31/10/2015 16:13
Dinamo MOSCOW play German multiple champions in CL season opener
2016 CEV DenizBank Volleyball Champions League - Men
Moscow, Russia, October 31, 2015. After a break of two years Dinamo MOSCOW are returning to the stage of Europe’s finest competition, the CEV DenizBank Volleyball Champions League. The winners of last year’s CEV Volleyball Cup will make their debut next Tuesday, November 3, playing Germany’s champions VfB FRIEDRICHSHAFEN to extend their rivalry in the competition.
VfB FRIEDRICHSHAFEN is by far the most decorated German team with as many as 13 national league titles on their resume and since 1997 it has been guided by Romanian-born mentor Stelian Moculescu. Back in the 2007-2008 season of the CEV Volleyball Champions League, the Germans outplayed Dinamo MOSCOW in the Playoffs 12 claiming their home match by 3:0 and one set won in the Russian capital was then enough to secure a spot among the top six in Europe.
The 2015-2016 season has already started in Germany with two rounds of the Bundesliga already contested. As for Dinamo MOSCOW, only on November 3 they will be playing their first match with a complete roster. Six of their players have been busy with their respective national teams, first at the World Cup in Japan and after that at the 2015 men’s EuroVolley in Italy and Bulgaria.
The team is experiencing a somehow unusual situation as all of their 14 players have stayed on from the 2014-2015 season. This way Dinamo hope that the teamwork will be one of the factors to rely on in order to achieve good results. The last time Dinamo played in the CEV Volleyball Champions League dates back to 2013 when they lost to their compatriots Zenit KAZAN in the Playoffs 6, i.e. the last step preceding the Final Four tournament.
Roman Yakovlev, a world-class player who just retired from competitive sport at the end of the 2014-2015 season and is now Dinamo’s assistant coach, says: “The team from Germany is a strong one and we expect a difficult match. Our team did not have any real practice yet with the full roster and this CL game is practically our debut this season. However, we will go out and take the court to win. The Germans have strong and skilled players. If we win this match, we will get the right boost of confidence for what is going to be a long and difficult season.”
|