A CATASTROPHE CAN BE AVOIDED

The Azerbaijani wo-men's national volleyball team have accomplished their minimum task and won the right to continue their struggle, in the playoffs, for a place in the 2009 European championship. Having taken second place in the knockout tournament in Spain, Faiq Qarayev's team still have a good chance of winning one of the top places, but they need to play better than they have done

Time is working for us

The second round of qualifiers in Spain mirrored the first half of the tournament, in which our team won twice and lost once. Our national team were beaten by Spain, who came first in the group and made it to the final stages of Euro 2009. Although the Azerbaijani volleyball players had a chance of success, which depended on the results of the qualifiers, all hopes were dashed by the match with the host team which ended in a 2:3 loss. In any event, in view of the state of our team, who are still learning to play, and the recent return of a number of sportswomen, the result should be regarded as a success, especially as, after the first round, our national team was only in third place. Only in the second round could they take a number of important points and climb to second, earning the chance to try their luck in playoffs. Standing in our way is Greece, who took second place in Group F after beating Turkey.

Returning to the performance of our national team, we have to say that the coaches still have enough time to strengthen the team before the playoffs begin in September. Yelena Parkhomenko and Lidiya Maksimenko will finally recover from their injuries, while other sportswomen will also be in good shape. Besides then, the team's performance currently depends largely on the mood of the best player and the leading points scorer of a previous Champions League, Natalya Mammadova.

Talking about the knockout group, it must be said that a number of the teams involved were evenly matched, as proved in the course of the struggle. Only Macedonia were clear underdogs, as they did not win any of their six matches. Our team were one point ahead of Romania, who came third, and one point behind Spain who can now prepare for the finals of Euro 2009 with some confidence. Thus, we still have to make up ground in the playoffs, which certainly need to be successful. In a word, everything is in the hands of the Azerbaijani national team.

From team to team

Meanwhile, the leader of the Azerbaijani national team, Natalya Mammadova, will start next season with the Turk Telekom club. The failure of her talks with Switzerland's Volero, with whom she won the national championship, means that our volleyball player will now play in the Turkish championship. After Natalya helped Volero to win their local championship, she was loaned to Spain's Icaro Palma and, as a member of that club, won the right to play in the Champions League. Following Mammadova's contribution to the Spanish club, its leadership decided to keep the Azerbaijani volleyball player for the following season. Icaro Palma captain Kinga Maculevic also thought that the Azerbaijani international volleyball player should stay at the club. "Mammadova is one of our best purchases in the recent period and, if she stays at the club, this will help us play successfully in the Champions League. Natalya is a first-class player who is continuing to make progress," she said in an interview with the local media. Meanwhile, Volero also played in the League and, within a short space of time, Natalya became an irreplaceable member of the team. In the event, Mammadova has opted for Turkey.

It is noteworthy that the best player and previous leading Champions League points scorer has been in a similarly difficult position many times. Her foreign career began after AzerRail loaned her to Italy's Sanpaolo Chieri, after which Natalya decided to continue her career abroad. A year later Mammadova decided to change teams again and play in the stronger Spanish championship. There is another important situation which played into our volleyball player's hands during discussions with the leadership of the Zurich team. The fact is that, starting from next season, the International Federation (FIVB) will impose a tough limit on foreign players, which will mainly affect clubs in which the overwhelming majority of players are foreigners. Volero, which does not have its own players, is one of these clubs. However, the FIVB leadership then decided to ease the limit and increased the number of players who may appear on the court at the same time from two to three. The initial plan was reviewed following protests from a number of European federations, specifically the German, Spanish and Swiss. "We held negotiations with representatives of national federations and came to a common conclusion," said FIVB chairman Ruben Acosta. "It is unacceptable that more than half of the players on the pitch are foreigners." So beginning from next season, teams will have many fewer foreigners.

Hour X comes

The international schedule of the Azerbaijani national women's team, which used to be quite busy, has suddenly become "threadbare". The first warning sign was the team's failure to participate in the traditional Boris Yeltsin Cup, which was held in Yekaterinburg and Nizhniy Tagil. The national federation says that the team refused to participate in the contest because they were tired after the European Championship qualifiers. But there are never too many contests, especially as our national teams have twice won bronze medals in the Yeltsin Cup, while their play caught the attention of the first Russian president himself. It is clear that the team have looked much worse in the recent period and, perhaps, have become less interesting to organizers who invite only the teams which may become a real asset to the tournament, or national teams which are not busy with qualifiers. If we look at the participants, then we will see that this year's Yeltsin Cup was not very strong - Russia, Holland, Bulgaria, Croatia, Ukraine and Belarus. Only the first three teams have some international standing, whereas Ukraine and Belarus are in the second rank. However, this did not prevent Ukraine from beating Azerbaijan in last year's Heydar Aliyev Cup, participation in which was a real catastrophe for the host team.

"In the past, games in the World Grand Prix have exhausted our team. This tournament is good for teams which can rotate their squads, having a larger number of reserve players. Of course, all this is experience, including for me. Many maximalists believe that if the team came fourth in the 2005 European championship, it should then go on to win. Of course, when you win, you enjoy it very much, but the national team of Azerbaijan is now part of the elite, we should think first of all of ways of maintaining our position. We have to think realistically and do everything possible in order to keep our high standing, but also take account of the change of generations. And so we have to solve the problem of clubs and competition. How can you play with the same team and with the same players carrying the main burden? If this happens, a catastrophe awaits us. In the current situation, I am having to use AzerRail's participation in the Champions League as a testing ground for new players. There is no other choice because, apart from European Cups, the club has no practice, which means playing in the Cup is the only opportunity for the new generation of volleyball players to gain experience," stressed head coach, Faiq Qarayev,.

As we can see, our national team has quite a few problems - the lack of reserve players, serious competition and experience are among them. In this situation injuries become a real problem for the coaches. Everyone remembers the example of Yelena Parkhomenko, who injured her meniscus in September last year and is still recovering from the injury; it is not clear yet when she will return to the team. So the future prospects of the team are far from clear and even the playoff with Greece in the Euro 2009 qualifiers may turn out to be an unsurmountable task.