Stephane Antiga did something special. This is what a loud comeback looks like!

The match between Steam Hemarpol Politechnika Częstochowa and Bogdanka LUK Lublin was supposed to be one of the biggest, if not the biggest, hits of the 1st round of PlusLiga. Two teams that could have been hailed as the greatest revelations last season faced each other at Jasna Góra. The Częstochowa team unexpectedly managed to enter the play-off phase, while the club from the Lublin region completely broke the bank, beating everyone and winning the Polish championship and the Challenge Cup.

PlusLiga: Bogdanka LUK Lublin showed strength. Coach Anitiga’s successful return

However, when it came to a direct clash, Bogdanka LUK clearly managed to take revenge on the Częstochowa team. Last season, the eventual national champions lost at Jasna Góra 1:3, having one of the weaker performances in the regular phase. Then the hall at Żużlowa Street (because the Włókniarz speedway stadium was right next to it) went crazy with happiness, and Norwid seemed to be a team growing in strength.

However, this energy was not there at the inauguration of the new season. Even Luciano De Cecco failed to impress enough to put the hosts on a more equal footing. It is true that the second set ended with an advantage of 26:28 to the detriment of Steam Hemarpol Politechniki, but much of this was due to… the temporary relaxation of the national champions.

The large audience gathered in the stands (officially the number is 4,000) could admire individual actions. The second part, however, squeezed out practically everything that the hosts could have added that day in a clash with one of the main favorites of PlusLiga in the game for gold medals.

It is certainly worth noting that the 3-0 win in Częstochowa was the perfect return to the competition for coach Bogdanka LUK. Stephane Antiga is a volleyball legend, associated with Polish volleyball for years (with a small break for an episode in Italy). The 2014 world champion with the Polish national volleyball team did not hide his satisfaction with the performance of his players on the difficult terrain in Częstochowa.

– Of course I’m satisfied. Both because I returned to PlusLiga and because I won the first match of the new season. And this with a team that plays well and can play very well. It’s never easy at the start of the competition. We had a lot of players who were involved in the national team period. That’s why it’s perfect that we started the league this way. Today we played a very good match. I also liked the mental aspect. Everything was positive in this match – Antiga admitted with satisfaction in a post-match interview for “Wprost”.

What can you say, the Frenchman’s return to PlusLiga with a bang! Antiga also admitted in an interview for “Wprost” that the team is currently getting better and better together, and the challenge for which the champions want to be one hundred percent ready will be the match on November 5 for the AL-KO Polish Super Cup. In Spodek in Katowice, the PlusLiga champions will play against the winners of the Tauron Polish Cup game. During the final tournament, JSW Jastrzębski Węgiel turned out to be the best. Interestingly, on the way to the triumph, the team from Jastrzębie beat in the semi-finals… what else, Bogdanka LUK Lublin.

Several leaders among the Polish champions. Norwid needs a quick reset

However, returning to the clash a short distance from Katowice, i.e. in Częstochowa, there were several leaders on the Bogdanka LUK side. Wilfredo Leon scored a full match (the first since the World Championships in the Philippines) and scored 16 points – including five point plays. The Polish representative had next to him another fast player, almost equally effective in scoring, Kewin Sasak. The attacker added 14 points.

And another one from coach Nikola Grbic’s team, the captain of Bogdanka LUK – Marcin Komenda, was chosen MVP of the match.

What’s on the Częstochowa side? The lonely attacker Patrik Indra (14 points), the receivers who were very disturbed and the players who were just learning how to play together, taking into account what De Cecco offered. The Argentine will not remember his debut positively, but he certainly charmed the audience several times with his unconventional ideas for the second rebound.

The opening of the season in Częstochowa was a bit surprising, not so much in terms of the result, but rather in terms of its size. Excluding set number two and the above-mentioned advantage play, with the set point for Norwid (26:25), the hosts lost the two remaining games clearly 16:25 and 17:25. And the entire match lasted only 88 minutes. The people of Częstochowa now need a quick reset. PlusLiga usually does not forgive mistakes, and subsequent competitors only wait for their opponents’ weaker moments. What would this reset be? In short: league win.

Bogdanka LUK will follow its own path, probably mainly a winning one, and Częstochowa cannot imagine a scenario in which the team would perform worse than in the last campaign. Not at Jasna Góra. Although Norwid is not the same story as the champion AZS Częstochowa years ago, the city remembers well when the gold medal was decided between the Częstochowa hall (former Polonia) and the Kędzierzyn hall. And this attitude certainly gives a certain mandate, unique on a national scale, but it can also weigh heavily, especially with results such as Wednesday’s.