RABITA GOES LAST

Azerbaijani volleyball clubs have ended their participation in the European cup tournaments. The team which lasted longest in the international arena this year was Rabita, who were knocked out one step short of qualifying for the semi-finals of the Challenge Cup.  The insurmountable obstacle to their progress was the Spanish team Albacete, to whom Rabita lost in two games.

Albacete as a barrier

Of course, Albacete were by no means the weaklings of the competition, but Rabita's international season was unfolding very successfully. Appetite comes with eating, and Rabita was intent on clearing the Spanish hurdle. Precisely with this in mind, the club had recently bought Kseniya Ilyushenko, a Kazakhstani national team player, whom the fans knew from her performances with AzerRail. In Quba, the hosts had to beat the visitors by as many points as possible to have some advantage for the important game in the Pyrenees. The opposition did not seem unbeatable - after all, with due respect, Albacete is no Tenerife, who in the past have played in the semi-finals of the Champions League and won the trophy. However, the level of the Spanish championship speaks for itself, and there are no bad players there by definition.

This was confirmed during the game, in which Rabita failed to maintain its momentum in a game which initially seemed very promising. After winning the first set (25-14), they had to push on to win, but the Rabita players obviously relaxed. Albacete, on the other hand, slowly but surely began to take control of the game and became increasingly dangerous. Thus, in terms of class, the Spanish team's will to win was not surprising - they simply demonstrated how to compose oneself and play even if the game does not go too well initially.

Rabita did not seem to have anyone to lead them through difficult phases and inspire the team. Or, to be more precise, the leader did not play because of injury - Oksana Dyachenko left the game in the second set, and the game became more difficult for her team-mates. Furthermore, obvious problems with blocking and reception were also to the team's disadvantage. Albacete's gameplay caught Rabita off guard as they equalized, and our team never recovered until the end of the game, although it had seemed all recoverable, even after losing the second set (23-25). But the Spaniards managed to impose their gameplay on the hosts who found no arguments to counter with. So victory went to the team which desired it more, and Rabita have reason to reproach themselves for missed chances. The away game also brought no positive result, and Rabita lost to Albacete by the same score, 1-3, thereby completing their international odyssey. So our clubs' participation in European cups this year came to an end. To summarize, for the first time in recent years, Azerbaijani teams did not play in the Champions League because of their lower approval rating. Thus we focused on the CEV Cup, in which AzerRail competed, and the Challenge Cup. The railway team was knocked out of the tournament after losing to the Dutch team Longa, so Rabita was this season's best performer of our teams.

Talking about the other quarterfinal matches of the Challenge Cup, Leningradka from St Petersburg and Vini Monte Schiavo came closest to the semi-finals after the qualifiers. The Russians beat France's Rocheville 3-0 in the first game, whereas the Italians dismayed another French team, USSP. Both teams won their away games too and made their way to the semi-finals, together with Panathinaikos, who defeated Marco Polo in the Greek derby.

In the mean time, the lack of training bases and clubs' material problems remain pressing. Even before the season started, representatives of Rabita and Iqtisadci stressed that they had effectively no training bases, and strengthening the teams by buying players was also problematic - from now on, no more than two foreign players can appear on the court during European cup games. Representatives of Azerneft also touched on the issue of training bases: because the team is not professional, it has no charter of its own. And this causes problems which the team cannot resolve for now.

At the same time, Azerbaijani national team and AzerRail coach Faiq Qarayev stressed that the building of a volleyball centre is issue number one. "Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev once promised that a special base would be built in the country and this would be a wonderful gift for us," the coach said. For his part, National Olympic Committee Vice President Cingiz Huseynzada noted that building the complex will take some time, but the clubs need to deal with their problems right now. "We have some Olympic complexes which are idle, there are facilities at the universities, where teams can train," said Mr. Huseynzada, adding that he had great hopes for the Azerbaijani national team in the new Olympic cycle, which is to begin soon

National Team limbers up in Dubai

In the mean time, the Azerbai-jani women's national team won silver medals at the international volleyball tournament in Dubai. Having arrived in the UAE for a training session, the team unexpectedly received an offer to take part in a tournament in which it reached the finals and lost 2-3 in the decisive game to the Italians. However, results are not the most important thing at this stage - the most important games are yet to be played. The national team played ad lib in the UAE because the team management had not planned to take part in the tournament. However, upon arrival for the training session, the team was approached by the UAE federation with an offer to take part in a tournament with the host team and national teams from Italy, Algeria, Egypt and other countries. Given that coach Faiq Qarayev had taken to Dubai mainly players with little playing experience, the team accepted the offer. As a result, the team successfully qualified for the final, where it lost to the Italians. The game's outcome was decided in the fifth set, which the Italians won 15-13, securing the main prize. At the same time, the organizers gave our team a special prize. Oksana Mammadyarova was nominated the best middle hitter of the tournament.

Incidentally, the team's key players, Oksana Parkhomenko, Valeriya Korotenko and Natalya Mammadova, who play in the Turkish championship, were unable to go to Dubai. The former two play quite successfully for Fenerbahce, and they can achieve a hat-trick of sorts by the end of the season. In particular, the club has made it to the semi-final in the CEV Cup, which will be the third time for Parkhomenko and Korotenko.  So both have a curious achievement on their records. They have played in the semi-finals of the Champions League (20-03/2004), Top Teams Cup (2001/2002) and now the CEV Cup. In other words, after the games in the latter tournament, they will be the only players in the recent history of Azerbaijani volleyball to have passed through the forge of the decisive games of every European cup.

In the Turkish championship, Fenerbahce is among the leaders and is vying with Turk Telekom, Besiktas, Vakifbank and Eczacibasi for the title. The rivalry in the Turkish championship becomes increasingly intense: there are more than enough ambitious teams in the tournament and now world-class players compete for these teams. Fener also played in the Turkish Cup finals. In the semi-finals, the "Canaries" vanquished Turk Telecom (3-0), for whom Natalya Mammadova plays. She was injured and is now through the rehabilitation process after surgery in Switzerland. So the season is not over for Natalya.

However, we should not forget that the main start of the year for our team is the European Championship in Poland, where it will play for the third successive year. And given good seeding, Faiq Qarayev's team has a chance to go far and compete for the medals.