The future of Wilfredo Leon in Poland, Camillo Placì’s next adventure at Saturnia Acicastello, the desire for the field of the young people of the top Super League teams, the A3 Super Cup match between Palmi and Mantua, but also the frontiers of sporting performance. These were the main themes of After Hours – La Superlega di notte, the talk broadcast live last night on the Lega Pallavolo Serie A Facebook page and Youtube channel, with Andrea Zorzi, Andrea Brogioni and the protagonists of Serie A Credem Banca.
Guests of the broadcast were Domenico Pace (Itas Trentino), Camillo Placì (Saturnia Acicastello), Wilfredo Leon (Sir Susa Wim Perugia), Mario Salvini (Gazzetta dello Sport), Peppino Carbone (Omifer Palmi), Riccardo Scaltriti (Gabbiano Mantova) and Stefano Locatelli, alias Loca DJ, who chose a song to dedicate to Palmi’s successes: ‘Urlando contra il cielo’ by Ligabue.
At this link you can watch the complete episode
https://www.youtube.com/live/pBli9J6hLmI?feature=shared
DOMENICO PACE (ITAS TRENTINO)
THE FREEDOMS OF PUGLIA – “It’s curious to see so many freedmen from Puglia or at least from the South. With Laurenzano we became like two brothers after the first week. During the match I compliment him, give him advice and sometimes scold him.”
ALTERNATION IN THE ROLE – “I believe that we need to do the best for the team. I really don’t like the tendency to use two free throws in the reception and defense phases, because you lose the rhythm of the game. But it’s clear that we do what the team needs. We are better off in defense than in reception, for reasons of freshness and speed.”
ACQUARONE AND SBERTOLI – “Acquarone? I didn’t expect it to hold up so well straight away. But we know his value and see the work he does in training. We see Sbertoli well, he is always present at training. If there were a camera on him, it would always catch him shouting and urging us on.”
THE BREAK BEFORE THE PLAY OFFS – “We did three weight sessions to make the most of the long week. Then we pushed our game the last two or three days, to be ready to return to the field. We always ‘work together’, in every training session, even we in the ‘B team’ always want to win”.
THE REFERENCE LIBERO – “Cavaccini helped me a lot to grow, both from a technical and mental point of view. My point of reference is him.”
THE FUTURE – “I would like to find a team to play in. Now let’s think about the Play Offs, the Semi-final and the Final, and then the Champions League”.
THE QUALITIES OF LORENZETTI AND SOLI – “Angelo is good at working with young people, he can immediately understand how to behave with those in front of him. Fabio immediately gives you confidence and makes you express your best without excessive pressure.”
CAMILLO PLACÌ (FARMITALIA CATANIA)
ON CACHOPA – “I think he was the best setter in the Super League this year, the extra edge in Monza came from him. He was good at keeping the team’s play high throughout the season. I like his ability to handle halftime and pipes. He handles the team’s guns well and organizes them well. He is a precise player. Monza must say thanks to his hands.”
THE ALTERNATION OF FREE SPEAKERS – “I have coached liberos of absolute world level and everyone preferred to do receiving and defending. When I alternated, it was for reasons of necessity, specifically a physical problem.”
WAITING FOR THE PLAY OFFS – Between the idea of losing the match rhythm and resting to train well, if I have a team that is physically well, I prefer to play straight away. If I have to recover one or two players, it’s better to rest. Not playing official matches for a few days causes some problems, at least from what I have been able to verify in the many Play Offs played with my teams.”
ON THE ELIMINATION OF CIVITANOVA AND PIACENZA – “The value of Monza and Lube is not very different. I was surprised by the comeback, but Monza reaped what it sowed. Lube, on the other hand, was inconsistent. She played high-level matches, especially in the Champions League, but she lacked continuity of play and a solid starting six that improved over the course of the matches. Blengini often had to invent new formations. Monza played as a team from the start. On Piacenza-Milan, I say that Milan continues to play with a desire to ‘eat’ this ball, to stick to the parquet, to not give up, it’s a habitus of this team. Lube and Piacenza paid for the lack of continuity in important moments, even before the Play Offs.”
STEPS FORWARD – “Since the beginning of the season, Milan is the team that has made the most progress. It started badly, with problems and a coach questioned. Now he wins and continues to play well. Perugia is also finding stability. Then, having strong players serving, it is the team that breaks the match more than others.”
ON ACQUARONE – “Something similar happened last year in Bulgaria, where I won the Super Cup playing with the second setter and in the Cup final, where I changed the setter-opposite diagonal to come back from 0-2. I think it’s better to have two good setters.
YOUNG PEOPLE’S “HUNGER” ON THE PITCH – “Young people are often conditioned by certain factors, primarily being in the Super League and being in a big team. But, in my opinion, once you have tasted the dish, you need to change the restaurant. Especially a libero. A free young man must be hungry. And he has to do ‘kilometres’. When he has to receive, a libero learns to manage the receiving line, understand what spaces and responsibilities to take. These are things that you only improve on the pitch, not by celebrating from the bench.”
ON NIKOLOV – “Bulgarian volleyball doesn’t have many players, not a great organization like that of some clubs. But there is a good technical base organisation, with good coaches, and clear ideas on the path to follow in the unders. It’s not just the search for results. For example, I have seen more young central defenders hit strong jumpers in Russia and Bulgaria than in Italy, or who also know how to receive.”
THE NEW CHALLENGE OF CATANIA – “I’m happy to be able to return to the fields. Mine has been a troubled season, but in August I will be ready. Catania had also looked for me in the SuperLega. I like the reality, there was great volleyball, there is a desire for volleyball, there is a good corporate structure, a good organisation. What struck me most is that, after the relegation, they didn’t go on a witch hunt but asked themselves how to build a team that could immediately return to the Super League.”
ON LORENZETTI AND THE PERUGIA ENVIRONMENT – “In the past I have had ‘effervescent’ presidents, easy to get excited or demoralized. Angelo is a person who has a key to enter people’s hearts. I was lucky enough to meet him when he was traveling around Italy selecting players for the youth teams. I have also known Soli for a long time, he started with us in Modena, over the years he has done many important things in different places, often winning. He has a great dialectical, persuasive capacity for human relationships.”
ON LEON AND TENSION MANAGEMENT – “We have played against Leon many times, I have known him since he started playing for the national team. There are always moments of tension, everyone faces them based on their characteristics. Nine times out of ten you manage to face them, Leon is a champion from this point of view too.”
WILFREDO LEON (SIR SUSA WIM PERUGIA)
ABOUT MILAN AND THE PHRASES FROM THE SQUARE – “Milan, as usual, never gives up, always gives its all. We fought until the end. I’m very happy, I’ve only been on the pitch for a short time trying to help the team. Piazza and my service? When we faced each other in the national team, he told me: ‘Take it easy, please’. And I said, ‘I’ll just do my job.’”
ON THIS YEAR’S INJURY – “It wasn’t the longest of my career. I happened to stay out for up to six months. And when I waited almost two years, to return to play, in a different type of situation. However, in recent months I have been stretched to the max. It’s not easy to be outside or train without touching the ball. I can say that the wait was long but the important thing is to have a good team and be able to lend a hand.”
ON CHARACTER AND MANAGEMENT OF ‘ANGRY’ – There are many things that make me ‘angry’, but I try to understand how to leave it inside and not let others see it. Then it might happen that I also blurt out, but I try to avoid it.
ON THE FUTURE – For personal reasons, being attached to my family, we decided to move to Poland, home. I follow what my parents taught me. I will miss the people in Perugia who were close to me from day one and who were there in difficult times, showing great attachment.
MARIO SALVINI (LA GAZZETTA DELLO SPORT)
TENSION MANAGEMENT – “I believe that in volleyball the fact that it is a flow sport can help. In other sports, where you don’t touch the ball for a while, the tension can make you think differently than you should. It’s difficult to come up with a close comparison, I only remember one of Zorzi…”
MARGINS AND CHALLENGES OF SPORTS TODAY – “We talked about how physical power was changing the nature of the game, starting from the fundamentals of serving. Leon is a great example of athleticism and physical power. I don’t know if we have reached the maximum possible peak, every now and then online I see images of spikers reaching with their navels over the net. In all sports there is a new edge we strive for, a new frontier which is given by reactivity. Ishikawa is an amazing example. We never said that coverage is a fundamental, in modern volleyball we should consider it the seventh fundamental. Even in football, the ability to react to what the opponent does is increasingly important. There is a margin here, because historically it has been considered something instinctive.”
PEPPINO CARBONE (OMIFER PALMI)
ON SUCCESSES IN THE ITALIAN CUP AND SUPERCOPPA – “We are proud to be able to say that we have achieved two of the three seasonal objectives, especially in the presence of teams like Mantova, considered by many to be top of the class.”
TIPS FOR BEATING MACERATA – “To win against teams like Macerata, you have to start from the team fundamentals. We worked a lot on it. With Macerata, we looked at each other and said we wanted to do something good. Mantua speaks for itself on a technical level, there’s a reason it came first. I wish Mantua a big ‘good luck’.”
ON THE SUCCESSES OF THE ‘BLUE GROUP’ – “I realize how in the end, paradoxically, the teams in the top five-six places could reach a Final. From the white group we faced Mantua, which highlighted all its strengths. Physicality helps to remove chestnuts from the fire, but technique always serves to make ends meet. We’re looking for the right mix.”
RICCARDO SCALTRITI (MANTOVA SEAGULL)
ON THE SUPER CUP MATCH – “For us it was a two-faced match. We found ourselves facing a formidable opponent, playing at home, with enormous certainties and physical and technical qualities, certainties that they built with full merit. We left with our heads held high, considering our period, starting from the organization of the trip. We lost against the best team in the entire A3 Series.”
ON MACERATA – “We haven’t studied Macerata in depth yet, also because the Super Cup commitment has taken more energy from us than we thought. Now the full immersion towards this very important Promotion Playoff begins. In every journey there are many backstories, we have had many injuries. Regarding teamwork, I believe it is always right to underline it, and it will be the team that will make the difference even with Macerata.”
THE PHYSICALITY OF THE ‘BLUE GROUP’ – “It is the antithesis of the white group, there is a huge difference from a physical point of view. Our belief is more technical-tactical and linked to the cleaning of ‘dirty’ situations. Teams like Palmi are much more foul in some situations, but with their physicality they are much more definitive. We will see if we can find alternative solutions for the continuation of this path.”
