Cubans in the Italian Volleyball League: Robertlandy Simón and Company, Against the Ropes

April 20, 2023

After three consecutive seasons at the top of Italian volleyball, everything seems to indicate that the stellar Cuban player Robertlandy Simón will surrender the crown of the best professional circuit on the planet. The middle blocker is on the verge of elimination with Gas Sales Bluenergy Piacenza, which will face the third semifinal match this Wednesday with two losses and no victories against Itas Trentino.

Piacenza failed to take advantage of the home court advantage last Sunday, falling 1-3 (19-25, 22-25, 25-20, and 20-25) at PalaBanca, before 3,430 spectators. After this result, Massimo Botti's team is now against the wall and forced to win three consecutive matches if they want to advance to the championship discussion.

In the second challenge, they again clashed against the wall of Serbian middle blockers Marko Podrascanin and Srecko Lisinac, who achieved five of Trentino's eight effective blocks. The northern Italy team also relied on powerful serving, managing to achieve seven aces.

Precisely, Riccardo Sbertoli received the nomination for Most Valuable Player (MVP) of the match after scoring three points from the service line. By the same means, Alessandro Michieletto achieved two aces, while Donovan Dzavoronok and Podrascanin added one.

In general terms, the left-handed Michieletto led Trentino's firepower with 15 points, followed by Bulgarian captain Matey Kaziyski (10). In fact, this duo has carried the offensive weight of the team throughout the season, to the point that they ranked among the eight best scorers of the championship during its regular phase.

With this performance, Trentino placed itself one step away from reaching its first Italian League final since 2017, when they lost in that instance to Lube Civitanova. Now they will seek to finish the series against Piacenza at their BLM Group Arena, this Wednesday.

In that scenario, Piacenza's Cuban trio made up of Robertlandy Simón, Yoandy Leal, and Roamy Alonso needs almost a miracle to rally and advance to the championship discussion, just as they had to do in the quarterfinals when they also started with two losses against Modena and then won three straight games.

"Now we have another opportunity to extend this series and we will play it until the end. During the season we had ups and downs, but we deserved to be here. We already recovered the series once, we will try again," said Piacenza coach Antoine Brizard, in statements collected by the official league website.

To repeat this feat, they would have to win two matches in Trento, a place where they managed to come out on top during the regular season.

Piacenza will require the best version of their auxiliaries Ricardo Lucarelli and Yoandy Leal, who wasted at least ten offensive opportunities between the two last Sunday. Furthermore, they were not sharp in the receiving line and committed seven serving errors, one of the worst aspects of the team in the last loss.

On this matter, Robertlandy Simón, usually devastating with his serve, failed on six occasions and was well below his standards. The Cuban middle blocker achieved three of Piacenza's ten blocks, but that was not enough to break down Trentino's resistance.

Osnier Mergarejo Drives Milan Forward

The second match of the other semifinal, disputed between Allianz Milano and Cucine Lube Civitanova, could not have had a better preamble for Cuban auxiliary Osniel Mergarejo. Before the match began, the spirituano received the MVP award from the quarterfinals at Allianz Cloud Arena, where he was cheered by the Milan crowd.

Mergarejo took to the center of the court and felt the warmth of almost 5,300 fans in Allianz Milano's return before their home crowd, after defeating favorite Perugia in the previous playoff round. After that victory, the team had not reunited with their followers, as they started the semifinal with a loss at Lube's home.

That very setback forced them to win to avoid being tied, and they responded with a very close 3-2 victory (25-18, 20-25, 25-21, 21-25, and 15-9). The hosts navigated with great composure and achieved their third win in five sets of the current playoffs.

Japanese Yuki Ishikawa (22 points), Frenchman Jean Patry (19), Cuban Mergarejo (17), and Argentine Agustín Loser led Milan, which had more than 50% effectiveness in attack.

"I think our semifinal started today. The players have known how to put into practice their technique, tactics, heart, and emotion. An emotion also driven by the 5,296 spectators who continued to support our team. Now we can say that we are at the same level as Civitanova. We need to recover our energy like they do. We need to study the matches at the same time they do. It will be a match until the last day and we will have to go for safe points," ensured Milan's coach Roberto Piazza, cited by the official league website.

Mergarejo was not sharp with his serve—he committed five errors—and ran into Lube's block four times, but gave a good demonstration with his receiving, plus achieving double digits for the fourth time in the seven playoff matches he has played.

On the opposite side, Cuban Marlon Yant contributed 12 points to Lube Civitanova, with ten effective attacks, one ace, and one block. However, the villaclareno was imprecise in offensive duties (achieving only 32% effectiveness in attack), although he left decent numbers in receiving.

The series now moves its action to Eurosole Forum, home of the current champions of the Italian circuit, who will seek to tip the balance in their favor and put Allianz Milano, the great revelation of the current playoffs, against the ropes.