The Berlin Recycling Volleys have completed a historic comeback and are German volleyball champions for the sixth time in a row.
The defending champion also won the fifth final game against cup winners VfB Friedrichshafen 3-1 (25:20, 19:25, 25:23, 25:22) on Saturday. After defeats in the first two duels, Berlin still won the series 3:2 – never before in the history of the Bundesliga had a team turned a 0:2 deficit in the final series.
After the next victory in the “eternal final”, Berlin is now moving closer and closer to Friedrichshafen in the record list: VfB is still at the top with 13 titles, Berlin has already won 12 German championships. The two finalists have dominated German men’s volleyball for decades. In 1997, SV Bayer Wuppertal was the last champion who did not come from Berlin or Friedrichshafen.
For Berlin, this year’s final was almost over last weekend, Friedrichshafen already had the title match point – but the BR Volleys came back: on Saturday they initially postponed the decision with a 3-0 win in their own hall, four days later they managed a contested one 3: 1 in Neu-Ulm to equalize the series.
8,553 spectators watched the decisive fifth game, the Max-Schmeling-Halle was sold out, and with plenty of support, the hosts fought their way back to a 1-0 set lead after falling behind. The second round then went quite clearly to VfB, the third set remained tight until the end: the lead kept changing, numerous tight decisions had to be revised after another video view. Berlin ultimately prevailed and also turned a gap in the decisive set.