#EuroBeachVolley Previews: Men’s Pools A-D
News
The 30th edition of the CEV EuroBeachVolley is quickly approaching, with this year’s tournament set to be part of the European Championships Munich, and to take place from August 15-21 in the German city.
There will be 32 teams in each gender competing for the continental titles and not only the list of duos entered to appear in this year’s #EuroBeachVolley, but also their respective pools and the match schedule have all been announced already.
The tournament will begin with eight pools of four teams each and, after the completion of the modified pool play system, three duos in each group will move forward – the pool winners advance directly to the Round of 16 while the second and third-placed tandems move to the Round of 24.
Let’s start taking a look at each #EuroBeachVolley pool and understanding what to expect from them by analyzing Pools A, B, C and D of the men’s tournament.
Pool A
Teams: Anders Mol/Christian Sørum (Norway), David Åhman/Jonatan Hellvig (Sweden), Hendrik Mol/Mathias Berntsen (Norway) and Eylon Elazar/Netanel Ohana (Israel)
The winners of the last four editions of the #EuroBeachVolley and the reigning Olympic and world champions, Mol and Sørum are the favorites to win not only Pool A, but the entire tournament. The two have been the most dominant team in international beach volleyball for four years now and it’s hard to envision an outcome in which they’re not at least at the podium in Munich.
There should be an interesting battle for the second place in the pool, however, mostly centered on Åhman/Hellvig and Mol/Berntsen. The Swedish have some of the most accomplished careers at the youth level and have won a Beach Pro Tour event this season, but the Norwegians have more experience at this level and have also been pretty solid at the international level in 2022.
Elazar and Ohana are the clear dark horses on the pool, but they have had good results in Beach Pro Tour Futures events and could benefit from their position in the pool to cause an upset and give Israel a memorable #EuroBeachVolley debut.
Fun Fact: The Mol brothers could play each other in an international event for the first time since 2016, when Anders paired with their cousin and Hendrik’s current partner Berntsen to beat his older brother and Lars Tvinde in a World Tour event in Iran.
Pool B
Teams: Alexander Brouwer/Robert Meeuwsen (the Netherlands), Piotr Kantor/Maciej Rudol (Poland), Aleksandrs Samoilovs/Janis Smedins (Latvia) and Simon Pfretzschner/Phillip Huster (Germany)
Unlike Pool A, it’s really difficult to point out a favorite here with Dutch, Polish and Latvians all having a fair shot at winning the pool. There’s also a great deal of experience in the pool with the four teams combining for 11 Olympic appearances.
Brouwer and Meeuwsen have won two medals on the Beach Pro Tour this season and have arguably been playing some of the best volleyball of their careers. Samoilovs and Smedins have shown strong signs that they left the frustration of not qualifying for last year’s Tokyo Olympics behind them and also secured two Beach Pro Tour medals in 2022, including a bronze in Espinho last week, when they defeated Kantor and Rudol, who made it to the semifinal in just their sixth event as partners.
The young Pfretzschner and Huster, who are both 20, will need to cause a major upset to advance, especially because they will be playing in just their fourth event together in Munich.
Fun Fact: This pool features two of the longest-lasting partnerships in international beach volleyball with the Dutch sharing the same side of the court since 2011, two years before the Latvians started their union.
Pool C
Teams: Paolo Nicolai/Samuele Cottafava (Italy), Christiaan Varenhorst/Steven van de Velde (the Netherlands), Leon Luini/Ruben Penninga (the Netherlands) and Tomas Semerad/Jakub Sepka (the Czech Republic)
Expect Nicolai/Cottafava and Varenhorst/van de Velde to fight toe-to-toe for the top spot in the pool and the automatic qualification for the Round of 16. A three-time #EuroBeachVolley champion, the 33-year-old Nicolai looks rejuvenated alongside the 23-year-old Cottafava and the two have just won their first title as partners last month in Latvia.
Varenhorst and van de Velde are among the most difficult teams to play against because of their size and offensive power and are also in good form after they took bronze in Gstaad earlier this month.
Luini and Penninga started the season well, winning bronze in Itapema, but have had ups and downs since then while Semerad and Sepka had a fourth-place in a Futures event in Klaipeda as the highlight of their season so far.
Fun Fact: The duel between Varenhorst/van de Velde and Luini/Penninga, set to happen on the opening day, is the only one between teams from the same country confirmed to happen during pool play in the men’s tournament.
Pool D
Teams: Ondrej Perusic/David Schweiner (the Czech Republic), Martin Ermacora/Moritz Pristauz (Austria), Youssef Krou/Arnaud Gauthier-Rat (France) and Robin Sowa/Lukas Pfretzschner (Germany)
Perusic and Schweiner are having an excellent 2022 season, having won three silver medals in five Beach Pro Tour events, but it’s far from guaranteed that the Czech Olympians will finish first in Pool D.
That’s because of the emergence of Austrians Ermacora and Pristauz, who claimed two Beach Pro Tour medals this season, including a silver last weekend in Espinho, where they played their best volleyball in the season and nearly ended a six-year wait for their first victory at the international level.
French Krou and Gauthier-Rat have a good deal of international experience and look in a position to capture one of the three spots in the elimination round, but the 23-year-old Sowa and the 22-year-old Pfretzschner will have the support of their home fans and nothing to lose.
Fun Fact: Despite their young ages, the Germans have quite some time as partners as they won the #EuroBeachVolleyU18 back in 2016 and have been regularly playing together since 2019.