The Last Four Matches

It's been a while (again) since I blogged, and we've had matches against Gentofte, Middelfart, Ikast, and one last weekend against Marienlyst. A lot has changed since the last time I wrote, when we were fighting with Gentofte for a second place spot. We lost our match against them and they are now in first, with Marienlyst second, and our loss to Middelfart the week after has knocked us down to fourth place.

The match against Gentofte was frustrating because we won the first set comfortably, then had several swings for set ball in the second set which we couldn't convert. Gentofte won both the second and third sets 27-25, though in the third we were behind and made a late run to challenge for the set, which turned out to not be enough.

The loss against Middelfart the week after was only our second home loss of the season. It was an ugly game and easy for Middelfart, as we lost by scores of 16-25, 18-25, and 17-25. We didn't have Jonas for that match, and Dimitar got a nasty cut on his had in warmups, so he had to come out because he was bleeding all over the court. Steen came in and played libero and did fine, but we were already out of it at that point. The loss put us behind Middelfart in the table, as we were level on points but with a lower set score.

The match again Ikast a week later was pretty up and down for us. We played decently in the sets we won, and held Ikast to 16 and 17 points, and only 7 in the deciding set. But the second and fourth sets were full of trouble in reception (as we were still without Jonas) and we made too many errors.

We had the next weekend off, then a trip to Odense to meet Marienlyst. We won the first set easily, thanks to a lot of attacking errors from Marienlyst and some decent serving by us. The second set was full of drama because the Marienlyst coach wrote the lineup wrong so that the middle blocker was following the setter in the rotation. The down ref told them to get in the correct position before the set started, but I don't think they realized that the lineup was written wrong. Eventually they got called for some rotation errors, and started complaining about the calls. The refs lost control at that point, and there really should have been some cards shown. The fact that we couldn't win that set was embarassing, considering we got several points from rotation errors, but we made plenty of errors to erase any advantage that might have given us. The fourth and final set went to Marienlyst as well, and ended up not being very close in the end.

The playoffs will be interesting this year because I don't think any team is playing particularly well. We've played the three other playoff teams within a month of each other, and no one really looked to be on top of their game. Gentofte relied on Jonas to carry them but didn't have much else going on, Middelfart came to our place and beat us in 3, but you never know which team will show up with them, Marienlyst looked unmotivated, and we've just lost to those three teams. With the last round of the season meaningless in terms of final position, I'm sure most teams are looking ahead to the semifinal matchups already, though how those will turn out is anyone's guess.

Games v Århus and Holte

The last couple weeks have been pretty rough on the team due to injuries and illness, and it's definitely shown in the last two matches. Both the Århus and Holte matches were very similar; both games had missing starters and a poor second set in each, but in both cases we were able to get the result we needed.

In the Århus match we were without Mikkel and Flemming, so "The Hammer" (Morten) got his first elitedivision start as a middle. The first, third, and fourth sets were comfortable and we adjusted to Århus tipping and lobbing the ball often. In the second set however, everything went to hell. Passing, attacking, and serving just went out the door and Århus won the set easily. The final scores for the match were 25-19, 16-25, 25-17, and 25-16.

We had a similar second set against Holte on Sunday. We started off the match with five hitting errors and were down by more than seven points midway through the set. Morten was switched in for me and towards the end of second set and we made a good run to challenge them for the win. The rest of the match belonged to us however, and we blocked really well, especially against Holte's outsides. We were missing Tue due to illness so Steen got the start at outside, and Mikkel and Flemming both played but were less than 100%. The set scores against Holte were 22-25, 25-22, 13-25, and 21-25.

As I mentioned before, in both cases we got the result, which was the most important thing, however having such a horrible set two times in a row gives us something to think about. It's the point in the season where it's easy to lose focus, but we can't afford to drop matches or even sets when the table is so tight. I think that was the case with Marienlyst this weekend, who may have had a bit of a hangover (though not literally) from winning the NCC. It's the second time that Middelfart has beaten them 3-0 this year, and those are the only two losses for Marienlyst this season.

Looking forward to the last third of the season and possible final results, Middelfart's win puts Holte four points out of a top four spot, and it looks like a stretch to see them making the playoffs this season, though of course anything is possible. The fight to avoid relegation may likely come down to the match on 21 February between Skovbakken and Ikast. And finally, we will have to win our match against Gentofte this weekend if we want any chance at second place, and home court advantage for the playoffs. It should be an exciting final third of the season, with some great games down the stretch.

Nordjyske - Århus Match
Nordjyske - Holte Match

Cup Final

I've been slow to write about the cup final, mainly because I had no idea what went wrong. I wanted to see if I could let it sit for a bit and then maybe something would come to me as to why we made such a poor showing. But it's been more than a week now, and after spending a day or two after the match thinking about it, and despite talking about it as a team at practice the following Monday and Tuesday, nothing has become any clearer.
There were just a lot of little things that went wrong, and they all happened at the same time. There were instances of miscommunication and lots of stupid mistakes that should have been eliminated within the first month of the season. Looking at the scores from the game, the 16, 17, and 20 points we scored weren't really indicative of how lopsided the match really was. We made runs of at least three or four points at the end of each set, and we could have easily been held to 11 in the first. Marienlyst was consistent throughout the match and didn't do much that was unexpected from our point of view. They passed well in reception and Hove was able to spread the ball around. We slowed Powell as much as is possible, but he (and the rest of the team) weren't called upon to do much in order to win. That's the way it goes sometimes, but what was so disappointing was to do it in such an important match. Congratulations to Marienlyst for their second cup in as many years.

TV2 Nord Video
TV2 Fyn Video
DR Video
Nordjyske Pictures
Photoevent.dk Pictures

Cup Final Tomorrow

Tomorrow is the big cup final, and we are meeting Marienlyst for the fourth time this season. Last week's match against them was unspectacular for both teams, and it really seemed like both sides were pretty flat, almost as though we didn't want to celebrate things too much, for fear of not being excited enough when we met again a week later. That certainly won't be the case Sunday, and I know everyone is looking forward to this match. We've got a bus of supporters coming down with us, and around 2,000 spectators are expected. Those of you who can't make it to the game can follow the live-score online here. The match starts at 15:30 (6:30 am Pacific).

Here's some more information about the game:

Cup History:
Aalborg HIK: Champion in 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, and 2003; Runner up in 2002
Marienlyst: Champion in 2004 and 2007

Elitedivision Records:
Marienlyst: 11-1 (1st)
Aalborg HIK: 7-4 (3rd)

Head to head matchup this season:
Marienlyst leads 3-0

Aalborg's Route to the Final:
1/8 Final: Forfeit win against Amager
1/4 Final: Holte 0 - 3 Aalborg HIK
Semifinal: Aalborg HIK 3 - 0 Middelfart

Marienlyst's Route to the Final
1/8 Final: Korsør-Slagelse 1 - 3 Marienlyst
1/4 Final: Hvidovre 0 - 3 Marienlyst
Semifinal: Gentofte 0 - 3 Marienlyst

Quotes:
Marienlyst coach Mikkel Hauge: "They will win if we don't play our best. The difference [between the teams] is not that great. They are talking a lot about Shaun Powell as 'the man' we can always set as a last resort."

Aalborg HIK assistant coach Wagner Foldberg: "Winning the cup final first of all demands that we find the right level of excitement. We are going need more 'wildness' and have to be ready from the first serve. It won't work if we, as in Saturday's game, need a set to find out it's for real."

Nordjyske Article

http://www.nordjyske.dk/sport/forside.aspx?ctrl=10&data=5%2c3051022%2c5%2c4

TV2 Nord from the Marienlyst Match

http://www.tv2nord.dk/default.asp?PageID=4&ProgrammeDate=18-01-2009&ProgrammeID=2&ProgrammePartID=161920

Cup Semifinal vs Middelfart

Thursday was the last match of 2008 and the cup semifinal against Middelfart. They beat us the last time we met, which was in the league, in a match that was arguably our worst of the year. The cup was a good opportunity to make up for that loss, and the fact that we were able to play at home was an added bonus.

Since I didn't talk about the cup much last year, I should probably explain how it works. The cup is a completely separate competition from the normal league where everyone plays three times. The cup is a single-elimination tournament where your opponent is drawn randomly from the teams in the elitedivision and some from the first division. Our first match was won by forfeit against Amager (from the first division), who never contacted us about dates to play, and the quarterfinal was against Holte, which we played just before the NCC. The cup is a unique competition because it gives teams from lower divisions a chance to play the sides from the elitedivision. However, it is usually the same four or so teams that end up in the finals (though maybe some Danish volleyball historians can tell us if any first division team has ever made it to the finals).

We started the match off slowly against Middelfart, down by 3 or 4 points early in the first set, but we gradually worked our way back in to the game. We felt that if we could get the score close by the last five points we would have a good chance of taking the set. Morten and Thomas came in and we were able to earn a few important points off our serve towards the end and took the set by a score of 25-23.

The second set was close as well, but the lead of a few points that we got midway though the frame was sufficient, so in the end there was less doubt about the outcome, a 25-22 win for us. The third set was entirely ours, as we put better service pressure on them, which led to some good blocks for us. They made a lot of errors in the third set as well, which gave us a comfortable 25-16 win.

I think our team does a good job of keeping leads, especially when we play at home. I would be interested to know what our record is in sets where we have a lead of three or more points. We've lost 15 sets this year in total (11 in league and four in the NCC), and if I had to guess I would say that of those 15 less than five were ones in which we had a meaningful lead. (In general I consider three to be a meaningful lead, though as always it depends on the team you are playing and how both teams' sideout offense is going.) And actually I wouldn't be surprised if it was just one or two sets.

So what does that mean? If you look at it from a skills perspective it means we have a good sideout offense. But it also means we are a good team, in the sense that we work well together. It means we don't give up runs of points, don't suffer big breakdowns in physical or mental terms. No one goes through a match siding out perfectly, but what's important is to limit mistakes when they occur, and help a struggling teammate move on to the next rotation, which is something we've done well this year.

Finishing a game is an important team skill in every sport, but I'm not sure if there's any way to coach it. Is it a product of the relationships between the players (the so-called 'team chemistry') or is it the sum of each individual's 'finishing ability'? It's likely some of both, which raises the million dollar question: If you don't have it, how do you get it?

I'm not sure it can be 'gotten.' I think the dynamic of the team will either allow it or it won't. It may be possible to have great chemistry without the ability to finish. It also may be possible to have no chemistry but the ability to finish. Ultimately though, a championship team needs to have chemistry and the ability to finish. A team with only great chemistry won't be able to win as many close games if the individuals suffer breakdowns at critical moments. And teams that lack chemistry but still have individual finishing ability won't be able to help each other along in moments of adversity. And teams that have neither chemistry nor individual finishing ability... well you're pretty much screwed. Sorry.

But of course chemistry and individual finishing ability are still not enough. Volleyball (and all sports) are ultimately about skill, and if you play a better-skilled team they are more likely to win, regardless of chemistry. But when teams are equal in skill, or when a good team is playing poorly, the team that can finish will jump on the opportunity and win the game.