CEV Champions League F4

CEV Champions League Final Four will take place in İstanbul on March 9th-10th, 2013.

Together with Host Club Galatasaray Daikin, Vakıfbank (defeated Eczacıbaşı 3-1, 3-1), Rabita Baku (eliminated Dinamo Kazan 3-1, 3-1) and Yamamay Busto Arsizio (screened Azerrail Baku out with golden set 3-2, 0-3 /golden) are the four teams in the finals.

Vakifbank is the former champion (2011) and the foremost favorite to claim the title this year considering they have not even beaten once this year (27-0 record). Rabita Baku is also a regular and experienced attendee to this level of competition. Busto and Galatasaray are the CEV Cup champion and runner-up teams of 2012, and they already proved they are eager to put their names on the top of the Europe Women Volleyball.

Offense...

Brakocevic of Vakıfbank, Montano of Baku, Kozuch of Yamamay, Calderon and Neri of Galatasaray will be the leading scorers of the final four. I hope they will be killing the points as before and not let eyes to be in search of Gamova (Kazan) and Nesli (Eczacıbaşı). Vakıfbank has many alternatives for scoring with quite well efficiency- Fürst, Gözde, Glinka, Bahar-, followed by Galatasaray and Baku.

Aces will not be a decision making stat for this F4, I believe Kozuch will be fire the most ace-hitting serves. Ace to Serve error ratio is best for Vakıf with 72 aces / 79 errors making 1,09. Galatasaray is the worst with 1,71 ace / erros rate. Others lie on 1,25 ratio.

No discussion Naz is the best playmaker / setter of europe. But Galatasaray has the former best, Lo Bianco, a great professional for her field. Both like to use all the field and alternative variations to keep the attack dynamic and catch the defense unprepared. Polish Skorupa from Baku is performing quite well this year.

Defense..

Defensively Yamamay seems to be the best team. Excellent reception is 39 %, making them to be the second best team in the competion. the latter seems to be in the same range of efficienct more or less 35 %.

In terms of Block efficiency Vakıfbank is coming up a step forward, with Fürst and Bahar in the fore field like twin towers of the net. 3,4 points per set coming into account from blocks is 1 block more than the rest of the others. Galatasaray will match up them with Gioli, and also Arrighetti of Yamamay will be following for killing blocks.

First day match up brings us GS-Vakıfbank and Baku-Yamamay. Thumbs up and see you in Burhan Felek Sports Arena.

Go Reds Gooooooo!.
GaLaTaSaRaY...