2016/17 Tours Vb Roster
ph. cev.lu
Istanbul (Turkey), April 1st 2017
The qualification to the final of 2017 CEV Cup, got tonight in Turkey, allowed Trentino Volley to participate in the final of a continental championship for the third year in a row. In order to win an international trophy again – the last time was in the Club World Championship in Doha in 2012 – the Yellow-blues have to win against a French team.
In the final phase of the championship (which has always offered double matches, going match and return match with a single-elimination formula) Trentino Diatec will play against Tours Vb, against which it has already played four times in its seventeen years of activity. The French team got the qualification after defeating the German team of Rheinmain. The going match will be played at PalaTrento on April 12th and the return match on April 15th in France. The timetables have not yet been disclosed; the two Clubs are supposed to give their confirmation, in accordance with CEV and their respective National federations. This will be the fourth match against a French team for the Club of via Trener, after the matches played in Champions League not only against Tours (first phase of the editions of 213 and 2016), but also against Beauvais (first phase of 2009’s edition).
As happened in the 32nd-finals, 16th-finals, 8th-finals, quarterfinals and semi-finals, the team which in the double confrontation gets the highest number of points - like in SuperLega championship, 3 points for the victory 3-0 and 3-1, 2 points for the victory 3-2 and 1 point for the defeat 2-3 - after both matches will win the final. The golden set (a spare set up to 15 points) will be played only if the teams tie.
The identikit of the opponents of Trentino Diatec
Tours Vb is the main team of the capital of the region Indre et Loire, a town with over 130.000 inhabitants, and is one of the most representative teams in France. Two seasons ago (2014/15, when Oleg Antonov was a regular player of the team) it was able to win the national treble (championship, Cup and SuperCup). The many titles, including seven French titles, three SuperCups and nine French Cups, have not increased in number during the last eighteen months.
The limited results of last season forced the team to leave the CEV Champions League temporarily - it was able to win the 2005’s edition in Athens (with coach Roberto Serniotti) after defeating the Greek team of Iraklis Salonicco, and to get a second place in 2007’s edition. This will be only the third participation in the CEV Cup in its history; its only precedents were due to the elimination in the round-phase of Champions League. The best result in history in this competition is the participation in the final of 2017.
Tours has already played four official matches against Trentino Volley, all played in the group stage of Champions League. In 2013’s edition, the team, trained by Stoytchev by that time, won 3-0 twice, in France (on November 1st 2012) and at PalaTrento (on December 5th 2012), while in the last edition (2016) Trentino Diatec won 3-0 at PalaTrento on December 2nd 2015 but losing the return match to the tie-break in France on December 16th 2015.
Before getting to the final phase of 2017 CEV Cup it was able to eliminate the Slovenian team of Kamnik (3-1 and 3-2) in the 32nd-finals, the Czech team of Brno (3-0 and 3-1) in the 16th-finals, the Greek team of Salonicco (3-2 and 3-1) in the eight-finals, the Czech of Karlovarsko (3-0 and 3-2) in the quarterfinal and the German team of Rheinmain (3-0 and 3-2).
At the end of the French regular season Tours came third with a 5-point gap from the first team Chaumont, and is now ready to play the Play Off Scudetto.
In the team trained by the Italian Giampaolo Medei (former Lube, Modena and Beauvais) the most important players are the Czech opposite David Konecny (a great player for the number of seasons played and the number of points scored), the libero Henno (former Lube, Roma and Forlì) and the German middle blocker Collin. There are also two talented Canadians Barnes (spiker) and Jansen Vandoorn (middle blocker), the Australian opposite White (area 4, former Verona) and the Brazilian Alves Cabral. The setter is the Spanish Ruperez.
Usual formation: Ruperez (se), Konecny (o), Barnes-Alves Cabral (sp), Collin-Jansen Vandoorn (m), Henno (l)
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