The team from Marche put the Soviets in difficulty in the first and third sets, but the team that deserved the most throughout the entire tournament won by a wide margin: Dynamo dropped only two sets during its stay in Dubai, none in the final phase. Two individual awards also arrived, Marchisio as best libero and Petkovic MVP of the tournament.
Dubai – Grottazzolina challenges Moscow, it’s not a joke or the beginning of a fairy tale. The NAS Sports Tournament in Dubai also offers emotions like this, probably unimaginable until a handful of months ago and no less amazing today that we find ourselves experiencing them. In the end, the result respected the predictions, with a Dynamo that seemed truly unstoppable but the team from Marche fought as and for as long as they could, earning the applause of the many fans who came to the NAS Sports Complex.
In the opening partial Grottazzolina tried to stay in the slipstream but Dynamo took the lead; Fedrizzi catches up but it is difficult to intercept the Russians’ volleys, from every part of the court. Tatarov is marked by the imposing Russian wall, Sokolov and Semyshev hit with their serve and Dynamo takes off 16-11. A couple of effective service games, with Fedrizzi in particular, allow Grottazzolina to get closer to -3 and it is Petkovic who takes the stage at the end to reopen the partial at 23-23. The miracle however does not work, Moscow reconstructs the set point ball and Sokolov is relentless on the diagonal for 23-25.
