chance for her opponents. All three games were taken with a margin both in terms of the score and the game.

One interesting thing is that in the third game the head coach of the Russians Vadim Pankov released at the base Anna Kotikova. And the 18-year-old striker did not get lost. She has three aces and six implemented attacks out of nine. It was funny to see the libero Victoria Gorbachev in a playful way. Let us remind you that Pankov during the League of Nations decided to retrain as libero Julia Kutyukov. It happens. Looking for a coach. This also requires a summer commercial tournament.

POLAND AND JAPAN AHEAD

The Russians handled their first game in Poland brilliantly. However, during the course of it it became known that a trip to Nanjing, where the Final Six will take place, was not going to happen. The Dutch took two sets from Turkey from the very first try. Although the second game turned out to be extremely stubborn, it reached 31:29. Everything that followed no longer mattered to us.

Failure to reach the Final Six, in turn, does not cancel the tasks for the last two matches of the Nations League - with Poland and Japan. Both of these teams, by the way, can still get ahead of us in the table. It’s definitely not worth bringing things to this point. It would be much more pleasant to rise a little ourselves.

And it would be beautiful to finish such a difficult tournament with three victories. And this will definitely give confidence on the eve of the autumn World Cup. Our team often misses her.

Traditionally, winter sports have always been considered Russian, but our representatives regularly occupied leading positions in summer sports as well. But the current summer has not particularly pleased us with bright events. The national football team performed in such a way that neither journalists, nor experts, nor players and fans even want to remember its performance. Volleyball, which has long been considered our discipline, is gradually ceasing to be such. At least the national men's team is putting their best effort into it. For the second year in a row, Russia will not be represented in the main tournament of the World League, since the volleyball players failed to make it to the Final Six following the results of the preliminary tournament.

In the meantime, the representatives of the stronger sex are once again analyzing the reasons for the failures, our girls are preparing to storm the final World Grand Prix tournament, where six teams will be divided into two groups.

Group 1

• Brazil;
• Thailand;
• Russia.

Group 2

• China;
• Netherlands.

Group standings

As you can see, both trios contain clear outsiders and teams that will fight for first place. The Thais will gain experience, and the Brazilian representatives will try to beat our girls. Yuri Marichev's team did not meet with the Latin American team at the preliminary stage, where they lost only one game - to the Serbs.

In the second group, the US and Chinese teams are seen as the favorites, while the Netherlands will most likely be content with experience and third place.

Final of the Six World Grand Prix: schedule of games and results

Semi-finals (07/09/2016)

Brazil - Netherlands, 11:00

Russia - USA, 14:00