Tours VB aims for qualification in Fréjus to launch 2025

Frejus
Tours

Ah, the month of January. The one that closes the chapter of a year, to open that of a new one that we always hope for better. That of wishes, of the galette des rois. Good resolutions, which we sometimes keep, which we often push back. Tours Volley-Ball has only one in mind right now. And that he intends to honor: starting 2025 at least as well as he ended 2024.

Certainly, the calendar year was punctuated by a defeat (3-0), in Poitiers, for the Touraine club, at the end of a bitter struggle. But it did not erase anything from the impressive series on which Marcelo Fronckowiak's men were surfing before that.

“If we are not super focused, we can have surprises”

So, it is with the ambition of returning to victory very quickly that Zeljko Coric and his partners return to competition this Tuesday, in Fréjus (League B), for the round of 16 of the Coupe de France.

To tell the truth, the people of Tourange have no choice, since this trip to the Var – without Aracaju, spared – signals the return of the good old “it makes or breaks”, with a qualification to be obtained on a dry match. A task that is always tricky to tackle, even when you are the announced big favorite.

“We absolutely have to be careful, respect the opponent and be rigorous with our levelsays the coach. Against Saint-Quentin last year, we already had a tricky match. If we are not super focused, we can have surprises. We have a status to assume, but that doesn't mean the team opposite will make our task easier. »

A busy January

So, with the end of year celebrations behind them, the TVB players quickly put on their warm-up blue to attack a busy month of January, with six matches on the program, where the Coupe de France, the championship and the CEV Cup will be jointly on the menu. .

“We are going to experience a difficult sequenceconcedes the coach. But even if we think about all that, I want to keep a lot of energy to focus on the next match, where we have to be at the top to try to continue the adventure in the Coupe de France. »

Fréjus, the French sector

Because this first step in Fréjus is not the simplest. The Var club, which before the TVB, also experienced its hours of glory between 1987 and 1992 (4 French championship titles, 5 French Cups, a Champions League final), signed a convincing start to the season in the antechamber of the elite (3^e7V, 2D).

This with an almost exclusively French group, mixing youth and experience, under the leadership of a certain Loïc Geiler, a former international who worked as an assistant with the Blues Olympic champions in Paris this summer. And who, as a TVB player (2010-2011), had also won the only Coupe de France of his career. Enough to add a little salt to this duel.

“For a long time, it has been a club that has exploited the French sector a lotconstate Marcelo Fronckowiak. There are players with interesting backgrounds, like Sol, Da Silva, who have recently been in very good elite clubs. We are therefore serious in our approach to knowing how to manage opposition, because we are convinced that this team can play very good volleyball. » Mistrust.

Tuesday January 7 at 8 p.m., on LNV TV.

The teams

> Fréjus: 1. Ghio (libero, 1.78 m). 3. Suc (passer, 1.87 m). 4. Atia (sharp, 1.95 m). 5. Ebagne (rec-att., 1.91 m). 6. Cheung (libero, 1.81 m). 7. Brégent (central, 1.99 m). 8. Da Silva (passer, 1.90 m). 9. Floor (central, 1.98 m). 10. Kjaer (rec-att., 1.88 m, Dan). 11. Nack-Minyem (central, 1.99 m). 12. Clère (rec-att., 1.95 m). 17. Foncarnier (rec-att., 2 m). 22. Marty (pointed, 2 m). Ent. : Loïc Geiler.

> Tours : 3. Faganas (pointu, 2 m). 6. Pothron (réc-att., 1.98 m). 7. Ramon (free, 1.85 m). 8. Gabin (passer, 1.87 m). 9. Quiroga (réc-att., 1.92 m, Arg). 10. Sclater (pointu, 2 m, Can). 11. Gergye (réc-att., 1.98 m, Hon). 12. Marshman (central, 2.01 m, E.-U.). 14. Strehlau (réc-att., 1.99 m). 15. Scherer (free, 1.86 m). 17. Coric (passer, 1.96 m, Ser). 21. Voss (central, 2.01 m, Bré). Ent. : Marcelo Fronckowiak.