In the semifinals of the 2024 Russian Premier League Legend Cup, the Belgorod team, joined by Zhang Jingyin of the Chinese men's volleyball team, lost 1-3 to the Kazan Zenit team, unfortunately missed the final, with the scores of 25-18, 20-25, 17-25, 21-25 in four games.
This match showed the gap between the two sides in many aspects, especially the all-round advantage of the Zenit Kazan team in all aspects, and finally successfully advanced to the final.
Judging by the course of the game, the overall performance of the Belgorod team was significantly behind that of the Kazan Zenit team. Especially in terms of first-pass, second-pass and offensive coordination, Belgorod failed to form an effective offensive tandem, and the coach's scheduling also appeared weak.
On the other hand, the Kazan team, under the mobilization of United States setter Christensen, showed excellent multi-point flowering and three-dimensional offensive tactics, played a changeable offensive routine, and comprehensively suppressed Belgorod.
In terms of specific statistics, Belgorod made more mistakes in the game, and the team's offensive efficiency was relatively low. In the smash session, the Belgorod team scored a total of 41 points, while the Kazan team scored 53 points, and in the block, Kazan led 13-7, with both teams scoring 4 points each, Belgorod made 23 errors, and Kazan 31.
In terms of individual performance, Belgorod's Zhang Jingyin scored a total of 9 points, including 5 points in 14 smashes, contributing 3 blocks and 1 service point, although his first pass performance was excellent, 23 first passes without mistakes, reaching 65% completion rate and 26% perfection rate, but the overall score was low.
Hasidadi was Belgorod's top scorer with 17 points, including 14 of his 31 smashes and three serves, while Tyyukhin scored 10 points, and while his attack was relatively solid, the overall effect was not significant, with Zabolotnikov scoring eight points.
In contrast, the performance of the Zenit Kazan team was even more impressive. Volkov and Volvich each scored 15 points, with Volkov scoring 10 of his 22 smashes, as well as three blocks and two serves.
Volvic showed great control in front of the net, scoring five blocks to effectively suppress Belgorod's attack, Drew and Kononov also scored 12 points each, and their consistent play set the stage for Kazan, with setter Andreas Christensen scoring four points (two shots, one shot, three blocks).
Overall, Belgorod exposed a number of problems in this game, especially in the first pass and attack, and in the face of Zenit Kazan's all-round press, they struggled to organize an effective counter-attack.
Although the core players such as Hasidadi and Zhang Jingyin have performed well, the overall performance of the whole team still needs to be improved, while the Kazan Zenit team has demonstrated the strong strength of the Russian Premier League through steady tactical execution and tacit cooperation of the whole team, successfully advanced to the finals, and continued to fight for the championship.