Massimo Eccheli has a recipe for the beautiful
Another chance, the last one for Massimo Eccheli’s Vero Volley Monza to continue dreaming of the tricolor of SuperLega Credem Banca 23-24. Tomorrow, Thursday, April 11, at 8 pm.30 (live VBTV), within the friendly walls of the’Opiquad Arena, the Brianzoli will take on the reigning Italian champions of Itas Trentino in Race-4 of the Credem Banca Scudetto Playoffs Semifinals.
Having lost the first two confrontations, the Monzese pulled off a superlative performance in Race-3, leaving open a window to play another inside-out in front of a friendly crowd. What made the difference in the previous challenge for Beretta and his teammates è was the serve, with numerous team aces useful to mark the groove in the hot stages. Monza, moreover, created several headaches for Soli’s lineup with Ran Takahashi’s super performance in double figures (25 balls put on the ground), followed by the returning Maar (22 points) and the “usual” inexhaustible Loeppky (24 points). The Lombards, whose week of training in the run-up to the match was not carried out in full ranks due to some physical ailments, will have to try to continue attacking with precision, maintaining the efficiency of the wall-defense correlation, a fundamental that gave so much satisfaction during the first historic victory of the Monza team at the “Il T Quotidiano Arena”.
A series that seemed to be on the twilight path è returned to dawn thanks to the choral success of the Brianzoli, thanks to the players on the court, but also to Massimo Eccheli and his staff, able to destabilize the opponents with a three-slappers module, allowed by the return of the already mentioned Stephen Maar, great absentee of the first two matches and immediately protagonist. The two teams struggled with all the resources at their disposal and despite the important performance at the wall of the gialloblù (14 winners), it was the Lombard giants who found the key solutions in batting and attack in the pivotal phases of a match decided by the details, by the will to never give up and by a haul of 73 points on high ball.
The current one è the third confrontation in the Scudetto Playoff table between the two teams. There are already two quarterfinal challenges on record (2017 and 2023 editions), with Trento getting the better of both circumstances by winning five of the six games played. Never before had the challenge thus occurred in the Semifinals, as it did in the annual Coppa Italia edition (then won by the Brianzoli at the tie break last January 27 in Bologna). Also on file are an Italian Super Cup Final (2021, won by Trento 3-1 in Civitanova) and no less than three Coppa Italia quarterfinals (2017, 2018 and 2022 editions). In all direct clashes è however, it’s always been Itas Trentino that got the better of them.
"We will have to be good at focusing on one point at a time, giving the best we have. We can’t think long term, but we have to be able to give 100 percent at all times. This will be the’key aspect of the match, beyond all the changes or not that there have been and might be at the tactical level", Coach Eccheli said on the eve of the match.
