JUST IN: Trentino Volley defeated Cueno to WIN the 2010/2011 edition of the Italian League. Our match report is coming up soon!
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The battle is on!
Trentino Volley and Lannutti Cuneo will fight for the 2010/2011 Italian League Crown!
This won’t be the first time they face each other in the Gold Medal match. Earlier this year, Cuneo defeated Trentino Volley at the 2010/2011 Italian Cup and at the Italian Super Cup.
Will Cuneo sweep the Italian League Titles this season? Will Trentino continue their domination in the Serie A1 from the beginning until the very end? Will Trentino be able to redeem themselves after losing the Italian League last season to Cuneo?
Only the volleyball gods know right?
Before sealing the 2 spots in the Final Round, Trentino faced Modena while Cuneo entered the semifinal round against Lube Macerata. Cuneo played without its star, Simone Parodi, who was injured in the last match of the Regular Season.
Just before the semis, Volley Modena hired 2010 World Champion Brazilian setter, Bruno Rezende, to replace injured Finnish setter Mikko Esko.
After losing the first match, Bruno’s presence started to create wonders for Modena and they surprisingly demolished Trentino, the 3 time CEV Champions League winners, in 3 sets (25-21/ 25-23/ 25-8). We found it hard to believe that Trentino only scored 8 pts in the 3rd set until we saw this video:
If you want to watch the full second match, click THIS.
Matey Kaziyski, Os Juantorena, Raphael, Riad, Jan Stokr and the entire Trentino squad regrouped for the 3rd match and won it in 3. Whew!
Angel Dennis, Kooistra and Rezende led Modena in the 4th match to victory before losing the 5th and final match of the Semifinal Round in 4.
Heartbreaking for Modena!
Despite the loss, we give Modena lots of credit knowing that they struggled during the Regular Season. They lost a few 5 set matches, Esko and Berezhko got injured and not a lot of volleyball critics like us thought they had what it takes to challenge the highly favored Trentino Volley.
Bruno did wonders for team Modena. No doubt.
On the other hand, Cuneo’s journey to the Final Round was also very similar to Trentino’s. Parodi got injured, then Croatian opposite Omrcen had a minor injury and Bulgarian star Nikolov confessed that he had played in the semifinal round with an injured shoulder.
As of press time, Nikolov will keep playing and as a bonus for his courage to continue playing he receive the MVP award for the Semifinal Round.
Cuneo surprisingly won their first encounter before losing the next 2 matches versus Macerata. With just one more match to go, no doubt victory was on Macerata’s side but Cuneo was able to pull things together and managed to win the do-or-die match #4. This led to the epic 5th match where they played their hearts out to clinch a spot in the Finals.
Watch Match #3 by clicking THIS.
Nikola Grbic, Volkov, Mastrangelo and Team Cuneo truly found a reason to celebrate. When their journey to the finals took a tumble, they managed to return with a better and stronger game plan.
So Who Do We Think Will Win?
It’s very tough question to answer at this point. Trentino and Cuneo played 5 long matches in the semis before reaching their Final destination. We pick TRENTINO to win but it won’t be easy. We have a feeling it’s going to be a 5 set match.
We also read that tickets for the match to be held in Rome have sold out so Trentino have set up large monitors back in their home city so that their loyal fans can watch the match.
May the BEST team wins.
(images: cev.lu)