Out in the 5th match! Thessaloniki : Piraeus 3:0

Olympiacos could not reach the championship-finals! The lost the fifth match in Thessaloniki. The host-team was better in service, scored many aces and did not give the guest many chances. Christian also did not have many possibilities to help his team, not attacking enough balls to find his way to play.

2:2! Piräus : Thessaloniki 3:2 (34:32 22:25 25:22 19:25 15:7)

With a victory in the home-match, Piraeus could tie the score after the fourth match of the best-of-five semifinal-series. The won the very clos match in the tie-break! Christian, apart from some difficulties in the fourth set, played a good match and scored 19 points! The fifth match will be on thursday in Thessaloniki.

Never give up! Thessaliniki : Piraeus 0:3 (22:25 22:25 15:25)

Some might have already lost the faith in Christian and his teammates, but team and staff are still fighting! The victory againstThessaloniki was a great surprise and Christian could finally show some of what he can! He scored the impotant points in each set, solved many difficult situations and ended the match with an ace! In the next match he wantd to continue and maybe still help the team to reach the championship-finals!

Olympiacos Piraeus : Iraklis Thessaliniki 0:3 (23:25 22:25 22:25)

Also in the second semifinal, Olympiacos did not win a set. It was always close, but in the end something was missing. Also Christian still had problems attacking, especialy from position four. They will have to work hard to improve this, but it's not much time left! The third game will be this weekend!

Iraklis Thessaliniki : Olympiacos Piraeus 3:0 (27:25 25:17 25:19)

Olympiacos lost the first semifinal. The coach prefered Milinkovic as opposite, because Christian still had problems in the coordination with the setter. The team played on the same level only in the first set. Iraklis was better in service and reception and was much more playing as a team, so they could win the first set after having problems in the begining, whereas Olympiacos seemed to have lost the faith right after some problems occured. "If we want to win against a team, that is well-reheardes like Iraklis, we have to fight more as a team. Of course, this is difficult, but it's not impossible", said Christian after the match. Christian will work hard and try to be able to help the team in the next match.

Iraklis Thessaliniki : Olympiacos Piraeus Tonight 7 pm!

Tonight the Semifinals series will start with the first of up to five matches against the ChampionsLeague-Second Thessaolniki. A team which with the three Americans Ball, Stanley and Hoff (the Italien Cernic has some problems with his back and will probably not be in the 12-squad, because of the Greek rules about foreign players in a team) not only has strong players, but also a team, that is well-rehearsed. In Piräus instead, the coordination between Chrisitan and the setter is still not the best.

There also is another new situation: Milinkovic is recovering after his shoulder-problems, and doing very well in the practices, so the Olympiacos coach now even has the choice between Christian and his original opposite-player. Due to the foreign-players-rules he can nominate only one for each match! Christian did not expect this situation, when he came here, but sees the positive aspects now: "It ist very motivating to fight for a place in the team with such a good player. I will try hard in every practice and then we will see. Maybe in the exhausting PlayOffs it could even be an advantage, to have two good opposite-players!

Semifinals! Pagrati : Olympiacos Piraeus 0:3 (27:29 21:25 20:25)

Piräus won 3:0 against Pagrati and goes to the semifinals for the Greek Championship! The match was close in the first set, but only because it was almost impossible to play for the guests! The sun was so low and bright behind the windows parallel to the opponents court, that ball and opponent team nearly disappeared in the blinding sunlight! Receving and spiking was almost impossible and so the host team, the sun in the back, nearly played alone! Piräus for a long time only got some lucky points or errors of the opponent team. Piräus' coach tried everything, took all timeouts and exchanges, also brougt the substitute players for Christian and Tomi Koscovic, who had been the TopScorers of the last match, but when the sun slowly disappeared, the set was nearly lost. As soon as the blinding light war gone, Piräus was clearly the better team on the court, still with the substitute players, who did their job very well! They fought their way back into the match and could even win the first set, defending many set-points! Also the following sets were clear for the most time and when it got closer, the coach waved to Tomi and Christian, but they never realy had to enter the court again. Christian of course would have liked to play: "I am very happy, that we won, but of course I would have liked to show what I can and also worked a little on the coordination with the setter, but in the end, the most important thing is, that we won and will play the semifinals!"

First victory! Olympiacos Piraeus : Pagrati 3:1 (21:25 25:20 25:19 25:19)

Christian won the first match with his new team. There are still some problems in the setter-attacker-coordination, which ist quite clear after only two days of practice with the team, but they are on the right way to solve them! Tomorrow they will play the second match in the "best-of-three"-quarterfinal-round.

Exciting offer!! Christian plays for Olympiacos Piraeus!!

Instead of going to Germany for a few free days Christian is flying to Athens today! He will play the playOffs for the greek team Olympiacos! Already on sunday he will play the first match against Pagrati!

The website of Olymipacos: www.olympiacos.org also with an English version!