Translated material
No Victoria and Victor
In the absence of Khryapa, the Russians lost to the hosts of the World Cup
In the second round of the group stage of the World Cup in Turkey, the Russian men's team suffered its first defeat (56:65) in a game with the hosts of the World Cup at the Arena of the Sports Palace in the capital of the country, Ankara. Our team did not perform well in the second quarter of the meeting (7:17), during which the Turks created a winning margin. The best scorers among the Russians were team captain Sergei Monya and Alexander Kaun, who scored 13 points each.The injured Viktor Khryapa, whose presence on the court was so necessary, did not play again. If a number of teams at this championship are missing one, or at most two, key performers, then Russia is forced to fight in Turkey without three recognized leaders - so far without Khryapa and without Andrei Kirilenko and John Holden, who did not come to the tournament. An additional difficulty was that it is very difficult to play against an opponent who is supported by 11 thousand frantic fans.
It all started very well. Monya scored a long-range hit, followed by Vorontsevich, and then Bykov. The Russians were periodically leading by three points (3:0, 6:3, 14:11), until Ilyasov shot from behind the arc, equalizing the score. By the way, after October 1, the three-point line in all official competitions will be moved back half a meter - from 6 m 25 cm to 6 m 75 cm. This line in competitions under the auspices of FIBA has been drawn on the courts since 1984. A quarter of a century ago, every three-point shot was an event; over time, the percentage of such shots has increased noticeably and sometimes exceeds the same indicator for attempts from close and medium distances. In the match with Turkey, Russia demonstrated basketball “farsightedness” - nine out of 25 from distance (36%) and eight out of 28 from shorter distances (29%).
The opponents went to the first short rest with a minimal advantage of the hosts (16:15). Over the next six minutes of pure playing time, our team was able to add only one point to its asset until Bykov stood on the free throw line. Russian head coach David Blatt made substitutions and took two timeouts, but the Turks gradually moved forward. Four minutes before the big break, the hosts broke away by a decent distance - 28:18. Guler demonstrated his sniper qualities, and the numbers 33:20 were already displayed on the scoreboard.
To the credit of our team, we must note its composure and mobilization with which it entered the second half of the match. Thanks to the efforts of Kaun and Fridzon, Blatt's team scored six points in a row and moved closer to the opponent - 28:33. Alas, the Turkish team, driven by furious fans, soon restored the distance and kept the Russians there until the end of the meeting.
“In general, we managed to neutralize the leader of the Turkish team, Hidayet Turkoglu,” said David Blatt. - To counter this master, Vorontsevich entered the starting five instead of Fridzon. Another thing is that in such matches we ourselves need to show a high percentage of field goals, but this did not work out - there were too many misses. Another reason for the defeat was a weak game in the second quarter. The guys sometimes lost concentration due to the madness in the stands and made mistakes. On defense, I think we played well, the opponent’s performance was low. Khvostov entered the game well, but he was unsettled by a controversial referee's decision regarding the run. The day Khryapa returns to the site will depend on the decision of the player himself. If he feels good, he might play in the match against the Ivorians. With his appearance in the fighting force, our chances of a successful performance will increase many times over.”
From the point of view of the fight for reaching the playoffs, nothing terrible happened. The standings show our important victory over Puerto Rico at the start of the championship. Today we must beat Côte d'Ivoire, but on Wednesday there is a key match with China. The basketball players from the Celestial Empire had a mediocre match in the second round with the Africans - only a ten-point advantage.
Results. World Basketball Championship. Men. Group stage. 2nd round. Group “A” (Kayseri). Angola - Jordan - 79:65, Germany - Serbia - 82:81, Argentina - Australia - 74:72. Position: Argentina - 2 wins - 0 losses, Serbia, Australia, Germany, Angola - 1--1, Jordan - 0--2. Group “B” (Istanbul). USA - Slovenia - 99:77, Croatia - Iran - 75:54, Brazil - Tunisia - 80:65. Position: USA, Brazil - 2--0, Slovenia, Croatia - 1--1, Iran, Tunisia - 0--2. Group “C” (Ankara). China - Cote d'Ivoire - 83:73, Greece - Puerto Rico - 83:80, Türkiye - Russia - 65:56. Position: Turkey, Greece - 2--0, Russia, China - 1--1, Puerto Rico, Cote d'Ivoire - 0--2. Group "D" (Izmir). Lithuania - Canada - 70:68, France - Lebanon - 86:59, Spain - New Zealand - 101:84. Position: France, Lithuania - 2--0, Spain, Lebanon - 1--1, Canada, New Zealand - 0--2.