The last big ere-playoff derby in the German league between VfB Friedrichshafen and Generali Unterhaching two weeks ago pretty much arranged the couples for the most important part of the season. Apart from the top three, Moerser SC was the team to make a huge leap forward in the last rounds despite a tough schedule.

It comes as no accident that two teams in good shape in February – namely Haching and Moerser, affirmed their positions in the regular season standings. One of them will have a reason to celebrate this weekend as Halle will welcome the German Cup winner on Wednesday, 3rd March.

 

While Berlin Recycling Volleys have been out of reach throughout the entire domestic season, their arch rivals Friedrichshafen and Unterhaching met at the Bodensee in a direct second-place encounter. Head coach Stelian Moculescu had a lot of complaints about the refereeing in the game, especially in the last two sets, but even if one has to admit the inaccurate judgement at times of the officials, we simply cannot ignore the fact that there was one team on the field that day. Generali Unterhaching enjoyed an almost flawless afternoon. Despite the absence of the ill libero Pruessener, replaced equally efficiently by the young Tom Strohbach, the Bavarians demonstrated an insane attack percentage. Jan Willem Snippe made the difference in the opening set by a series of bomb serves and kept his consistency later on as well. The outcome after the intense second set won by the guys of Paduretu was then more or less predictable – a straight-set win (15-25, 24-26, 18-25).

Whether Haching had only a blast on that specific derby or they are indeed rolling on in the last few weeks, we are about to see pretty soon as both the Pokal final and the playoff clashes are around the corner. Besides, VfB will most probably have a chance to seek revenge as both teams are likely to meet in an eventual semifinal.

 

Moculescu, on the other side, has more riddles to solve these days. The decline of the once mighty German colossus is obvious and the home defeat against Haching came only to announce what we already know. Disciplinary problems were the reason for the VfB board to release ‘Idi’ Lima Martins, but it came along with the news of health improvement of the new signing Valentin Bratoev. He and the unavailable Victor Batista watched in the stands their teammate Ventsislav Simeonov fight alone the team from Oberbayern, but soon the Bulgarian outside hitter might turn out to be the joker Moculescu needed. Simeonov is probably the most prolific opposite in the league, winning games for VfB almost by himself, but he seems without support in important games. Jose Rivera and ‘Idi’ are far from their golden years, whereas Juraj Zatko is not a player capable of keeping his momentum. The Slovakian will have to do better in the next days as his back-up Nikola Jovovic is not ready to step up. At least the three middles – Jose, Gunthor and Denmark are giving some hope that Friedrichshafen might make it to a final. However, in my opinion, to do that VfB will need a reliable Valentin Bratoev to support Simeonov.

Four tie-break wins in a row sent Moerser SC away from the “big three” in the quarterfinals. The last two of the four victories were against Unterhaching (away) and Friedrichshafen (home) – a good run for self-confidence even if both their opponents used most of their bench options. The Danish talent Peter Trolle Bonnessen (VfB) finally got the chance to show up with the white and blue jersey in the last round of the regular season. Thus, Moerser took a perfect advantage of the situation in the last rounds and scored important points to make it to the fifth position. Steven Keir, meanwhile, seems to be doing great as an opposite to the experienced Niko Freriks, so Moerser will surely have something to say to both Haching on Sunday and TV Ingersoll Buhl in the quarterfinal playoff.

 

Regular season standings:

 

1 – Berlin Recycling Volleys, 20 games, 38-2 points
2 – Generali Unterhaching, 20, 32-8
3 – VfB Friedrichshafen, 20, 26-14
4 – TV Ingersoll Buhl, 20, 26-14
5 – Moerser SC, 20, 22-18
6 – evivo Dueren, 20, 20-20
7 – CV Mitteldeutschland, 20, 18-22
8 – TV Rottenburg, 20, 16-24
9 – Netzhoppers KW-Bestensee, 20, 12-28
10- VC Dresden, 20, 6-34
11- VCO Berlin, 20, 0-40

 

Pre-playoffs (“best of three”)

first games on 6th March

 

7 – 10
Chemie Volley Mitteldeutschland vs. VC Dresden
8 – 9
TV Rottenburg vs. Netzhoppers KW-Bestensee

 

Quarterfinal playoffs (“best of three”)

first games on 16-17 March

 

1 – 8/9
Berlin Recycling Volleys vs. TBD
2 – 7/10
Generali Unterhaching vs. TBD
3 – 6
VfB Friedrichshafen vs. evivo Dueren
4 – 5
TV Ingersoll Buhl vs. Moerser SC

 

Pictures: Moerser SC

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