01/12/2014 09:47
Ups and downs for Dinamo MOSCOW in Russian league before CEV Cup fixture with Landstede ZWOLLE
2015 CEV Volleyball Cup - Men
Moscow, Russia, December 1, 2014. Last Wednesday, November 26, the winning streak of Dinamo MOSCOW unexpectedly came to an end as the team from Russia’s capital lost in straight sets an away match with Zenit KAZAN in the Russian Superleague. However, the Muscovites could still keep – in spite of this setback – their second place in the standings of their domestic championship, with a margin of four points over their closest competitors, Zenit KAZAN and Lokomotiv NOVOSIBIRSK. Still their gap from the current leaders of the competition, Belogorie BELGOROD, also widened up to four points.
Dinamo’s head coach Yury Marichev was clearly disappointed after that loss to Zenit, especially since his guys had previously won 10 matches in a row by combining national league, Russian Cup and the CEV Volleyball Cup. “Today my team did not show the kind of game I expect from them, whereas Zenit played very well, especially in block and defence,” he said. Dinamo and Zenit are very likely to cross their ways once again in the final stage of the Russian Cup scheduled for December 22-28 in Belgorod after the Russian Volleyball Federation announced that a wild-card has been given to the team from Tatarstan for their participation in this competition.
Dinamo got back on track in the twelfth round of the Russian Superleague where they edged past Fakel NOVY URENGOY by 3:1 to keep their second place in the standings thanks to a superb performance by their opposite Ivan Zaytsev (pictured) who scored 23 points. “It was very important to win this game after our poor performance with Zenit KAZAN,” Marichev said after the match with Fakel. “We still looked nervous in the opening set as a result of our bad performance with KAZAN but everything went just fine in the three sets that followed.”
Dinamo MOSCOW will now re-start their campaign in the 2015 edition of the CEV Volleyball Cup playing Landstede ZWOLLE of the Netherlands on Wednesday, December 3. The Dutchmen are not that known so Dinamo is preparing very carefully for this match.
Click here for more info on the 2015 CEV Volleyball Cup – Men
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