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THE EXCITEMENT IS ABOUT TO BEGIN
Men's Indesit European Champions League 2005/06
“The lions intend to fight for the title and they will do their best to proceed to the Final Four”, stated head coach Gennady Shipulin at the press conference.
Andrew Gubin
Press Officer
Lokomotiv BELGOROD
VfB FRIEDRICHSHAFEN IS CONFRONTED WITH GREAT TASKS
Friedrichshafen, Germany, October 18, 2005. On Thursday, 20th October 2005 VfB FRIEDRICHSHAFEN will start their challenge in Pool B of the Indesit European Champions League 2005/06.
Head coach Stelian Moculescu sees his team as an outsider in Pool B having to play against titleholder TOURS VB, Top Teams Cup champion Olympiacos PIRAEUS, Russian League runner up Dinamo MOSCOW as well as Czech champion volleyball.cz KLADNO.
“It will be very difficult to reach the playoffs”, he stated, “We
have to play excellently in order to retain chances.” The first game
will be on Thursday against Dinamo MOSCOW. Moculescu and assistant
coach Ulf Quell are sure that TOURS VB are the strongest team followed
by PIRAEUS and MOSCOW. “We need to carry out our duty of winning
against KLADNO for the chance of finishing fourth and securing the
place for the next year’s German champion.”
Gunthild Schulte-Hoppe
Press Officer
VfB FRIEDRICHSHAFEN
SISLEY TREVISO FOCUSES ON EUROPEAN COMPETITION
Treviso, Italy, October 18, 2005. The press conference held at “La Ghirada Sports Center” in Treviso presented the aims of the club in the Indesit European Champions’ League.
“We want to go through this first round and win the Championship”, declared Sisley TREVISO’s General Manager Bruno Da Re, “It’s a perfect time for our team. After having secured three Italian titles in a row we can now focus on the most important trophy in Europe. The first round is particularly difficult because we don’t know a lot about our challengers, except for our archrivals from VIENNA, however, we are talented and experienced enough to get over this first hurdle. We miss the European title and therefore we will fight hard to get it this season, although we know that there are many great teams out there and the European level is rapidly increasing.”
The games of the first phase will be played in Jesolo (Palazzo del Turismo, Venice) with the first match against German evivo DÜREN on Tuesday, 18th October at 18.30hrs. “It will be a great adventure for all of us”, stated Francesco Calzavara, Mayor of Jesolo, “We will assist the team in the best possible way. It was in Jesolo that Sisley TREVISO won the CEV Cup in 2003.”
Sisley TREVISO’s team captain Alberto Cisolla, MVP of the Men’s
European Championship 2005, added that it is going to be a hard battle
to obtain this trophy given that many teams have the same goal. We will
put 100% effort and skill to play the games of the European season and
Jesolo is a good place to start this adventure.”
Enrico Castorina
Press Officer
Sisley TREVISO
TREVISO AND CANNES ARE THE FAVOURITES
Vienna, Austria, October 18, 2005. In this season’s edition of the Indesit European Champions’ League the aon hotVolleys will encounter a number of attractive opponents.
In the first match at the Bodocenter in Vienna the home team will face the Belgian team of Noliko Maaseik. According to Peter Kleinmann, the hotVolleys’ manager, the favourites in Pool C are Sisley TREVISO from Italy and the French team AS CANNES.
“With the exception of evivo DÜREN we have already played all of the teams in our pool. Last season we were defeated twice by Sisley TREVISO. Italy still is the only country against which we have not been able to win in the European Cup competitions – all other countries we have managed to beat”, confrimed Peter Kleinmann a few days before the first encounter in the Indesit European Champions’ League. “The starting line-up of the current European Champion Italy at the European Championships tournament consisted of not less than 4 players of Sisley TREVISO. Thus, the team of Sisley TREVISO is constituted of the Italian national team plus some very strong players like the Brazilian Gustavo Endres who is the best middle blocker in the world”, explained the 58-year-old from Vienna. The team of TREVISO has not changed much compared to last season where they defeated the aon hotVolleys clearly in the two matches of the second round. “They became even stronger by recruiting Bartoletti who used to play for Hypo Tirol INNSBRUCK. We have bad memories about him”, says the hotVolleys’ manager in allusion to last season’s defeat against Hypo Tirol in the national volleyball league (AVL).
The second big fish in Pool C is the team of AS CANNES, the governing French champion. The hotVolleys’ opponent was able to beat TOURS VB, winner of last season’s IECL, in the French national league. “AS CANNES had a very bad start into the new season. They lost the first two encounters in the national league. But we must not forget that they kicked Sisley TREVISO out of the competition in the last two editions of the IECL”, Peter Kleinmann recalled the strength of the French team. An interesting detail: During the European Championships in Italy CANNES’ coach Laurent Tillie was coaching the Czech national team together with Pavel Tresnak, the head coach of the aon hotvolleys. Over 20 years ago Tillie was a player in Vienna.
The German vice-champion evivo DÜREN is
an unknown for the hotVolleys. The two teams have never before played
against each other. Peter Kleinmann: “Düren is the team of which we
know the least. But we will brush up on our knowledge and find out what
we need to know before playing them.”
With Noliko MAASEIK the Viennese can welcome a well-known guest at
the Budocenter in Vienna. The two teams have met in the IECL season
2003/2004, where the hotVolleys had to accept a defeat in both
encounters. With Richard Lambourne the Belgians have a former
hotVolleys’ player in their ranks. “We know Noliko MAASEIK very well.”
The first encounter in this season’s IECL will take place on Wednesday,
19th October 2005 at the Bodocenter Vienna (20.15hrs, live on TW 1).
The match is presented by Vienna’s Vice-Mayor Grete Laska.
Gerald Fuchs
Press Officer
aon hotVolleys VIENNA
ROTTERDAM VS. THESSALONIKI: DUEL BETWEEN UNDEFEATED CHAMPIONS
Rotterdam, Netherlands, October 18, 2005. On Tuesday, 18th October 2005 Ortec ROTTERDAM Nesselande from the Netherlands will
encounter Greek Iraklis THESSALONIKI in Pool A of the Indesit European
Champions’ League 2005/06 at 20.00hrs in the Top sports centre of
Rotterdam.
Host ROTTERDAM will welcome the Greek team who was runner up of the IECL 2004/05. Head coach Peter Blangé is looking forward to this game, stating: “Greek teams are traditionally favourite and guarantee nice and spectacular volleyball. We have played a Greek team in previous season’s Austrian Airlines Top Teams Cup, namely Olympiacos PIRAEUS. There were 15’000 spectators present, a very nice atmosphere.”
The home team Ortec ROTTERDAM Nesselande have started the season
well with no defeat so far. So has Iraklis THESSALONIKI. With two
victories the Greeks remain undefeated in the national competition.
Steef Van Duin
Press Officer
Ortec ROTTERDAM Nesselande
ALMERIA LOOKING FOR FIRST VICTORY Almeria, Spain, October 18, 2005. On Thursday Unicaja ALMERIA will face Austrian Hypo Tirol INNSBRUCK in the first match of Pool A.
Bert Goedkoop, head coach of Unicaja ALMERIA, has his best players ready for the match in the Indesit European Champions’ League 2005/06, except for Brazilian Reinaldo Alves. In this first phase ALMERIA will also meet Iraklis THESSALONIKI, Knack Randstad ROESELARE and Ortec Nesselande ROTTERDAM.
“It’s a group which saves us from lengthy travels”, commented Ramon Sedeno, President of Unicaja ALMERIA, “The Greek team will be the most difficult to beat. Anyway, performance is guaranteed.”
Meeting the Austrians last year, ALMERIA lost 0:3 and 1:3. They will
meet again this year but with new additions to the team. “I don’t know
much about the opponent but the setter Nico Freriks who I’ve been
working with for nine years”, stated Bert Goedkoop, “Most of the
players are new.”
The match between Unicaja ALMERIA and Hypo Tirol INNSBRUCK will take
place in the Mediterranean Sport Palace at 20.30, refereed by Vito
Sante Achille (ITA) and Patrick Deregnaucourt (FRA).
Primera Plana
Press Officer
Unicaja ALMERIA
LEVSKI SICONCO READY FOR CHAMPIONS LEAGUE
Sofia, Bulgaria, October 18, 2005. The Bulgarian participant in the “Indesit European Champions’ League Levski Siconco SOFIA introduced at a special press conference this year’s edition of the most prestigious European club tournament.
After the manager of the team Georgi Zaharinov explained details of the competition format to the present journalists, the reporters and cameramen had the opportunity to take pictures of the speakers and the official logos “Indesit”, “Champion” and “Austrian Airlines”.
According to the governing body of Levski Siconco and to head coach Martin Stoev Pool D is the most difficult group that Levski Siconco SOFIA had to play in since the beginning of their participation in the Indesit European Champions’ League. The Bulgarian champions will aim to secure the place for a Bulgarian team to participate in the next edition of the tournament.
Other than Georgi Zaharinov and head coach Martin Stoev, team captain Andrey Zhekov and the press officer Boyko Okov attended the press conference. The first match of Levski Siconco SOFIA will be in Sofia, on Wednesday, 19th October 2005 at 17.30hrs the “Universiada Hall”.
“I saw Buducnost PODGORICKA Banka” on tape and I must admit that they play technically very well, even though they don’t have any big stars”, Martin Stoev said. “Someone said that this team is the outsider in the group, but I don’t think so”.
In Buducnost they play intelligent volleyball and they must not be underestimated”.
“The start of the competition is very important and we all we have
the ambition to start with a victory”, said the captain of the
Bulgarian team Andrey Zhekov, who is the first setter of the National
team.
Boyko Okov
Press Officer
Levski Siconco SOFIA
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