The Russian Super Cup draw was dedicated to the memory of Vyacheslav Zaitsev, one of the greatest players in history, who died on June 12, 2023 at the age of 70. Zaitsev is an Olympic champion (1980), world champion (1978, 1982), World Cup winner (1977, 1981), winner of the Goodwill Games (1986) and record holder for victories at the European Championships (seven titles). For many years he would have been the permanent main link between the "Motorist" and the USSR national team.
For the first time this season, the American binder Mike Christenson appeared in the Zenit squad, who flew to Kazan last Sunday. Another legionnaire, Sam Deru, remained in reserve. Dynamo has fielded the strongest squad to date, which lacks the injured Yaroslav Podlesnykh and Vadim Likhosherstov.
Muscovites seized the advantage thanks to the aces of Denis Bogdan and Tsvetan Sokolov (11:8), and Zenit fired twice in a row from someone you don't really expect it from - Alexey Kononov (11:11). Shaky equality was violated by two mistakes of Sokolov in attack: an out and a touch of the net, which helped "Zenit" story 18:16. Soon, Kazan captain Artem Volvich closed the Bulgarian with a block (21:19), but Dynamo also caught Maxim Mikhailov's attacks (22:22). The hero of the ending was Zenit's finishing player Mikhail Labinsky, who scored two heavy goals, but Anton Semyshev made a mistake - 25:23 in favor of Kazan.
Dynamo managed to make a breakthrough on the serves of Denis Bogdan (6:5 - 9:5) thanks to ace, Labinsky's spade and Sokolov's accurate attack. Zenit coach Alexey Verbov had to take a timeout, after which his team made a +5 breakthrough thanks to the cool defense and blocks of Mikhailov and Kononov - 10:9. Now Konstantin Bryansky had to invite the players to talk. But the Kazan team continued to build up the gap, and even luck was on their side: Dmitry Volkov scored a point after an unsuccessful reception - Sokolov poorly estimated the trajectory of the passing ball, which landed on the line. But Volkov was also good in attack, but Semyshev hit out again - 20:16 in favor of Zenit.
Labinsky scored and immediately stopped Sokolov's attack with a block - 3:0. Dynamo quickly recovered and leveled the game. Dmitry Zhuk twice reduced the lag to a minimum, but the video replay showed that in the second case he touched the grid. Kazan led 14:11 and then Christenson blocked Sokolov, and then Tsvetan did not figure out the ball in defense - 16:11. Instead of the Bulgarian legionnaire, Dynamo had Romanas Shkulyavicius, but he could not turn the tide of the game. The current champion of Russia and the winner of the Cup of the country Zenit-Kazan took its first trophy of the season in the presence of almost 5 thousand spectators.
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