The curse of JSW Jastrzębski Węgiel volleyball players. Will the "talisman" work again?
Third time lucky? It is possible that this is the assumption of the team that will play in the semi-final of the Champions League next Saturday (May 17). During the Final Four, which will take place in the Atlas Arena in Łódź (May 16-18), JSW Jastrzębski Węgiel will face Aluron CMC Warta Zawiercie . It will therefore be a repeat of the rivalry that Polish fans from the domestic backyard know very well.
The Curse of JSW Jastrzębski Węgiel. Will Łukasz Kaczmarek be a talisman?The first time the Jastrzębie-Zdrój volleyball players appeared in the highest-stakes club game in Europe was over a decade ago. It was the final of the 2010/11 season, played in Bolzano, Italy. The Jastrzębie players were just starting out in the elite of the Old Continent, and they learned their lesson first from the Italian Trentino BetClic (0:3), and then, in the match for third place, from the Russian Dinamo Moscow (1:3).
As history has shown, they met Trentino again, but in the final, in the previous season (i.e. 2023/24). The Italians, operating under the name Itas Trentino, again did not allow the Jastrzębie team to win even a single set. This time, the Polish team lost in Turkey, more specifically, the final was held in Antalya. On Turkish soil, in Ankara, the Jastrzębie team won bronze medals in the 2013/14 campaign. Interestingly, they defeated the famous Zenit Kazan (3:1) in a direct clash, and earlier in the semi-final lost to... Halkbank - another team present in this year's Final Four in Łódź.
Looking more broadly at the performances of the club from Jastrzębie-Zdrój in the CL in recent years, it has ended with silver twice. The "Polish" final in May 2023 in Turin was a particularly painful experience. At that time, the Jastrzębie team seemed to be coming to the capital of Piedmont as a clear favorite. A dozen or so days earlier, their rivals, ZAKSA Kędzierzyn-Koźle, were defeated in the game for the gold medal of the Polish Championship. The Kędzierzyn team also had huge problems in Turin, but in the end they were able to turn the tide of the game for the title and win 3:2, reaching for the Champions League for the third time in a row (2021-23).
And one of ZAKSA's players at that time was Łukasz Kaczmarek. Described as a "talisman" by his colleagues from JSW Jastrzębski, who was supposed to turn the bad card around in the context of the Tauron Polish Cup. "Zwierzu" went to Jastrzębie-Zdrój before the start of the 2024/25 season and indeed, in Kraków, the Jastrzębie team won the trophy. Breaking a disastrous series of defeats in the finals, and Kaczmarek himself could enjoy the fifth such cup on his account. The attacker won the Champions League three times, precisely during ZAKSA's great series.
Is it time to break the spell of the Champions League for JSW? This will probably become clear during the competition in Łódź. The Jastrzębie team will certainly have a forced break from participating in these competitions. In the PlusLiga, at the finish of the 2024/25 season, the team finished just behind the podium, losing the fight for bronze to PGE Projekt Warszawa. For this reason, it seems that the motivation to achieve success will be even greater in the ranks of the former Polish champions.
We must also remember about the farewells and the personnel revolution that is being prepared in the ranks of JSW Jastrzębski. The departure of figures such as Tomasz Fornal, Jakub Popiwczak and Norbert Huber – this is an additional argument “for” a farewell with a bang. Preferably with a trophy in hand and gold medals, as they probably calculate after two unsuccessful attempts to attack the title of the best club team in Europe.
The competition for the title of the best club team on the Old Continent in the 2024/25 season will begin next Friday (i.e. May 16). The Final Four of the Champions League will be held at the Atlas Arena in Łódź. The first semi-final will feature Sir Sicoma Monini Perugia (Italy) and Halkbank Ankara (Türkiye). The match will start at 8:00 p.m.
A day later, i.e. on Saturday (17th May), there will be a "Polish" semi-final, in which the two-time CL finalists, from 2024 and 2023, and the Polish vice-champions - also from the last two seasons - will face off. The match JSW Jastrzębski Węgiel - Aluron CMC Warta Zawiercie will start at 14:45.
The bronze and gold medal matches are scheduled for Sunday (May 18). The "consolation final" starts at 4:00 p.m., and the gold medal match starts at 8:05 p.m. All matches will be broadcast on Polsat Sport 1. In the case of online broadcasts, they will be available, among others, via Polsat Box Go.
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