Translated material
Abroad will help us
At the start of Euro 2005, Russia hopes for an American
Tomorrow the final tournament of the 34th European Championship among men's teams begins in four cities of Serbia and Montenegro. For the second time in its history, the national team of our country will perform at official international competitions with an international composition. At the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, we were worried about the so-called unified team, which, in addition to CIS citizens, included the Latvians Gundars Vetra and Igors Miglinieks; in Serbia, one of the key players of the team will be the holder of a Russian passport, American John Robert Holden.By the way, Holden is not the first black basketball player from abroad who decided to stand up for the honor of our country. At the 2002 European Youth Championship, naturalized Cameroonian Adamu played in company with the current leaders of the adult team Viktor Khryapa and Sergei Monya, who became the third highest scorer in the Russian team. The African then played for Avtodor Saratov, and last season he got lost somewhere in the French second division. The Russian national team in Serbia would look completely surreal if, in addition to Holden, the dark-skinned Russian Victor Keyru, who recently moved to Dynamo St. Petersburg from UNICS, was also on the roster. But when selecting defenders, there was no place for the talented Keir in head coach Sergei Babkov’s final lineup.
The most powerful line of our team is the forwards. It’s no joke, in this position Babkov has three players from NBA clubs at his disposal: the undisputed leader and most productive basketball player of the national team Andrei Kirilenko (Utah), the inseparable Monya and Khryapa from Portland. And besides, there is Nikita Morgunov, who had a very strong season at Dynamo near Moscow. There are too many defenders, but there is a clear shortage of centers. On the back line will be Holden, Pyotr Samoilenko, the experienced Zakhar Pashutin, who did not have normal playing practice at CSKA, and three debutants in tournaments of this level: youth basketball players Vitaly Fridzon, Anton Ponkrashov, as well as Andrei Ivanov, who is a little older. Fedor Likholitov and Alexey Savrasenko will bear the brunt of the fight under the shields. If any problems arise with one of these two performers, Babkov will have to move Morgunov or Kirilenko closer to the shields.
Our team is as young as ever. 31-year-old Pashutin Jr. is its main veteran. The national team’s “elks” Vasily Karasev and Dmitry Domani went through almost the entire preparation cycle for the European Championship, but they were not included in the final application. The situation is quite understandable - it is extremely difficult for Babkov, as a mentor, to manage people with whom he played for the national team for a dozen seasons. Taking into account the fact that a number of foreign teams at Euro 2005 will traditionally be missing many great performers for various reasons (Jasikevicius in Lithuania, Stojakovic in Serbia, Kukoc in Croatia, etc.), the Russian composition can be called quite competitive for fight for awards.
At the preliminary stage, 16 participating teams will play in four quartets. The Russians in Group A in Vršac will meet with Ukraine, Italy and Germany. Group “B” (Podgorica) consisted of the current champion Lithuania, Turkey, Croatia and Bulgaria, while the four “C” in Belgrade will include Slovenia, Bosnia, France and Greece. And finally, in Novi Sad, the hosts, Spain, Latvia and the winner of the last qualifying stage, Israel, will compete for access to the playoffs.
Babkov's team will play their first match on Friday against Ukraine. The intrigue of the meeting is Victor Khryapa against his brother, Nikolai. These are the kind of citizenship incidents that no longer surprise anyone in Europe. The central figure of the Ukrainian team is Los Angeles Lakers center Stanislav Medvedenko. On Saturday our opponent will be the Italian national team led by Siena coach Carlo Recalcati. For the first time at the European Championship, a basketball player who has a contract with a Russian club will play for the Squadra Azzurra - Khimki newcomer 33-year-old Gianmarco Pozecco. Russia will complete the group stage with a match against Germany led by NBA star Dirk Nowitzki from Dallas. At the 2002 World Cup, with his direct participation, the Germans defeated Russia with a difference of 18 points, although they were leading by 30 during the match.
The group winners go directly to the quarterfinals, and the teams that take second and third places play in play-offs. The teams of our group “A” at this stage go up against the participants of the quartet “B”, where Bulgaria is seen as a clear outsider. In addition to competing directly for the continental championship awards in Serbia and Montenegro, six tickets to the 2006 World Championships in Japan will also be competed for. However, even if the Russians do not make it into the desired number of top teams, there is hardly any need to worry about tickets to the Land of the Rising Sun. The International Basketball Federation (FIBA) has four special invitations (“wild cards”) to the world forum, three of which will probably be given to Europe at the end of November this year. The leadership of the RBF has very friendly relations with key FIBA officials, which means that Russia has something to hope for in case of failure.