The Russian men's volleyball team entered the history of their sport by two achievements - victories in the first two world championships and the first two Olympic tournaments. True, these significant successes took place back in the Soviet era, but for the modern team there were no more competitions left that could be conquered in the same way. But in 2019, the League of Nations was formed to replace the World League, and again there was a chance to win a completely new tournament twice.
A year ago, the Russian team did not experience serious problems in the Final Six, held in France. Under the leadership of Sergei Shlyapnikov, the national team in the same breath spent all four matches, losing only one set, and took the first gold of the tournament.
This time, the forebodings from the main match of the League of Nations, which was preceded by 129 games in 16 countries of the world, were more cautious. The Russian national team was to meet again with the hosts of the final stage - the US team. The rehearsal of the gold match took place quite recently in the group stage, and then the team of Tuomas Sammelvo lost with a score of 0: 3. Although the match had no tournament value and became a field for coaching experiments, and the loss was even more beneficial to avoid meeting with Brazil, re-playing with the Americans, and even on their territory, could cause great difficulties.
The final did not really start, especially for the leader of the Russian attacks in the semifinal with Poland, Viktor Poletayev. The ball after his blows stubbornly did not want to land on another half of the site. Seven consecutive attempts were wasted - for one of the world's best diagonal simply unthinkable statistics.
Sammelvuo continued to believe in Poletaev - he couldn’t just take it and forget how to play in one evening. While Victor continued to look for weaknesses in the defense of his opponent, Dmitry Volkov and Yegor Kluka tried to score points. The mistakes of the Americans, which compensated for the shortage on the block, also helped. This helped the Russians to stay in the game, and when the score was 18:18 Poletaeva finally broke through. Suppose he scored a point only after the video replay, but a start was made.
Objection! Russia 🇷🇺 says that ball touched the floor! And ...
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The outcome of the first set was very painful. The Russians had a two point advantage, but the Americans did not let them take it so easily. In addition, on the first set point, Poletayev filed out - this was still to be resolved. The leader of the US team, Matt Anderson, volunteered to save the team and carry out a decisive attack, but did not hit the pitch. Americans could save the video repetition, but all chellendzhi were spent. The first batch of Russians won with a score of 25:23.
The opener goes to Russia 🇷🇺! A 25-23 score over USA 🇺🇸 for the defending champions!
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It was obvious that it was worth American volleyball players to play more carefully, as they will be able to seize the initiative. That is exactly what happened in the second set. The rivals earned the advantage of six points, and Sammelvuo could only warm up the reserve before the decisive games. Fedor Voronkov went out instead of Poletaev, and he practically managed to reduce the backlog. But for a long time the nominal pre-player could not attack, and a considerable advantage came back to the Americans, bringing victory in the set - 25:20.
It's 1-1 in Chicago! USA 🇺🇸 levels things against Russia 🇷🇺 with a 25-20 on Set 2.
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It was as if there was no break, and the Russians immediately released the Americans in the third installment. Time-out Sammelvuo, who already lost his temper, brought the players back to their senses. The backlog was reduced to two points, but a curious attempt to create a block-out almost buried all efforts. The home team again went five points ahead. Fortunately, Dmitry Volkov managed to take over the game, while Poletayev’s marriage rate began to decline. At the cost of enormous efforts, the Russians deserved the right to remain in the game until the very end of the game. Poletaev helped earn four set points at once, and the second of them was implemented by Volkov.
Russia 🇷🇺 regains the lead! It's 25-21 and 2-1 for them against USA 🇺🇸 after this!
Can they close it? Find out here: https://t.co/RQp8h4Ny7A#BePartOfTheGame#volleyball#VNL#VNLMen@usavolleyball@RusVolleyTeampic.twitter.com/1iUiSiVr05
The fourth set was the most unpredictable of all the previous ones. Each team led several times in the long run, but lost its advantage. The decisive argument at this point was the filing of Igor Kobzar. Two times in a row, he so powerfully put the ball into play that the Americans returned the right to attack back, and the Russians used it. This helped earn a three-point advantage to the second technical time-out. After that, the started business was completed by Volkov, who sometimes scored balls through the triple block.
The Russian national team won the League of Nations for the second time, while not allowing any other team to excel at this tournament. Complete with gold medals, the Russians received a million dollars in prize money from the organizers, and Dmitry Volkov, Yegor Kluka and Ivan Yakovlev were recognized as the best in their positions in the Final Six.
At this season in international volleyball is not over. From 9 to 11 August in St. Petersburg, a qualifying tournament for the Olympics will be held, in which the Russians will play the only ticket in the company of Iran, Cuba and Mexico - the rivals to the two-time League of Nations winners got very serious ones. And on September 13, the European Championships will begin, in which the Russian team will defend the title.