For some it was the biggest game in the club’s history, for others it was a routine demonstration of their skills. The outsiders from Ammersee, the defeated WWK Volleys from Herrsching, were afterwards “proud of their overall successful cup trip,” as captain Eric Burggräf put it. At the victorious Berlin Recycling Volleys, however, there was more satisfaction with the successful defense of their title than exuberant celebration of victory.
After the German Cup final in Mannheim, the Berliners had an eight-hour bus ride home – enough time to toast their cup victory with a beer, “or two,” like the outstanding setter Johannes Tille, who was voted “Man of the Match.” announced with a laugh. And also enough time to sort through the past week and draw conclusions for the future.
“More luck”
Three days before the final at national level, which was easily won with 3-0 sets (25:13, 25:18, 25:23), the volleys at the Italian champions Itas Trentino had almost as smooth a result with 0-3 sets (19: 25, 20:25, 22:25) said goodbye to the Champions League. Already in the quarter-final first leg in their own hall they were clearly inferior to the Italians with 0:3 sets (18:25, 17:25, 17:25).
“Trentino is the best team in the world,” said Tille, comparing national superiority and international powerlessness: “Of course it is difficult to survive against a team like that.”
The Berliners had already failed in the quarter-finals to Trentino in 2022, and to Perugia a year later. When asked how they could make it a step further at European level, the otherwise strategic ball distributor revealed a pragmatic solution that was more based on the principle of hope: “Maybe be a little bit luckier not to get into the quarter-finals against the best team .”
After all, Tille, like Berlin captain Ruben Schott and middle blocker Tobias Krick, has already achieved a milestone in his sport this season: The trio gained entry to the Olympic Games with the national team at the qualifying tournament in Brazil. On their way to Paris, the Germans beat, among others, hosts Brazil and world champions Italy. However, the great enthusiasm for volleyball that had been hoped for quickly faded away, as Schott discovered.
Immediately after the tournament in October, the media inquiries were somewhat more numerous. There were also more photo requests from ball children and other spectators. “Otherwise everything is the same” – which the 29-year-old accepted calmly.
Higher budget
The fact that three experienced and successful German national players play in the BR Volleys team – alongside the top-class international squad around them – shows how far the Berlin ensemble stands out from an average Bundesliga team, which is due to the significantly higher budget is. All other German Olympians play for clubs in the even better-rewarded leagues of France, Italy, Poland or Turkey – where Tille, Schott and Krick also played before they returned to Germany.
The former Frankfurt Krick expected the seventh cup victory in the Berlin club’s history to be a boost for the final spurt of the season with the play-offs starting in mid-March. “We are the team to beat,” he left no doubt that the Volleys are aiming for their 14th German championship title. This would make them the sole record champions and replace VfB Friedrichshafen as the country’s long-time number 1.
Achim Dreis, Wiesbaden Published/Updated: Recommendations: 3 Achim Dreis Published/Updated: Recommendations: 5 Achim Dreis, Mannheim Published/Updated: Recommendations: 1
The difference between international experience and local efforts was particularly evident on Sunday in the first two sets of the cup final. “We didn’t have much to counter,” summarized Burggräf. Only in the third set did the outsider get used to the impressive backdrop of 10,887 spectators in Mannheim – and showed what he was capable of with a 6-0 run from 6:8 to 12:8. But the Berliners’ answer spoke for itself: “None of us had any desire for this to become another story for Herrsching,” said Tille. “That’s why we gave it extra gas.”
