Volleyball Champions League: Berlin Volleys against Ankara: No longer afraid of the superstars

Timothee Carle preferred to run quickly to the other side of the pitch right at the start of his usual warm-up program to say “Salut!” to his friend from the French national team. Earvin N’Gapeth is not only an Olympic champion and one of the most exciting volleyball players of the past decade, he was also a guest at Carles Berlin Volleys on Wednesday evening with Halkbank Ankara, one of the best club teams. It was the opportunity for the 28-year-old Berlin outside attacker to show his compatriot, four years his senior, that top European volleyball has long been played in the German capital. According to Carle, this should not be the focus of one’s own actions. “He’s such a great player, you can’t be in awe of him,” he said. Therefore, after the greeting until the last rally, he avoided any eye contact with N’Gapeth as much as possible.

The tactic worked. After less than two hours, the volleys had given the star ensemble from Turkey their first defeat of this year’s season in the Champions League with 3-0 (25:22, 25:23, 25:22). Of course, this required more than not looking your opponent in the eyes. Nevertheless, this small detail showed the focus that the German champions had placed on the game. Not only had the Volleys been drawn into the toughest preliminary group, they had also recently suffered narrow defeats in Ankara and Piacenza. Now a win was needed to keep the chance of moving forward. And to do this, you first had to reduce your own error rate. So every distraction had to be avoided – including idolizing one’s own idols.

In fact, the Berliners managed an almost perfect game that evening in front of a season-record crowd of 6,567 fans in the Max Schmeling Hall. With only a few exceptions, the defense line around Carle defused the hard serves of N’Gapeth and the Dutch star Nimir Abdel-Aziz. At the same time, the German national players Ruben Schott and Johannes Tille in particular generated enough pressure on the Berlin serve to at least keep the Turks’ powerful and variable attacking game under control.

»We have had an incredibly strong reception. “We played against some of the best servers in the world,” said Berlin’s new coach Joel Banks later. This was also achieved in the narrow 2-3 defeat in Turkey, but “the difference today was that we acted smarter in the important moments. We made fewer mistakes and played very intelligently tactically.”

After the second defeat in Piacenza a week ago, we took a lot of time to think and discuss, Carle added: »We addressed our errors in serving and receiving, because we know that we have no chance. “Nevertheless, you always have to take high risks in the Champions League, otherwise you will be played against the wall. »Today we used it at the right moments, but sometimes we also relied on variability. I’m really glad that we were able to show a different face today,” said the Frenchman. »We kept a cool head. And that’s not so easy when you see who’s on the other side of the net.”

In this respect, this clear victory was the best proof that the BR Volleys had successfully completed their maturation process. For almost a decade, the premier class has always ended in the group phase or, at the latest, in the quarter-finals. This year we should finally be able to take part in the Final Four, but in order to do that we also have to defeat the big teams with world champions and Olympic champions in their squads. And if you believe Berlin’s Captain Schott, belief in your own strength is the crucial point: “If you don’t believe in it, then it won’t work. The narrow defeat in Ankara gave us confidence. That was very important for the head to see that we can beat them.

In particular, Schott and setter Tille, who once again led the volley game so strongly that he was voted the best player in the game, were able to gain a lot of this self-confidence in the summer. Both were in national coach Michał Winiarski’s regular line-up when the sensation against world champions Italy and hosts Brazil was achieved during the successful Olympic qualification. A few days later, Schott said he wanted to celebrate international success with his hometown club. Carle also “got the feeling that we were getting better every year. We just have to always believe that we deserve such victories, that they are not a coincidence. The goal is to make a statement in the Champions League this season.«

The Berliners played exactly the same way on Wednesday. Instead of bypassing exceptional talents like N’Gapeth, the Frenchman was repeatedly put under pressure with hard serves. And the lack of hardness was made up for with clever lays behind the Turkish block. When Abdel-Aziz did hit a few hard serves between the Berlin defenders, they quickly found new solutions before Ankara could get too far away.

»I don’t know if we’ll get further than in previous years. To do that, we have to get through this amazing group first,” said coach Banks, but he didn’t dare to look too far into the coming spring. Nevertheless, a development in his team remained hidden from him. “We were finally able to train for four days in a row.” Luckily, some players are healthy again, so two complete teams can compete against each other again in training. “That made a difference today,” said the Englishman, who now wants to make sure that the hospital stays empty. This season is so packed that “you have to give the players enough time to regenerate. It’s a tightrope walk mentally and physically.”

After the German champions’ last pre-Christmas Bundesliga game on Saturday against their first rivals Lüneburg, Banks can only give his team three days off because the next game against last year’s semi-finalists Düren is scheduled for December 30th.