It takes a certain amount of effort to take off your sweaty shoes after an hour and a half of competitive sport, fill them with beer and then drink this beer, more or less with pleasure, from this very moist bacterial biotope. But with a little creativity when touching the mouth and bypassing any pain thresholds, Berlin’s volleyball players managed to do that too. They were allowed to lose their composure after the overwhelmingly clear 3-0 (25:16, 25:16, 25:17) success against Friedrichshafen.
Because they not only dominated their long-term rivals from Lake Constance in front of 8,553 spectators in the sold-out Max-Schmeling-Halle in the last, only 72-minute long game of the best-of-five series, they almost embarrassed them. The Berlin Recycling Volleys have now taken away a unique selling point that he was proud of for many years. Because with 14 titles, including the most recent eight in a row, Berlin is now the sole German record champion. The Champions League is still missing, which Friedrichshafen was the only German volleyball club to win in 2007. “We played perhaps our best game this season for long stretches,” said BR Volleys manager Kaweh Niroomand.
The 71-year-old was able to rely on his axis of setter Johannes Tille, outside attacker Ruben Schott and middle blocker Tobias Krick, who are planning to play for medals with the German men at the Olympic Games in Paris. Tille scored four aces, twice as many as the helpless and discouraged VfB Friedrichshafen as a whole team. Captain Schott suffered an ankle injury in the second game of the final series and played the remaining three games, all of which Berlin had to win because of the 0-2 deficit, in pain. On Sunday he once again showed an excellent receiving performance and also impressed in attack despite his ligament injury.
The fact that he more or less ignored his injury shows “how much passion he had again today,” said Niroomand. “He and Tille are extremely important for the team because they understand each other almost blindly. And they are faces, guys who shape our club.” Identification figures that Berlin now needs more than ever.
“It was a difficult time, the budget got smaller every year,” says outgoing VfB coach Mark Lebedev
Because in the French outside attacker Timothée Carle and the Czech diagonal player Marek Sotola, two players are leaving the club who have been playing for Berlin for four and three years respectively. And they showed again in the decider on Sunday that they are among the best attackers in the league. But you don’t have to worry too much about Berlin, the Volleys will find an adequate replacement as champions, cup winners and Champions League quarter-finalists.
The situation is more threatening at Friedrichshafen, because it’s not just the team that is falling apart. Coach Mark Lebedev is also leaving the club. The Australian, who became German champion three times in a row with Berlin between 2012 and 2014 (and received great applause again on Sunday), has had enough after three years in Friedrichshafen. “It was a difficult time, every year the budget got smaller,” Lebedev said on Sunday. He has a few offers on the table, but he says he hasn’t had the time to look at them yet: “The chances of staying in the Bundesliga are slim.”
Things are a little different for Tille, Schott and Krick; they feel right at home in Berlin, where volleyball is Europe’s biggest spectator magnet. However, Tille, who comes from Mühldorf am Inn, refused to use his teammates’ creative drinking techniques on Sunday. “I still have my two insoles in my shoe,” he needed them, said Tille. If it had been a Bavarian beer, he might have been persuaded.