Belo Horizonte, Brazil, May 11, 2014.  With a superb performance, Belogorie BELGOROD from Russia became the new club world champion!  In the final match of the FIVB Men’s Club World Championship in Belo Horizonte, after playing some amazing volleyball, the winners of the 2014 CEV DenizBank Volleyball Champions League - Men prevailed over Qatar’s AL-RAYYAN by 3:1 (16-25, 25-21, 25-21, 25-15).

Belogorie had two key players for the win: György Grozer and Dmitriy Muserskiy who scored 18 points each for the new world champion, which outlasted AL-RAYYAN on both attacking and blocking. Michael Sanchez Bozhulev led Qatar’s team with 15 tallies.

AL-RAYYAN achieved the first set victory with an amazing display.  Sanchez hammered the first two points of the game and, from then, the Asian team quickly moved on to 9-1 with Robertlandy Simon at the serving line. Sanchez and Simon repeated until 14-5, and even though Dragan Travica converted an ace for 14-7, Matey Kaziyski emerged to conduct his side to 18-9. Both Cuban players blocked together at 21-11 and AL-RAYYAN cruised to the end. A wrong Russian serve wrapped up the chapter by 25-16.

Belogorie answered in the second set, showing the features that made them European champions. After scores of 8-6 and 10-6, Simon served well to reduce (12-10), but the Russians bounced back to 16-13. Muserskiy did some great damage also serving, making things very difficult in attack for AL-RAYYAN towards a 21-15 on the board. Belogorie pulled out stunning blocks in the final part and captain Taras Khtey smashed the 25-21.

The third set showed two leveled teams, with Belogorie slightly ahead at the first technical time-out (8-7). However, nothing changed right after the break, as the tie persisted to 11-11. Belogorie managed to create a break at 15-12 with a low momentum from AL-RAYYAN, and Travica served right over the sideline to increase the damage (16-12). Grozer overcame AL-RAYYAN’s block to score the 21-16 and led the way to 24-18, and Muserskiy landed a soft touch for the 25-21.

Taking advantage of some errors from AL-RAYYAN, Belogorie improved and grew stronger to a 9-5 lead. Grozer enhanced his personal score providing the European champions a huge gap at 15-9, while AL-RAYYAN tried to defend, but had no weapons for the comeback. Muserskiy seized his height and easily blocked for 17-10, Grozer smashed some very sharp spikes and Belogorie arrived to the final track with a comfortable lead (20-12). The gold medal point was made by a wrong serve for 25-15.

After coming to Brazil as European champions, Belogorie celebrated another title in a great tournament, nailing five straight wins, and all of them in four sets.

“We served very well throughout the match,” György Grozer commented.  “We started bad, but we never gave up and always tried to fight. I think that was the team’s heart; we managed to play perfectly from there. We played like a team. This tournament had a very high level and that made things difficult for us, but like I said, we are a team. We are very good friends, we worked very hard and thus we achieved this victory.”

Gennady Shipulin, Belogorie’s head coach, was completely ecstatic after the win:  “We are a great team.  We are a family.  We wanted to win this title; I myself wanted it very much.  We all played an amazing game, all the team gave everything for this.”

Meanwhile, despite the defeat, AL-RAYYAN coach Igor Arbutina was also happy:  “This is a historical achievement for Qatar’s volleyball and also for the entire region.  We lost against a much better team; Belogorie was just too good for us.  They are the strongest team in the world now.”

FIVB Volleyball Men’s Club World Championship 2014 Final Standings:

1. Belogorie BELGOROD (RUS)

2. AL-RAYYAN (QAT)

3. UPCN SAN JUAN (ARG)

4. Sada Cruzeiro BELO HORIZONTE (BRA)

5. TRENTINO Volley (ITA)

    Matin VARAMIN (IRI)

7. GUAYNABO Mets (PUR)

    Esperance TUNIS (TUN)

FIVB Volleyball Men’s Club World Championship 2014 Ideal Line-up:

Setter: Raphael Vieira De Oliveira (BRA/AL-RAYYAN)

Opposite: Wallace De Souza (BRA/Sada Cruzeiro BELO HORIZONTE)

Outside Hitter: Sergey Tetyukhin (RUS/Belogorie BELGOROD)

Outside Hitter: Matey Kaziyski (BUL/AL-RAYYAN)

Middle Blocker: Robertlandy Simon Aties (CUB/AL-RAYYAN)

Middle Blocker: Jose Santos Junior (BRA/UPCN SAN JUAN)

Libero: Alan Domingos (BRA/AL-RAYYAN)

FIVB Volleyball Men’s Club World Championship 2014 Most Valuable Player:

Dmitriy Muserskiy (RUS/Belogorie BELGOROD)

Click here for more information on the FIVB Volleyball Men’s Club World Championship.