| The only thing missing from the CSKA collection is the Russian Cup The capital's army basketball team yesterday took another step towards adding to the club's already impressive collection of trophies. On the first day of the “Final Four” of the Russian Cup on the floor of the Perm Sports Palace “Hammer”, the “red-blues”, having met stubborn resistance throughout three quarters of the match, defeated “Khimki” - 91:75. The winner of the honorary prize will be determined on Saturday, when head coach Dusan Ivkovic's team meets the hosts in the decisive match. Ural Great upset Kazan UNICS in the second semi-final - 94:83.
In general, this tournament in our country has a difficult and long-suffering history. The Cup has always been in the shadow of the championships of the USSR, CIS and Russia, and only since last season these competitions have received a completely respectable status. In Soviet times, cup battles were held extremely irregularly and chaotically. It is enough to cite this fact: from 1949 to 1978, the winner of the trophy was determined only nine times. Then came a long pause of 22 seasons. The first draw after the break, held in 2000, could hardly be taken seriously. Then the matches in the preliminary stage groups began even before the Olympics in Sydney. The teams, naturally, played without national basketball players, and CSKA completely refused to participate in the competitions, which were outlandish at that time. The decisive matches took place in October in a resort setting; the trophy was won in the Sochi gym by the now defunct Lokomotiv from Mineralnye Vody.
The attempt to truly revive the country's Cup and organize truly interesting and significant competitions from a sporting point of view last season of the Russian Basketball Federation (RBF) was a great success. Our flagship CSKA seemed happy to take the trophy with them from Yekaterinburg, where the Final Four took place in front of a full house, but UNICS did not allow the army team to do this. In the main match for the trophy, the Volga residents put the squeeze on the Muscovites in extra time - 82:81. That is why CSKA’s track record still does not include the title of winner of the Russian Cup. By the way, the cup won by Kazan remained in the possession of the club. It turns out that that cup was not a challenge cup; it becomes such only from the current draw. The RFB ordered a luxurious prize, almost a meter high, from the masters of the chest paraphernalia, and the head of our federation, Sergei Chernov, refused to name its cost, citing... a commercial secret.
Khimki basketball players cannot be considered a team capable of arousing the maximum spirit among the army team. Still, the difference in class is significant, and everyone knows it very well. Even the most suspicious fans of CSKA Khimki’s eight-point lead during the first quarter of the meeting did not cause concern for the final outcome of the confrontation. It was felt that at any moment the army team could concentrate, pull themselves together and leave their opponents to the role of hopelessly lagging behind. The Muscovites worked for the spectators, the “Ivkovic machine” turned on at full speed only in the final period, and before that almost five thousand basketball connoisseurs could enjoy the intrigue. The stands reacted quickly to the incident at the beginning of the second ten minutes. CSKA Serbian legionnaire Dragan Tarlach brutally attacked Mikhail Solovyov, the Khimki center could not restrain himself and hit his colleague in his role with his elbow. Tarlach had the wisdom not to get involved in a fight and not to respond to rudeness. As a result, the Serb received only an unsportsmanlike foul, and Solovyov received a disqualifying one.
After the early departure of the fighting veteran of Khimki from the site, a large burden fell on the shoulders of the tallest Russian player, Denis Ershov (height 220 cm). He scored his 12 points in this match, but two pathetic rebounds on his board in 30 minutes is a ridiculous indicator for a 23-year-old giant, who has been called a promising guy for several seasons in a row. Khimki kept fouling, and soon, due to too many personal comments, dispatcher Vasily Karasev went to the bench. The last period, with the score 66:64 in favor of CSKA, the team of head coach Sergei Elevich began without its leader. Sniper Igor Zamansky responded to accurate shots by army players Alexei Savrasenko, Theodoras Papaloukas and Sergei Panov with two three-point hits. These well-aimed shots turned out to be the last arguments of the players in yellow uniforms in the dispute for reaching the final. The Red-Blues quickly increased their lead to 12 points. Four minutes before the final siren, the winner was completely clear. At Khimki, in addition to Karasev, Ershov and Alexey Petrenko picked up five fouls each; foreigners played productively for CSKA. Papaloukas, with 12 points, was behind Mirsad Turkana (19 points), Marcus Brown (16), and John Holden (15), but did not make a single mistake and also grabbed nine rebounds. I wish Ershov could learn from the army team’s attacking defender, who is 20 centimeters shorter, how to scrape the balls under the hoop. Ilya TRISVIATSKY |
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