Translated material
Getting to know Primorye
Ivkovic's team lost in the Far East
Last week, two more Super League clubs suffered their first defeats in the tournament. The main surprise was the failure of the capital's powerful Dynamo team under the leadership of Serbian coach Dusan Ivkovic in Vladivostok. The debutant of high society, local Spartak-Primorye, did not flinch from the abundance of expensive foreign legionnaires in the “blue and white” lineup and, to the delight of three thousand spectators, broke a series of three defeats, winning the first victory in the elite division of the national championship - 82:69. The capital's army team took a kind of revenge for the recent St. Petersburg misfire in the match with Spartak, winning with great difficulty at home against another team from the banks of the Neva. While losing during the match, CSKA still put the finishing touches on Dynamo - 95:88.Any team arriving from the western part of Russia to Vladivostok invariably faces the problem of adaptation associated with a serious change in time zones. True, Dynamo had already played in Novosibirsk before arriving in the Primorsky Territory, but another advance to the east led to a fiasco. In the starting five of the “red-whites” against two newly-crowned European champions, the Greeks Popadopoulos and Fotsis, and the Americans Douglas and Chatman, there were little-known Varangians - Lithuanian Nagis and Dean from the USA. The debut turned out to be shocking for the guests - already in the fourth minute the hosts led by nine points (11:2). It took a while for Muscovites to figure out who Pakhomov, Timakov and Poltoratsky were. Although in the ranks of the Primorye team there were two players who at different times defended the blue and white colors - Pavel Astakhov and Andrey Sepelev, head coach Sergei Kibenko kept them on the bench at the beginning of the match.
Ivkovic's team managed to recover from the opening blow and evened out the match. In the second period, Kibenko threw two ex-Dynamo players into battle, and Sepelev caused the most trouble for his former teammates. As a result, he scored 17 points. With this indicator, Andrei is the second highest scorer in the team, and Nagis became Spartak’s top scorer - 21 points. It was the Lithuanian, with a relatively equal game in the third period, who started the breakthrough in the third period. Thomas made four free throws in a row and made an accurate three-point shot. The guests never got used to the style of the Super League debutants, who compensated for the lack of experience in meetings at this level with a fighting spirit and a great desire to win. “Long flights can in no way be an excuse for our defeat,” Ivkovic said. - We lacked either motivation or concentration. At Spartak I would like to mention Poltoratsky, he caused us a lot of problems.”
The St. Petersburg Dynamo players seem to be starting to develop a CSKA complex. In February, Dynamo, then led by Israeli David Blatt, won 14 points at home with the support of eight thousand fans before the start of the last period, but the army team eventually won. On Saturday in Moscow, the St. Petersburg team, already under the leadership of the Greek Fotis Katsikaris, competed on equal terms with CSKA for most of the match and were close to upsetting the “red-blues” for the second time in a row, following their fellow Spartak players. In the final ten minutes, Ettore Messina's team was tormented by Damir Miljkovic, who shot three times in a row at the ring from behind a six-meter arc.
In a critical situation for the hosts, team captain Sergei Panov took the initiative. First, he opened up under the shield and, lifting two opponents into the air, hit the target, and after several episodes of the game he made an assist to Langdon, who was on the arc. The ending of the meeting remained with CSKA. Andrei Ivanov had a great match with the St. Petersburg team. By his own admission, fights against the “red-blues” work out best for him. For the hosts, Panov, Holden and Andersen performed most consistently.
St. Petersburg Spartak, after a sensational success in the match with CSKA, lost away to Ural Great - 53:74. After four defeats, the Permians had nowhere to retreat. After all, the fifth misfire could lead to the resignation of Israeli head coach Sharon Drucker. Only two teams have a 100% record in the championship. These are Khimki near Moscow, which beat Rostov Lokomotiv at home - 84:75, and Kazan UNICS, which defeated University in Surgut - 113:81. The Khimki team now has five victories, and the basketball players from Tatarstan have four.
At the end of the working week, the RFB executive committee met and approved the resignation of the national team helmsman Sergei Babkov. The result of the men's team at the European Championships - eighth place - was considered unsatisfactory. The RFB will return to the issue of a new coach at the end of November, when the wild card holders for the 2006 World Championship in Japan become known. It is possible that Russia will not get to the world forum at all.