Happy New Year to all our readers!
The first local reporting destination in Italy of the new year was Padua.
This was my second time watching a game in person, as I had seen it in Warsaw the day before, but the game started at 8:30pm so I got home late, and on top of that my flight the next day was at 7am so I headed to the airport with only about three hours of sleep.
While traveling, I watched the men's Spring High Volleyball Tournament final on VBTV at Warsaw Airport.
It looked as though Chinzei, with their ace pitcher Masumoto, would win the championship in straight sets, but from the middle of the third set, Sundai gradually demonstrated their organizational and adaptability, and before we knew it, they had made a huge comeback and won the championship 3-2.
As was the case with the two Coppa Italia quarter-final matches that I watched live at the end of the year, the fact that one team seems to have complete control of the game and then come back to win is one of the joys of a set sport, and that morning I was able to once again experience the excitement of volleyball as I fought off sleepiness (lol).
The quarter-finals of the Coppa Italia saw Milan defeat Civitanova in a brilliant victory to advance to the finals. It was also the first time I saw a Japanese team win in Italy. One good omen on this occasion was that the flight to Italy, which was always delayed, was actually running on schedule for the first time.
And amazingly, the plane took off safely and on time that day, which only increased anticipation for that day's game.
I was able to give my first victory interview to Ishikawa-kun at the end of the year, so at the beginning of the new year I'll be giving my first victory interview to Ai-kun!
With that determination in mind, I went to sleep on the plane.
The plane arrived at Venice airport 20 minutes early, in fact.
From here there is a direct bus to Padua.
A public practice was scheduled to start at 10:30 at Kioene Arena, so I asked the driver to drop me off nearby and headed straight to the arena.
We arrived at the arena around 10:40, so we thought that Padua's practice had already started, but Cisterna was still practicing.
Apparently the schedule got delayed by 30 minutes, but I was lucky enough to still be able to watch Cisterna's practice.
Besides me, there were two other Japanese people watching the practice, and one family, who were probably Croatian, as I was talking to two Croatian players from Cisterna.
Then at around 11:00, the Padua members will take over and enter the court.
As soon as Ai entered the court he started playing with Guzzo and the net (lol).
Libero Zenger also spoke with Caliberda of Cisterna, who is also on the German national team.
Personally, I really enjoy getting a glimpse of the interactions between players from different teams but from the same country or former teammates.
The practice was light as it was the day of the match, and the focus was on serving and serve receiving.
It looked like he was checking the spike as part of the serve reception.
PIPE ATTACK!!!# Ai Takahashi pic.twitter.com/1hbR9ixL6V
— TOSHIKI (@toshikit71) January 8, 2023
Practice ended around 12:30, after which we all said a few words of New Year's greetings, such as "Happy New Year."
Personally, I felt like I was doing well.
His family is in Italy this holiday season, so that may have had an influence.
However, since they seemed to be in a hurry as there was little time left until the game started at 6:00 p.m., we were unable to talk any further (although it was impressive how well they handled the fans even in a hurry).
Now I'll head to the city center on a local bus.
From there, I had lunch, went to buy a SIM card (which I finally bought lol), and checked into my hotel, and time passed by quickly, and I arrived back at Kioene Arena around 5pm, an hour before the start of the match (I was actually planning to arrive a little earlier but the local bus was delayed lol).
When we arrived at the venue, players from both teams were already preparing for the match.
We lost the first half to Cisterna 1-3, and Ai in particular struggled during the match as his spikes were constantly blocked by the opponents' block defense.
Also, when I watched their match against Milan at Cisterna's home ground last month, they were the team that won against Milan, and I personally found them to be a very tough team to beat.
I thought the same thing then, but today too, the free spikes of Cisterna's Cuban player OH Gutierrez were just incredible (lol).
Gutierrez's 🇨🇺 spikes are brutal... pic.twitter.com/LrW1BNQnOx
— TOSHIKI (@toshikit71) January 8, 2023
He's not that tall at 194cm, but he has incredible jumping ability, and if you watch the video you can see that the hit point of his spikes easily exceeds the top of his antenna (350cm)...
However, when it comes to sharpness, Ai-kun is no less impressive!!
This is Ran Takahashi. # Ai Takahashi pic.twitter.com/Yh2IG7xKDd
— TOSHIKI (@toshikit71) January 8, 2023
There were about 1,500 customers that day.
The last time I covered the match in person, against Perugia, there were about 3,500 people in attendance, so it felt a bit deserted compared to then.
I think local fans are honest about the fact that the number of attendees varies greatly depending on whether the opponent is a popular club team or not (laughs).
Also, a local reporter sitting next to me spoke to me and said, "Are you a follower of Takahashi? He's the best player on this team!" which made me happy.
I once again felt that he is now the center of the team in the eyes of local fans.
Meanwhile, the match began.
Ran Takahashi will start in the number 5 position as usual.
However, early in the match, Takahashi was unusually thrown off by the opponent's short serve, conceding a point, and then his spike was also blocked, making for an unsettling start.
In terms of blocks, the team had already been hit with three before the opponent reached 10 points, resulting in zero points.
It felt like I was watching the same game as the first half against Cisterna, and it made my heart ache...
De Smet and Petkovic were doing well with their spikes, but Padova was unable to attack with their serves and was able to let Cisterna do what he wanted.
Even when they had chances to break through, their passing was sloppy and they were unable to get the ball to the attacker in a good way, and De Smet was also caught in a block repeatedly towards the end of the game...
Padua replaced both overhands but it didn't help, and the first set ended abruptly with a score of 17-25.
It was just so crazy.
But in the Milan match I saw at the end of the year, they lost the first set by about the same amount of points, but they managed to turn it around, so it's still too early to say how the game will turn out!!
However, Takahashi's attack success rate in the first set was very low at 17% (a negative success rate), so I was nervous that he would miss the second set and onwards like he did in the previous match against Trent (laughs).
However, Takahashi was able to start the second set without any problems.
On the contrary, from this set onwards, he suddenly stepped up a gear and started scoring spikes one after another!!!
Takahashi was in good form and the team was regaining momentum, but Padova's serves just weren't going in at all in this set...
Petkovic took advantage of Zenger's careful undersetting to score three blocks and some big plays that excited the crowd, but he made numerous serve errors and missed break chances.
Even so, we managed to play well until the middle of the game, but then the opponent's ace from Baranovich and a block from Caliberda allowed them to extend the lead to three points, and then relief server Gutierrez finally did something good...
With a variety of serves, including power serves, short serves, and serves into the net, they kept getting aces and the score quickly fell behind by six points...
I hate this player after all!!! (That's a compliment)
And so Cisterna took this set as well.
There's no other way, if we go 0-3 it'll be worse than the first half.
Padua couldn't even reach 20 points in either the first or second set, so the atmosphere in the venue started to feel heavy...
But I still don't know what's going to happen.
This morning's Spring High School Volleyball final also saw Sundai Gakuen make a comeback from a similar flow.
But can Padua really achieve this?
In the third set, Asparuhov replaced Desmet and Volpato replaced Canella.
This was a good substitution, as De Smet was still quite unstable in receiving serves and Canella also failed to make his presence felt.
We were hoping that this substitution would somehow change the flow of the game, but Crosart in the middle tried to forcefully touch the serve, which resulted in an ace for the opponent, and things started to look bad from the first point...
However, after this, Asparuhov awakens!!
She scored difficult shots one after another (seven in this set alone for a success rate of 781 TP and 3 T), and her serve reception was stable, not giving Cisterna any break chances.
Also, a block point appeared at Volpato, which also came in from this set, and the waves suddenly surged into Padua.
Perhaps inspired by the success of these substitute players, the play of the other players also improved dramatically, and Takahashi scored five out of six spikes in this set, giving him an astonishing attack success rate of 831 TP3T.
Not only were he good at making crosses, but he also made some great line shots.
After that, the defense and connection improved overall, the ball hardly fell on the court, and Asparuhov and Takahashi were also scoring high balls, so it was a really good feeling! (laughs)
It was hard to believe they were the same team through the second set; it felt like they had been reborn.
At one point, Petkovic was caught in a block and the game was overtaken, but Padova quickly broke back and turned the game around, so the momentum never completely went to Cisterna.
Gutierrez was brought in as an overtime hitter, but he didn't pose much of a threat in this set (but his spikes were pretty impressive lol).
When Asparuhov dropped back halfway through the match, I wasn't sure what the coach was thinking when he replaced him with De Smet (lol), but at the end of the match, reliever Bargardini hit a service ace and the crowd went wild!!!
The Padua call reverberated powerfully throughout the venue.
After winning the third set 25-21, the momentum continued in the fourth set, in fact it only accelerated!
The first was a service ace from Petkovic into the net, and the second was blocked out by Takahashi with a slight feint (he was smiling for the first time after making the goal).
Although Padova made a few mistakes, Cisterna made even more, and Asparuhov and Takahashi continued to maintain their high decisiveness in the boots.
I was a little worried about Petkovic's success rate, but he showed it with his serve, serving two consecutive aces with powerful serves that almost broke his bones.
The middle-ranked Crosart also had a success rate of 1001 TP 3T in this set.
Setter Saitta had his two-attack blocked at times, but he also showed great tossing skills, not forgetting to use the pipe attack.
Libero Zenger also made an outstanding contribution, returning a serve that had gone off course after going into the net perfectly despite falling, and carefully setting a difficult second ball under the ball.
Everyone in Padua was shining.
They really were a strong team, a great team.
Towards the end of the 4th set, Asparuhov hit a service ace, heating up the already excited venue even more!!!
Thus, the set continued to be Padua's turn and they won 25-20!
Only one left!!!
This was the fourth Padua match I had seen live this season, and in the previous three matches they had never won two sets, so I was already feeling pretty excited at this point.
It really is like the finals of the Spring High School Volleyball Tournament...?!
However, we must still not let our guard down!
Let's get 8 points first and take the lead before the court change!!
Now the fifth set.
As the match began, the opposing team's Gutierrez touched the net on two consecutive spikes, probably because his set was too close to the net, giving Padova a good start with a 2-0 lead.
Even though he played so cleverly during his serve in the second set, he was still only 21 years old (Takahashi generation).
Then they were tied at 3-3, but a spike from Asparuhov and a block from Volpat and the substitutes once again saved the game, making it 6-3.
This is an exciting development.
However, Gutierrez once again scored consecutive breaks with a service ace and a high pipe attack to make it 6-5!
But then Zenger somehow managed to provide a perfect pass to Saitta, who then scored with Petkovic, preventing a comeback and making it 7-5.
Then a nice dig from Takahashi followed by an attack from Asparuhov made it 8-6!
Change coat!!!
Then, Asparuhov hit a service ace!!! 9-6!!!
It's already cool.
However, from this point on, OH Byram, who came on as a substitute for Cisterna, scored a spike over Takahashi's block, tying the score at 9-9...
A comeback would be amazing, Padua!
Just as I was thinking that, Asparuhov made a perfect pass to TAKAHASHI!!!
There's no one who can stop these two today.
That makes it 10-9.
And once again it was reliever Gardini, with a powerful serve in the first set that broke down the opponent and Petkovic scored on a counter to make it 11-9, and then a service ace in the second set!!!
His father, former Italian national team player Guardini, who rarely smiles during his son's matches, was beaming with smiles this time!
That makes it 12-9!!
After this there was a serve error, but Takahashi calmly scored a side out to make it 13-10 (with his usual cool face this time).
The opponent's serve error made the score 14-11.
Match point, Takahashi serves.
A service ace here would have given him the MVP, but instead it was the opponent, Jirlic, who scored the spike.
And on the final side out, Zenger perfectly returned Jirlic's powerful serve, but which way would Saitta's toss go?
It's Asparuhov, it's decided!!!
Joy at Kioene Arena!!!
Toshiki of joy!!! (lol)
I can't believe they really came back from 0-2 down, just like in the Spring High School Volleyball final!!!
But it was truly an irresistible moment.
Maybe it's because the plane wasn't delayed (laughs).
Immediately after the match ended, there was voting for the MVP, and although I feel bad for Ai, I voted for Asparuhov.
Coming into the game as a substitute, he scored the most points, had an attack success rate of 701 TP3T, and had two service aces; no matter what anyone says, it was a fantastic performance. I also knew that he had struggled with not getting many opportunities to play since the middle of the season, so I thought that given his performance today from that point on, he was the only one who could be the MVP.
Come to think of it, Asparuhov was in the starting lineup in the first race of the season, when we won Modena and Roubaix.
However, after the team lost the first half of the game against Cisterna, De Smet started playing for the next game against Perugia, and it seems that his help was needed to help the team reach a higher level.
Here's hoping he returns to the starting lineup!
Of course, our Takahashi also put up some amazing numbers.
He didn't perform at his best in the first set, but from the second set onwards, he had a 68% attack success rate and was only one point behind Asparuhov.
In other words, both of them were amazing!! (laughs)
In previous games after a loss, I would interview Ai-kun while he was stretching after the game, but on this day he didn't even have time to stretch, he embraced each of the players and staff and shared the joy of victory.
I responded by saying "Congratulations!" and giving him a hug.
Ai-kun was happy that I had graduated from being a jinx, saying, "With this, the jinx has been broken!!!" (laughs)
And for some reason, that moment was captured on camera (lol) (lol)
My hug scene was also filmed 😂😂😂 https://t.co/OmVXrUuTJO
— TOSHIKI (@toshikit71) January 9, 2023
I interviewed him afterwards, and his smile was clearly different from how he had been after previous defeats.
After the interview with Ai-kun, MVP Asparuhov came over and asked me to take the best photo of the two of us, so I did (lol).
Also, watching how Ai-kun interacted with the fans that day, he seemed to be even more attentive than usual, so it seems like he really gets into the spirit of interacting with fans after a win!!!
Also, because Padua won this time, it was easier to talk to the other players, and I was able to talk to the setter, Saitta!!
This will also be uploaded later!!!
Anyway, following Milan at the end of the year, I was able to witness Padova's first victory in person!!!
Moreover, it was a victory against Cisterna, a team that Milan had failed to win either at home or away!!!
Thank you airlines for keeping flights on time!!! (lol)
With this momentum I will go from being a jinx to being a god of victory, so please look forward to my next victory interview!!!
Bye bye Kioene Arena! See you in two weeks!!!
Photo: Author
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