Berlin, Germany, March 18, 2014. Looking back upon the first highlight of their domestic season, the BERLIN Recycling Volleys have suffered a bitter let-down, made a crucial experience and got to feel an unforgettable atmosphere at the German national cup final in Halle/Westphalia losing to arch-rival VfB FRIEDRICHSHAFEN in an enthralling tie-breaker by 2:3 (25-20, 15-25, 25-20, 16-25, 12-15). Now the club has published an extraordinary documentary. HALLE luja - The Movie shows the cup final from the team’s perspective.

“No matter what happens, we’ll stay together”, setter Kawika Shoji speaks to his teammates before the group jointly leaves the locker room heading to the arena. The time had come for the side of BERLIN to play the national cup final after nine years of absence. A crowd of more than 10,000 spectators welcomed the teams - amongst them more than 1,000 fans of the 2013 German national champion forming the “orange wall”.  

The match lived up to the crowd’s expectations evolving to a worthy final of the German national cup competition whilst turning into a roller-coaster ride for both fan groups. After 1:0 and 2:1 leads for the side of Berlin, VfB FRIEDRICHSHAFEN called for a tie-break and eventually edged the Playoff 12 participant of this year’s CEV DenizBank Volleyball Champions League by 15-12 claiming the twelfth cup title in their history. 

Despite the disappointment about the missed opportunity this weekend remains a unique experience for the team of head coach Mark Lebedew – an experience captured in a 40-minute documentary. Dennis Schlüter and Andreas Perseke, who produce the club’s Internet TV-Magazin BEST OF FIVE, followed the team for three days wherever the group went. Looking behind the scenes the camera logged all events around the cup final from the ride on the team bus to the final team address by Mark Lebedew before the match.

Indeed, the fight for the cup title was lost, but as Kawika Shoji said: “No matter what happens, we’ll stay together”. This attitude is what the team again wants to demonstrate in the upcoming weeks. Starting the coming Wednesday (March 26) at Max-Schmeling-Halle in Berlin, the German national championship has come to its crunch time with BR Volleys playing the first stage of the Playoffs, the quarterfinal.