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Following the end of the European Championship, players returned from the national teams and the laegues got to a quick start. The first whistle of the Turkish League came with an anticipated Super Cup clash featuring the defending champion Fenerbahce Universal and the defending Turkish Cup winner Eczacıbaşı VitrA. Fenerbahçe had lots of trouble coming into the season with their club president Aziz Yıldırım getting arrested for fixing football matches and ending their sponsorhip deal with Acıbadem. All of the rumors went in the wrong lane for the team in yellow blue when Fenerbahçe was unable to find a new sponsor and their super star transfers were speculated to search for a new club. The club devastated all the rumors by signing Universal hospitals as the new sponsor of the women’s volleyball club and keeping Logan Tom, Fabiana, Korean star Kim and Sokolova in the club for the season. Eczacıbaşı, on the other hand, transferred one of the best European middle blockers Maja Poljak together with Senna Usic and renewed contract with the Cuban-born Italian star Mirka Francia.
The teams hardly were able to make a solid full-team practice before the match as it has only been a week after the European Championships had ended. Therefore it was obvious that the match won’t be promising in terms of its quality but that the teams would rely on the personal abilities and techniques of their heroines. Fenerbahçe had more negatives compared to Eczacıbaşı since Ze Roberto was heading the Brazilian National Team, including Claudino Fabiana, in preparation for the upcoming World Cup. Logan Tom’s presence in the USA national team practices was not of any help to the team, either. In any case, Turkish teams are only able to keep 2 foreigners on the court and 1 on the bench this season so four of them together would not be fighting on the court even the team was in full roster.
The game started with Eczacıbaşı’s full control as each player dismantled Fenerbahçe’s reception targeting the vulnerable libero Nihan Yeldan with their serves. Eczacıbaşı’s main problem was the inconsistency of their setters last year. Neither Elif nor Asuman was able to lead the team in important moments. However, Elif seemed to have cleansed of her deficiencies. She was particularly good with her quick middles with Büşra Cansu and her high balls to Francia as well as Darnel. One of the best things she did was to set long enough balls to Esra Gümüş so that she could do what she was best at: turning away her arm for block-outs or parallel balls deep down the line. Naz Aydemir was absent on Fenerbahçe’s side and the new transfer Seda Eryüz, former Eczacıbaşı and Galatasaray setter, was on the court. Aydemir was fined for two weeks for not attending national team practices excusing her injury though she was present in Fenerbahçe Universal training sessions. Yet Seda Eryüz did not seem really efficient with her sets as they were too low for her hitters to pass Eczacıbaşı blocks. Nevertheless one needs to take the blinkers off and realize that the blame of the loss should not only be placed on the setter’s shoulders. The chronic reception problem of Fenerbahçe continues from the last year as Yeldan leads the front. Sokolova is not as helpful as she is in the Russian team either. She was not effective with her spikes and not solid with her defence. The only promising part for Fenerbahçe was Yeon Keong Kim’s presence with the team this season. Most of the time, the Korean outside hitter was able to hit over the blocks and scattered Eczacıbaşı defence. While only one gun was working on Fenerbahçe’s side, all guns were productive with Eczacıbaşı or whenever one of them was unproductive, Lorenzo Micelli was clever enough to make the right substitutions. Senna Usic, Esra Gümüş and Mirka Francia trio is likely to strengthen Eczacıbaşı’s position number 4 this season. At the end of the game, while Neslihan Darnel soared with 25 points, the rest of the team all had equal double-digit scores, which is always a good sign for a team. There will probably be much more energy and depth to the rivalry of both teams but the first encounter saw the team in orange-white prevail in four sets and claim the Super Cup.
Fenerbahçe struggled to protect their scars and heal them with a first-week four-sets win over Galatasaray Medical Park, the team of Lo Bianco and Calderon later in the week. Galatasaray has lots of things to handle before they can be a true contender for the title since the team’s only fruitful player is Calderon at the moment. Thus it was easy for Fenerbahçe to defeat Leo’s new team as they had in-form Sokolova and Kim on the court that day.
The league will definitely rise to a higher level in the upcoming level as Vakıfbank Türk Telekom will return from the World Club Championship in full contention for all the competitions.
Murat N. Çolakoğlu
exceptional analysis!