Gearing up for World League – Team Germany

We’re almost there, everybody. Here’s the rundown:

Egypt Portugal
Japan
Iran
Netherlands
South Korea
Finland
Canada
Italy
Argentina
Serbia
Russia
France
Brazil
Germany
Bulgaria
Cuba
USA
Poland

Germany’s history on the world stage is a bit tangled. Remember how I mentioned that Russia are the inheritors of the USSR and CIS teams’ records, and Serbia of the Yugoslavia and Serbia and Montenegro records? It’s not quite so obvious with Germany. I often have to remind myself that the reunification of Germany is an event that took place in my lifetime (though I was only 4 when the wall came down). It’s easy, at least for me, to conceive of it as something out of distant history.

International volleyball really only came into being around about the same time separate East and West German republics did. Therefore, records for a team called simply ‘Germany’ only go back to 1990. And in that time their record has mostly been pretty modest. Last summer in London was their second Olympic appearance, after a downright dismal showing in Beijing, and it amounted to 5th rank (loss in the first round of the knockout phase — same as USA). They’ve been off-again, on-again in their attendances at the World League, and last year’s 5th place there was by far their best showing. Of the six world championships that have taken place since reunification, they’ve played three, with 8th their high water mark. They’ve missed a couple of CEV European Championship over that span and hold 5th as their best placing in that event. Germany will return for the 2013 championship. The only event where they have any hardware is the European League, having won it back in 2009 (they haven’t played it since). If you want to give them East Germany’s history, they can claim a 1972 Olympic silver and golds at the 1969 World Cup and 1970 World Championship, but no matter how you slice it, that’s far too long ago to be directly relevant.

The sport is not especially robust in Germany. They do have a Bundesliga (you think of the soccer league when you hear the name, but all that word actually means is “Federal league”) for it, but it really doesn’t compare in esteem to the other European leagues. About a third of the players on Germany’s World League roster play at home, with others heading to France, Italy, Russia, Poland, all over the map really. And also, the United States — JP Marks (apparently the JP stands for Jan-Philipp) will, presuming he sees at least some action, make his senior national team debut in World League competition this year. I’m still uneasy about the sourcing, but being that the whole matter is ultimately rather harmless, I’ll just lay out that Marks’ college career came to a premature end shortly before the end of this past season because he signed a pro contract. He never intended to return to UH after this past season, and assumed that since the contract was for this coming fall, it would not impact his eligibility in the spring (the MPSF tournament). Evidently he thought wrong. If you’ve been reading, you know I dearly loved being a fan of the UH team this past season, but I can’t begrudge JP one bit for moving on to green pastures (not greener, green) when he could, rather than complete college. Who among us would have done differently?

(The only people who should have their hands in the air are the ones whose chosen field outright requires a college degree {doctor or something})

There are, of course, lots of experienced players ahead of Marks on the depth chart. The floor captain for the ’13 World League is all-round player Jochen Schöps, veteran of the team’s last two Olympics and World Championship appearances. The team have experienced a fair bit of turnover just since London, with near 7-foot middle blocker Marcus Böhme, with experience only at the last Olympics and World Championship, the next most senior team member. I’d keep one eye on outside hitter Denys Kaliberda as well, who is only 23 but has experience at the Olympics and at Worlds. He also plays club in Italy, and that means something. Two other players have World Championship experience, libero Ferdinand Tille (sounds like a good volleyball name) and setter Patrick Steuerwald. A couple of others have national team experience at lesser events, but for the most part, the remainder are a squad of rookies.

The coaching position has been a revolving door ever since Romania’s Stelian Moculescu left the post after a decade in service, after the 2008 Olympics. Argentina’s Raúl Lozano followed him for three years, with Belgian Vital Heynen guiding the team through last year’s Olympiad. He remains in the post for 2013, though it’s not clear for how long he’s signed.

So are we looking at a winner?

Nah. They prospered last year with nations bringing their B- and C-squads. That’s not gonna happen this time around. I’ll be on the lookout for Marks, but otherwise this isn’t a team that greatly interests me. They’re in Pool B, and from there, Russia and Italy can book their tickets to Argentina right now. Then it’s a dogfight between Cuba and Serbia (one which may have become more interesting with recent events, which I’ll touch on in the Cuba piece). Germany are gonna be on the outside looking in.