Verbov's team defeated Dinamo for the seventh consecutive time.

The Kazan 'Zenit' volleyball players won the Russian Super Cup, defeating Dynamo Moscow 3-0. Leggionnaire Sam Deroo, who flew to Kazan on the day of the match, came on as a substitute. Zenit's staff had not planned to play the Belgian, as he arrived in Kazan at seven in the morning after a long flight with a layover. Deroo almost immediately went to practice to recall what the Russian ball, which he had to get used to, felt like.

Dobi Arabadzhieva's boyfriend participated in the Euro 2026 qualification tournament, and in the last matches against Austria and Azerbaijan, Deroo finished with very high efficiency – 41 points with 70% attack efficiency.

Zenit needed Deroo's help with the score 11:13 in the third set – he came in for Dmitry Volkov, who was not himself: 5 points, 17% in attack. "Deroo literally got off the plane and helped. Both technically and tactically, but most importantly, emotionally," noted Alexey Verbov after the match. "He entered a difficult situation and solved important problems. Yes, he is in good playing shape, but he is not yet in sync with our team. I told our young guys to learn from Sam. He is great."

Deroo scored only three points, but seriously influenced the outcome of the match, which could have dragged on. Kazan fans probably didn't want to watch a tie-break - the match was moved to 8:00 PM due to television broadcast.
Kononov, Volvich, and Volkov in the first two sets gave Zenit a huge advantage in blocking (6-0 and 5-2), with the Kazan players making the difference with this element. They managed to neutralize the Bulgarian opposite Tsvetan Sokolov. This forced the 'Dynamo' players to bring in the giant Maxim Sapozhkov (220 cm), who also played in the Bulgarian championship, at the beginning of the second set instead of him.

"Even Dima Musersky wasn't like that. Sapozhkov is simply... an 'assassin'," said Zenit captain Volvich. Nevertheless, the Kazan team blocked him, despite Sapozhkov managing to make a few block-outs.
Zenit Kazan won their 10th Russian Super Cup in its history (2010, 2011, 2012, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2020, 2023, 2024). Dynamo has four such trophies. The Super Cup was also won by Belogorie (x2) and Kuzbass.

On September 8, the Super Cup finalists will play their first matches in the Russian championship. Zenit-Kazan will visit Belogorie, and Dynamo will visit Fakel.

Zenit-Kazan – Dynamo (Moscow) – 3:0 (25:21, 25:20, 25:23)

Zenit-Kazan: Labinsky (12), Romanovsky (3), Christenson (3), Volkov (5), Kononov (11), Mikhailov (10) – start, Fedorov (libero), Krotkov (libero), Volvich (9), Klets (0), Deroo (3).

Dynamo: Kayumov (0), Pankov (0), Bogdan (8), Belogortsev (1), Sokolov (5), Semyshev (12) – start, Baranov (libero), Vlasov (4), Zhuk (4), Sapozhkov (11), Kurash (0).

photos : vcdynamo.ru