Turkish League: The resurgence of Vakif Gunes in Epic Fashion

Turkish Women’s League continues to attract a great deal of attention in European volleyball community. The last few weeks witnessed a series of spectacular games in the Turkish League and tough battles in the European Champions League. At the beginning of the season, all the volleyball media officials focused on were Fenerbahce Acibadem with their grand transfers. Now, ironically enough, Vakifbank Gunes Sigorta Turk Telekom and Eczacibasi Vitra are the ones that emerge as the dominant powers both in the Turkish League and the Champions League.

Following Vakif Gunes defeat in the Turkish Cup a couple of months ago, the women of Fenerbahce Acibadem suffered another blow away, this time in the Turkish League, against the giants Eczacibasi Vitra. The weaknesses of Fenerbahce Acibadem were no more undiscovered. Starting with the Vakif Gunes defeat, the vulnerable “Yellow Angels” had widely bleeding wounds, which were confirmed once again by Eczacibasi. As is obvious to all volleyball audience, Ze Roberto prefers his so-called “three muskeeters” Sokolova, Osmokrovic and Skowronska in domestic games as Fofao and Furst keep watching their team mates in the stands. This evidently means that the direction and management of the team is delivered to the rookie Aydemir and the replacement of an elite class middle blocker somehow becomes the inexperienced and rather slow Ergul Avci. As Eczacibasi dispatched Fenerbahce in four great sets, solid defense and attacks in addition to as risky as successful serves targeted at the disorderly Fenerbahce reception made quick and great work. One of the best and bold moves of Ze Roberto in his up-to-date tenure at Fenerbahce was, after the Eczacibasi game, to slowly displace the libero Yeldan from the starting line-up and replace her with Songul Dikmen in the rest of the games. Even at a certain point of the Eczacibasi match, Yeldan did not rotate back into the court as Ze Roberto must have been really sick and tired with her lousy receptions. As Fenerbahce holds the right to the organize the Champions League Final Four, they have not played any competitive games since then but still reception seems to be a huge trouble as Dikmen is a so-so libero while Sokolova has surprisingly been an underperformer at the reception department particularly for the last few weeks. However, the magical resolution of the reception problem is unlikely to carry the team in yellow-blue jerseys to any trophy they contend for particularly because the five foreigners that will play in the Final Four to be slated in Istanbul have not played together for a very long time. The team bluntly needs Fofao as Aydemir’s sets are mere sources of disappointment for the hitters which are all disclosed in the facial expressions of Skowronska and Sokolova after every set with no height to even hit over the net. Furst is obviously another desperate need for Fenerbahce; however, for the moment volleyball fans right now only get to see a block professor wasting her time sitting in sports hall seats. Recently, Fenerbahce, not surprisingly, lost a point against Besiktas who were recently swept away by Urbino in the CEV Cup. Besiktas starts Perugia’s former opposite Rykhliuk and Russian Kulikova; nevertheless, they should be no match against Fenerbahce. While credits for Besiktas should be reserved, the loss also is a perfect testament of the earthquakes in the club and, if anything, the reckless building of the roster in the beginning of the season.

The traditional Turkish derby; i.e., Eczacibasi and VakifGunes that has come along for many years in the Turkish League was just the first of the many games they would play against each other this season. The game witnessed five sets but only the last one lived up to the expectations. The first two were dominated by the pupils of Guidetti while the next two by that of Micelli. The last set was a perfect showdown and Guidetti prevailed over his compatriot Micelli at the end by a mere two-point advantage. One of the main problems of Eczacibasi is experiencing is with their setters Elif and Asuman. Elif is more experienced but less precise and accurate in her sets while Asuman is wildly inconsistent. Del Core and the libero Kayalar are perfectly able to split the court in reception while Francia only takes the responsibility of a very limited area. However, that harmony recently got a huge blow with the unfortunate injury of Kayalar in the return game of the Champions League 12^th Playoffs against RC Cannes in Istanbul. Eczacibasi ran over the elite French team in a taintless record in both games; yet, they probably lost one of their, if not the only, most important players. A huge portion of the international volleyball community may point out to Darnel, Francia, Del Core or Bown as the main player of this team. However, without Kayalar, the backbone of the defence walls the team in orange-white has perfectly built piece by piece is vastly devastated. I agree with Micelli and all the other Eczacibasi players that this team is demonstrating a decent example of team work but the absence of Kayalar is irreplaceable in any team she gets to play. Eczacibasi is gifted with all-round hitters specialized in all positions but by far the best libero of Turkey just cannot be replaced. And she wasn’t. Kayalar’s injury will force the experienced player to be sidelined for 6 months so this season is over for her. In the 6^th Playoffs of Champions League, Vakif Gunes had to battle against Eczacibasi since three teams from the same nation can not play in the prestigious Final Four event. Expectedly, Guidetti directed his players to serve intensely on the young libero Serpil Ersari and they got what they planned. Yet, on top of that, nothing else functioned right in Eczacibasi this Wednesday. There were no limits to their unforced errors and there were no signs of that inspirational team spirit we have seen before.

With that being said, this should not take away any credits from Vakifbank Gunes Sigorta. They have been playing better and better starting with their Turkish Cup win against Fenerbahce Acibadem and they are almost at their peak form right now. Amongst all, the block-defence harmony is the one that deserves the best praise of all. On top of that, the effort they display on the court to dig every ball is pure perfection. Plus, when you have three foreigners who are able to neutralize even the worst sets, then you have got a shot at every title. Kirdar is just another inconsistent Turkish setter who may drive a world class hitter like Glinka or Poljak crazy but they, as a team, fight for every rally so heartedly that even the loss of easiest points does not discourage them but motivates them. It is not a rare case that all Poljak can do is just to tip the ball or that Glinka and Nikolic are without solutions to trespass the blocks. Or you could argue till the morning that the outside hitter Gozde Kirdar is not born to be opposite. Yet the risky and effective floating serves of each player, the blocks they build in return and the attacks they develop on each miraculous dig are just mere volleyball ABC and they implement it in a dominating fashion on court.

This weekend Turkish League will host Fenerbahce vs Vakif Gunes derby and then Eczacibasi vs Vakif Gunes in the following days this time in the elite tournament of the Champions. Galatasaray and Besiktas are out of the CEV Cup. To the weakness of Turkish League, the gap between these three teams and the rest in Turkish League is sadly huge. Be it Fenerbahce’s problems with their junior setter or reception plague at the back court, be it absence of Kayalar at Eczacibasi or be it inaccurate sets even when the advantage is on their side at Vakif Gunes; the games among these three teams are pure epic volleyball showdowns.

See you next week!

Murat N. Colakoglu – Foto Vakifbank