Last weekend, Perugia won the Supercoppa in Italy for the third consecutive year after a full set match, with Yuki Ishikawa named MVP.
And on Wednesday this week, Poland's "Supercoppa Italia" was held, the Super Puhar Polski. The showdown between last season's league champion Jastrzebski and Puhar Polski (Polish Cup) winner Zawiercie was a fierce battle that went to full sets, just like in Italy.
The game continued with neither side giving an inch until the fifth set, and even after reaching 15 points, the score was still tied at deuce with no difference of two points, leading to a back-and-forth battle. However, in the end, OH Fornal (Poland) of Jastrzebski, who had scored the most points on the day with 19, was blocked by OH Kuforek of Zabierce, who was opposite Fornal on the age-group national team.
As a result, the fierce battle that lasted about three hours ended with a 3-2 (21-25, 25-21, 25-21, 19-25, 23-21) victory for Xabierce.
For more detailed stats, click here↓
https://www.plusliga.pl/spcup/id/5/gid/25.html#stats
Xabierce won its first championship. The MVP of the tournament was OH Russell (USA), who played for JT until last season.
However, personally, I think the MVP should have gone to OP Butrin (Poland), who scored the most points of both teams with 29 and also scored four aces (lol), but congratulations to Zabiercze!
Zawiercie was promoted to the Polish first division, Przliga, in the 2017/18 season, and for the three seasons since its promotion, it was the club where L. Taichiro Koga, who is currently a member of the Tokyo Great Bears, played. Since then, they have continued to compete in the top league without ever being relegated, and last season they won their first title, Puchal Polski. Then this year, they won the Super Puchal Polski, and it can be said that they have completely become one of the top clubs.
However, what is interesting is that there is not a single member of the Paris Olympic silver medal team in the starting lineup for this Xabierce. Moreover, there is one less foreign player allowed than Italy (the Italian league has four out of seven players, including the libero, while Poland has three).
This is quite different from the Italian Supercoppa final, where five of the six starting Italian players were members of the Italian Olympic team (incidentally, three of the four Polish players on the opposing team, Jastrzebski, were members of the Paris Olympic team).
Another contrast is that in the Supercoppa both teams had Italian setters and foreign opposites, while in the Superpuhar both teams had foreign setters and Polish opposites.
Both Italy and Poland are said to be the world's top leagues at present, but each has its own characteristics, and it is interesting to see how many things can be seen just by comparing similar tournaments between the two leagues.
In particular, I think that the winning team, Zabierce, is a team that shows the characteristics of a Polish club. The libero is a foreign player, Perry (Australia), and both of the starting outside hitters are well-balanced in both offense and defense. Incidentally, the coach is Biniarski (Poland), who is also the coach of the German national team.
Last season, Ishikawa's team, Milan, was defeated in the CEV Cup by Xavierce. I think the reason behind this was that Xavierce was a type of team that doesn't exist in the Italian league. This season, Milan and Xavierce will face each other again in the European Champions League, and I think Xavierce will probably win again.
In Japan, the Italian league receives the most attention when it comes to overseas leagues, due to the large number of Japanese players and the fact that famous players such as Ishikawa Yuki and Takahashi Ai play (or have played) there.
On the other hand, the Polish league has had Japanese players playing ever since, starting with L Koga Taichiro, followed by OH Yanagida, S Sekita, OP Miyaura, and L Takahashi Sho, except for the 2020/21 season which was in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, but this season there have been no Japanese players again.
Personally, I think the Polish league, which places greater value on technically-oriented foreign players, is a better fit for Japanese players. I myself got into overseas volleyball because of the Polish league, so I am looking forward to the day when Japanese players will be playing in Poland again.
Photo: plusliga.pl
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