Volleyball is that game in which you play 6 against 6, and in the end Conegliano wins: but this time it was by no means obvious.
– Women’s volleyball is the game where you play 6vs6, and in the end Conegliano wins: Lineker’s famous phrase about Germany can easily be borrowed, for volleyball, from the team from Veneto, a real cannibal in recent seasons, which with the victory in game 5 last night hits its sixth championship. An incredible year for the athletes of Daniel Santarelliwith even 4 trophies won: in addition to the Italian treble (championship, Super Cup and Italian Cup), the panthers also climbed to the top of the world by winning the Club World Cup. to elimination in the Champions League, which however cannot affect the incredible journey made by Wolosz and companions;
– And to say that someone was talking about downsizing: many said it, actually referring to heavy farewells, above all that of Paola Egonubut also those of Rapha Folie and Sylla (found on the other side of the net right in the championship final) and di Megan Courtney, players who had been part of a very long and successful cycle. In reality it was a change towards a new cycle, and in this the club of Male and Garbellotto has shown all its competence and its solidity, developing a team calibrated to perfection, perhaps with less illustrious names than the previous ones but built perfectly on the characteristics of those who made it up: younger players arrived but already on the launch pad like Lubian e Plummerluxury changes such as Squarcini and Graythe focus was on the experience guaranteed by Robinson-Cook and the totem Egonu has been replaced by Bella Hook in an exchange of opposites that in the end proved to be successful (precisely in the final of the Club World Cup, against Egonu, the Swedish opposite had an extraordinary evening). In short, Conegliano is a strong club regardless of who wears its shirt: the team has changed for 9/14ths, and has perhaps experienced the best season in recent years. So much for resizing…;
– Vero Volley Milano was dreaming of unstitching the scudetto from the gialloblù shirts: a consortium that has been growing for years, which for two years has now been the opponent in the final for the Venetians, and which perhaps this time more than all the others has come closest to the enterprise. The Milanese forced Imoco to reach game 5 to get the upper hand: moreover, they went ahead 2-1 in the championship series, with the match point to be played at home, and perhaps that is where the biggest regret lies. In the splendid setting of the Vero Volley Arena full to capacity, the club of the president March he missed the sporting opportunity of his life, probably suffering from the pressure, losing 0-3 and postponing the verdict to game 5, moreover away from home: however, he won a much bigger bet, demonstrating that volleyball can also work in big cities, fill the arenas right in the semi-final of the Champions League between Milan and Inter, in the name of a well-constructed and structured project. It doesn’t end here, because Vero Volley is raising the bar: for next year it’s already made for Paola Egonuand there is a whisper of an arrival on the bench of the sacred Chinese monster Jenny Lang Pingin addition to the heavy confirmations of those who have been the cornerstone of this very good season (Folie, Sylla, Orro above all): of course, we must remember the excellent work done this season by Marco Gaspari and the great performance of Jordan Thompsonwhich leave a heavy legacy to anyone arriving under the Madonnina;
– Sport is beautiful for the stories it can tell, so let’s tell Sarah Fahr’s Anyone who had only seen the final series would not have thought that the central Livorno could have come from a double, tragic, reconstruction surgery of the anterior cruciate ligament: after the first injury, as soon as he returned to the field, Fahr she had had a relapse of the same injury, and had had to go back under the knife to do it all over again. Anyone would have let themselves be knocked down, not her, who slowly restarted her rehabilitation, with an uncommon self-sacrifice, and step by step she returned to being the first player, and then even decisive in the balance of a championship final. Who knows during his ordeal how many times he hoped for this happy ending: sport explains that fairy tales exist, but that to make them real, first of all, you must never stop believing in them, even when fate forces you to spend a year in the pits and a double, tremendous, accident;
– Daniele Santarelli, once again, proves to be a great coach: his too is a fairy tale, because when he inherited the bench from Davide Mazzanti he had no experience as head coach, and there was no shortage of doubts about him. The coach from Conegliano has not only dispelled them, but is literally sweeping them away with results that bear his signature, both with the Imoco shirt and with that of the Serbian national team, with which he graduated as world champion. Yesterday’s move, in which he inserts a practically never used Alexa Gray, who will later prove to be the trump card in a desperate situation (down a set to zero and -6 of partial) cannot be categorized as a stroke of luck: how many would have had the courage to include an athlete who had played very little up to that moment in game 5 of the championship final? Above all, how many, even without giving her too much scope, would have been able to keep her on the rope and trained to be decisive in the climax? The winning story of Conegliano certainly has many signatures, but today why is that of Daniele Santarelli written with an indelible pen.