| CSKA won the regular Super League championship ahead of schedule CSKA basketball players, having won away from Dynamo St. Petersburg with a score of 84:81, scored an early victory in the regular Super League championship. The army team has four games left in the championship, the other participants in the top half of the standings have five to seven games each, but the team of head coach Dusan Ivkovic is already out of reach for their opponents. CSKA won its 36th consecutive victory in official matches since the beginning of the season and staked out the advantage of its home court at all stages of the playoffs of the national championship.
Pre-season forecasts from experts that the current championship would be perhaps the most interesting in recent years were a complete failure. None of the clubs, despite numerous expensive acquisitions, were able to provide real competition to CSKA. In several matches (against Khimki, Moscow and St. Petersburg Dynamo), the army team was on the verge of defeat, but in the final minutes of the matches they improved exactly as much as was necessary to win. This is very reminiscent of a game of cat and mouse.
Take, for example, Saturday's match on the banks of the Neva. The Muscovites went to the northern capital without their leader, American Marcus Brown, and, moreover, arrived in St. Petersburg just a few hours before the starting throw-in. The arrival of the best club in Europe at the moment in St. Petersburg caused an extraordinary stir - for the first time in the last 12 years, a sold-out basketball game was recorded in the stands of the Yubileiny Sports Palace. 7,500 spectators gathered to watch the match. Those who wished success to their fellow countrymen experienced severe disappointment, because even in the 29th minute of regular time, Dynamo led by 17 points.
The “red-blue” machine started working at full capacity only in the fourth period. And yet, the surge in CSKA’s activity was clearly late. If it weren't for the hasty attempts by the home team's point guard, American Eduardo Cota, to decide the fate of the match through individual actions, which in the end only led to mistakes and losses, the guests would hardly have been able to save the match. In addition, the defense of St. Petersburg at key moments of the game resembled a passing yard. Greek Theodoras Papaloukas calmly made his way with the ball to the Dynamo ring itself and hit the target without much resistance. The Israeli coach of the St. Petersburg team, David Blatt, made us doubt his competence - he had clearly lost control over the actions of his players. The Blue and White looked confused, rushed their shots, lost the ball while dribbling, and made passes to nowhere. CSKA took the lead for the first time in the 38th minute and carried the match to victory without much effort. The hosts had a chance to send the game into overtime, but at the last second McCarthy's long-range shot was inaccurate.
The secret of the Moscow club's overwhelming advantage over other participants in the national championship lies in the thoughtful selection of the management and coaching staff. Foreign basketball players are recruited to the team based on the need to strengthen a particular position. Unlike, for example, the capital's Dynamo, CSKA does not have one-day players. Legionnaires are mostly signed to long-term contracts; Papaloukas and Holden have been at the club for the third season, Brown is in his second. The agreements with the Greek Dikoudis and the Australian Andersen were concluded in such a way that Ivkovic could count on them in the next championship. Over the past three years, Dynamo has attracted two dozen basketball players from foreign countries to its roster, and none of them stayed more than one season in the “blue and white” camp. Add to this the coaching leapfrog: Bazarevich - Khomichius - Sherf - Tikhonenko. Well, what kind of team building can we talk about with such personnel upheavals? But CSKA general manager Sergei Kushchenko back in August 2002 announced a three-year program for the development and strengthening of the club, the ultimate goal of which is to win the ULEB Euroleague. All changes in the composition that occurred during this period were of a deliberate nature; random people did not end up in Ivkovic’s team.
Today we can safely talk about the army team once again winning the title of national champions. UNICS, Khimki or one of the three Dynamo teams may resist the army team in a separate match, but winning a series of up to three wins is out of the question. The difference in class between the “red-blues” and other applicants for prizes is too great. But in the main European championships, events are developing much more interestingly - there is no such gigantic gap in the level of the leaders and the middle peasants, and there is no clear favorite. In Spain, Real and Tau have already suffered four defeats in 21 matches, the leader of Serie A-1, Italian Benetton, has experienced the bitterness of defeat three times, in Greece, Panathinaikos and Maroussi are neck and neck with three misfires, triarchy observed in the Turkish championship, there is still a whole struggle ahead between the strongest quartet of teams in the French league. And only in Russia can a champion be announced in advance. Ilya TRISVIATSKY |
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