21/01/2014 00:27
Knack goes for a miracle in re-match with Poland’s champions Resovia
2014 CEV DenizBank Volleyball Champions League - Men
Roeselare, Belgium, January 20, 2014. On Wednesday Knack ROESELARE and Poland’s Asseco Resovia RZESZOW will be crossing once more their ways in the Playoffs 12 of the 2014 CEV DenizBank Volleyball Champions League – Men. The guests from Poland will be the favourite side going into this game as they currently top the charts of their national league but most of all after their 3:1 home victory last week at the Podpromie sports hall.
Asseco Resovia will travel to Belgium with another boost of confidence resulting from their 3:0 victory over PGE Skra BELCHATOW in the last round of the PlusLiga. Their head coach Andrzej Kowal did even change starting players Dawid Konarski, Peter Veres and Fabian Drzyzga with Paul Lotman, Jochen Schöps and Lukas Tichacek but this did not impact at all on the final result of the much anticipated clash with Skra.
“This demonstrates once more the difference existing between Poland’s and Belgium’s national champions” says Knack ROESELARE head coach Emile Rousseaux (see picture). “They have got a budget which is four times higher than ours, a staff with four permanent coaches and scoutmen, plus 17 professional and world-class players that are at their disposal. The team does not have any superstars, but all of their players are extremely good.”
“Piotr Nowakowski, a middle-blocker who stands at 205 cm, has a spike reach of 365 cm which is just phenomenal” Rousseaux continues. “With Konarski and Schöps they have got two outstanding opposite players that would be in the starting six of any other team. Actually, it is difficult to explain, given these pre-conditions, that we could take the first set there and had a chance to win the third as well. Still we have our chances on Wednesday. We had a break of three weeks during the season’s holidays and this somehow impacted on our rhythm. Our setter Eemi Tervaportti was very busy with the Finnish national team and he played many tough matches at the World Champs qualifier in Slovakia. We went to Poland with only four training sessions on our legs and luckily we had a bye this weekend in the national league so that I could continue my work to prepare for this game. We needed to work on our team work because this is our main strength” Rousseaux concludes.
As they host Resovia at the Schiervelde sports hall, Knack will be playing their 100th match in the CEV Volleyball Champions League, so in combination with that maybe even a miracle could turn into reality.
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