In the final of the Russian Volleyball Cup, Zenit Kazan beat the capital’s Dynamo

Zenit-Kazan won the Russian Volleyball Cup for the third time in a row. In the final match of the tournament he took over over Dynamo Moscow on their court in four sets in a match whose first two games suggested equality of strength, but which continued with a huge advantage for the reigning national champions.

In recent years, it is the two participants in the final match who share the most valuable prizes at stake in domestic competitions. And Zenit’s current victory has become something of a revenge for him. The first trophy of the season was played out back in October, and then in the decisive match of the Centenary Cup, Dynamo defeated opponents in five games.

For some time yet another game between the two strongest Russian clubs lived up to the catchy, promising poster. Everything about her was subtle, and nothing could be planned in advance.

In the middle of the opening set, when Dynamo’s diagonal Tsvetan Sokolov ran into Zenit’s immediately activated block twice in a row, there was a temptation to hope for quick success in the Kazan game. Everything is going well for them, and they already have a decent lead of three goals. That’s how they usually keep it. But no, after a few minutes the score was already equal, and the “balance” looked inevitable. And on it, “Dynamo” fought off set point after set point, and it seemed like they had honestly earned a chance to achieve success. However, patient Zenit did not give him any chance. Everything in the party was decided by the bloc again. Only this time, with the score 27:26 in favor of Zenit, he won not by density, but by cunning: the blockers simply removed their hands, feeling that Anton Semyshev was aiming at them, and not at the court, and they were absolutely right.

The second set, however, managed to surpass the previous one in terms of degree of drama.

In it, Dynamo generally managed to get out of a situation that looked like it was absolutely hopeless. In the end, Zenit led with a two-goal advantage and looked completely calm – there was no talk of any disruption. However, Dynamo, having waited for someone else’s falsehood, again won the right to suffer on the “balance”.

This one was a marathon. In it, Zenit had a lot of opportunities to solve everything, but Dynamo miraculously saved itself. Once I was saved, for example, thanks to, as it seemed from the outside, a “challenge” taken at random by coach Konstantin Bryansky. But the video replay actually recorded a barely noticeable touch of the net by the Zenit blockers. And then Pavel Pankov came out to serve for Dynamo, it flew away, and the home team took the game with a score of 32:30.

What happened after that was all the more amazing. It must be assumed that those who came to watch the meeting were already prepared for the fact that it would be very long. Well, about as long as in the tournament dedicated to the centennial anniversary of Russian volleyball.

However, in the third set, Zenit suddenly appeared as a club head and shoulders above its opponent in both power and accuracy.

You can’t even single out one component in which Dynamo sank. They were a little inferior, but they were inferior in literally every aspect.

Having lost the game devastatingly, in the fourth the Dynamo volleyball players desperately clung to all the moments and even moments. But this was already the suffering of the doomed – although it aroused respect, it was useless. The Kazan skating rink, led by Maxim Mikhailov, Mika Christenson, Sam Deru, Artem Volvich, mercilessly rolled towards the golden finish.

Alexey Dospehov