It has now been four months since CVB 52 Haute-Marne and Tourcoing last clashed. Although fighting a fierce battle at the top of the Marmara Spikeleague table, the two teams met directly on the first day of the championship last September. The reunion, this Sunday, January 19 (5 p.m.), in Palestra, is eagerly awaited.
This is a new opportunity to join Tourcoing in the ranking which presents itself at Chaumont VB 52 Haute-Marne, this Sunday January 19, in Palestra. Indeed, until now, the Cévebistes have always wasted, through defeats, the opportunities that have presented themselves to catch up with the Northerners in recent weeks in particular.
This time, the situation is slightly different. It is no longer at a distance that the two teams challenge each other, but face-to-face. The law of the strongest will logically outline the new hierarchy on the evening of this 17e day of Marmara Spikeleague.
Because if the CVB 52 can do a good job on this Sunday, the opposite is just as true for the people of Tourquennois. In the event of a victory in Haut-Marne, the latter would widen an even greater gap with their host of the day at the top of the ranking. Especially since Tourcoing, already exempt at the start of the return phase, has, mathematically, one match less than the Chaumontais.
Here is a stage set which should therefore offer a most exciting duel between two teams who have not faced each other since the very start of the championship and the first day (read the first leg). At the time, the Northerners, at the Roubaix velodrome, had been right, in the “tie-break”, of the beautiful Cévebiste resistance, in a match where each squad, very renewed on both sides in the summer, was still looking for its benchmarks collectively. It is therefore difficult to draw real lessons from this unique confrontation.
The CVB and Tourcoing are two ambitious clubs
One thing is certain, however: almost four months later, the two teams have perfectly met the expectations of their high ambitions, which they had not hidden at the start of the competition. Considered among the favorites for the title this season, the two clubs are well present in the battle, on paper and on the pitch.
With a fairly “typical” starting “seven” from the first day of last September, Tourcoing should thus present almost the same configuration at kick-off this Sunday as on September 28. Only Michael Parkinson, returning from injury at the time, regained his starting place.
While CVB 52 could also find the same configuration as in the first leg, with the exception of Mathis Henno who today took the lead over Jacob Pasteur and Sebastian Closter who was injured at the start of the championship. For the Chaumontais, the objective is to achieve a second consecutive victory in 2025. Indeed, for the fourth meeting of this new year, Silvano Prandi's men have, for the moment, alternated the hot and the cold throughout the three competitions in which they are still qualified.
With the return of Joseph Worsley, already decisive in the Champions League match last Thursday against Lüneburg (3-0 success), CVB 52 has regained all of its strength. Only Cheikh Diop, although on the match sheet, remained behind from the last continental meeting due to shoulder pain: not sure that he would have regained all his mobility for this weekend. But after having successfully passed the cup tests (in France and Europe) in January, the CVB now wants to resume its march forward in the championship. The timing is ideal.
Laurent Génin
The teams
CVB 52 Haute-Marne
1. Worsley (cap.), 2. Durand (lib.), 3. Holdaway, 4. Henno, 5. Lefaivre, 7. shower, 8. Diop, 9. Toledo, 10. Lietzke, 15. Polak, 16. Will do, 17. Pasteur, 19. Closter (lib.).
Coach : Silvano Prandi.
Tourcoing VBM
1. Louchart2. Loubeyre (lib.), 3. Tizi-Oualou, 4. Aru, 6. Lavigne, 7. longs, 8. And Moal, 10. Dosso, 11. Roehrig (cap.), 12. Rotsaert, 13. Gate, 15. Hutcheson, 16. Kourkatsev, 20. Martinez Franchi, 22. Parkinson.
-Coach : Dorian Rougeyron.
The opponent: solid Tourquennois
Even if the Tourquennois officially ceded first place in the Marmara Spikeligue to Montpellier last weekend, after their defeat in Paris (3-2), the northern team remains unquestionably the strongest and most successful in the championship since the start of the season.
Eliminated from the European Cup since their defeat against the Poles of Lublin in the Challenge Cup, the Northerners now want to be fully focused on their main objective: the title of champion of France for which they are logically proven contenders.
Constant domination
Since November 3 and the seventh day, Tourcoing took possession of the leadership position in the championship and has never left it. Today, it is officially second in the standings, after its last defeat in Paris, but nevertheless has the same number of points as Montpellier, with which it currently shares the throne.
A perfectly digested penalty
Even the penalty of two points in the ranking inflicted by the Commission for Assistance and Control of Professional Clubs in December, for budgetary reasons, did not alter the confidence of Dorian Rougeyron's men. The club did not even appeal the decision. The only real embarrassment for the Northerners, the sanction comes as a second criterion in establishing the ranking of the Marmara Spikeleague. In other words, in the event of a tie on points with another team, the club administratively penalized by a withdrawal of points will automatically be behind its rival, despite an equivalent score. This is currently the case with Montpellier.
The Parisian “black beast”
Because in the figures, in set-average as well as in the number of victories, Tourcoing displays a record far superior to all its other rivals in the Marmara Spikeligue. With only two defeats on the clock, the Northerners have already finally beaten all teams in the championship, except… Paris which, after the “0-3” inflicted on the Vélodrome de Roubaix during the first leg, did it again last week (3-2 ) in the Charpy room: astonishing!
A typical team
With around fifteen players capable of playing in the professional team, Dorian Rougeyron's typical team took shape very quickly. “You don't change a winning team” is the famous saying, so the northern coach applies it to the letter. If we except the first day against CVB 52 Haute-Marne, where the Estonian central Marx Aru started the game in place of Michael Parkinson who had barely returned from injury, the starting “seven” did not never moved throughout the matches.
L. G.
The first leg: a setback for the CVB to start
By going to Tourcoing to start the championship on September 28, CVB 52 Haute-Marne knew how to come up against one of the main favorites for the title this season. However, on the ground, the northern team had to confirm its ambitions. She quickly demonstrated this with a first set that was already strong, but which nevertheless turned to the advantage of the locals. The Chaumontais are, in fact, struggling to make their reception reliable, and the direct errors are too numerous to compete: 25-21 in 30′.
However, from the start of the second set, the CVB 52 corrects the situation: sharper serves and greater defensive attention offer more convincing resistance. The “rallies” are becoming more and more numerous, but often turn in favor of the Haut-Marnais who equalize: 20-25 in 29′.
But definitely, the meeting has not yet chosen its winner. The alternation of domination continues in the third set. Tourcoing regains control thanks to its offensive power, both in attack and service. This time, the Cévebistes were unable to keep up the pace and gave in again: 25-21 in 29′.
No matter, since it is said that each team will patiently wait for their set to regain control, CVB 52 follows the scenario to the letter. By finding a solution thanks to its counter line, the Haut-Marnais posed new problems for the locals which the latter showed themselves incapable of solving: 18-25 in 24′.
It is therefore in the “tie-break” that the two teams will decide. Long neck and neck on the scoreboard, Tourcoing found the fault at the right time, at the very end of this decisive round. A gap that the CVB will no longer fill: 15-11 in 15′.
The buzz of the week: exceptionally on Sunday
If CVB 52 Haute-Marne welcomes Tourcoing on a Sunday at 5 p.m., it owes it to its Champions League match scheduled for the previous Thursday. Initially, BeIN sports had even considered broadcasting this “shock” of the 17e day, but with a European match on Thursday, CVB 52 could not play again the next day, Friday, a day reserved for broadcasts of volleyball matches on the Qatari channel.
The CVB therefore asked to postpone the meeting against the Northerners to Sunday to have a little more recovery time. Especially since Silvano Prandi's men, for once in their busy schedule, will not be required by a competition in the middle of the coming week: the next meeting is scheduled for Saturday January 25, in Saint -Nazaire.
