The World League 2017 is currently underway, but this time we will talk about the European qualifiers for the World Championship 2018, which took place just before the league. The European qualifiers were held in six cities from May 24th to 28th, with six teams competing in each group. The first place team would qualify for the tournament, and the second place team would move on to the final qualifiers.
I decided to watch the match at the venue in Tallinn, the capital of Estonia, one of the three Baltic states. The home team, Estonia, had won all of its matches up until the fourth day, but on the final day, they were literally blocked by a thick wall of Russia, and advanced in second place, moving on to the final qualifying round. In the match against Russia, Estonia took the first set and in the second set, they were three points ahead and reached 20 points, but then the Russian pinch server hit them with a furious seven consecutive points, including three aces, and they lost the second set. From then on, the match was completely dominated by Russia, and they were defeated 1-3 (25-21, 21-25, 18-25, 19-25).
Among them, there was one man who shone brightly until the end against Russia. That man was Roberto. TÄHT). Born in 1993, he is 23 years old. His position is wing spiker. Although he is small for a volleyball player at 191cm tall, he showed skillful attacks that mixed hard and soft against the high wall of Russia, and his spike points were 10 points for the team, and his success rate was high at 561 TP3T. He also had two service aces, and even when he wasn't an ace, he almost always disrupted the opponent's reception, and when it was his turn to serve, you really felt that he was going to do something. Furthermore, he boasted a higher serve reception success rate than the libero against the strong Russian serves. He was truly the core player of the team. Wow, he was really cool.
Roberto serves #9 (photo by author)
Actually, I've always liked this type of player, so I've been paying attention to Roberto, but this was the first time I saw him play. He's been with the Polish team Lubin since the 2015/16 season, so I had a few chances to see him at the stadium when I was in Poland in 2015, but unfortunately he never got a chance to play in any of the games I went to see, so I wasn't able to see him (in the following 2016/17 season, he seems to have been a starter throughout the season). Seeing him in person was a much better player than I had imagined. I hope Japanese players will follow his example.
Roberto is showing his full potential in the ongoing World League. Although Estonia is in Group 3, he is the team's best scorer in most games, surpassing his teammates who are over 200cm tall, with a success rate of over 50% (77% in the match against Qatar!), and he is the ace in almost every game, making a truly outstanding performance. The team has somehow managed to advance to Final 4, so I hope they will win Group 3 and be promoted. If they do, they will be able to play against a Japanese team next year, and Japanese volleyball fans will be able to get to know him a little better. Good luck, Estonia!
Official Estonian Volleyball Team Support T-shirt (purchased by the author)
Photo: FIVB
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