Translated material
In a prominent place
Women's Euroleague Final Four starts today
In the town of Vidnoye near Moscow, at the site of the local Spartak, a tournament of the four strongest women's teams of the Old World begins on Friday. For the first time, two Russian clubs were included in the elite quartet. The “red and white” team was accompanied by the current Russian champion CSKA Samara (formerly VBM-SSAU). According to the rules of the continental branch of the International Basketball Federation (FIBA-Europe), in such cases, representatives of one country are paired in the semifinals. In another match on Friday, two very titled teams will meet - the French "Bourges" and the Spanish "Ros Casares" (Valencia), which is the successor to the famous "Dorna", which twice won the European Cup (1992, 1993).“Bourges” has three such titles, and two of them (1997, 1998) were won when the basketball players from the provincial French city were led by the former head coach of the Russian national team, Vadim Kapranov. Many of the successes of the team from Valencia are also directly related to our compatriot. After the collapse of the USSR, the 1992 Barcelona Olympic champion Natalya Zasulskaya spent five seasons in Dorna (aka Pool Getafe) until she returned to her homeland and began playing for the capital's Dynamo. Now the St. Petersburg basketball graduate works at Ros Casares as an assistant head coach.
Spartak near Moscow and CSKA Samara follow different personnel strategies. The Red-Whites, coached by Slovakian specialist Natalya Heikova for the first season, are relying on overseas players. Russians in Spartak, with the exception of Marina Karpunina and Svetlana Abrosimova, members of the Russian national team, spend little time on the court here. Although two more girls from the national team are performing in Vidnoye - centers Irina Osipova and Ekaterina Lisina. The main roles for the “red-whites” are Americans with extensive experience in the WNBA and the US national team, plus Pole Agnieszka Bibrzycka and Portugal Ticha Penicheiro.
Samara CSKA (Euroleague champion 2005) is headed by the coach of our team Igor Grudin, and, naturally, a green street is open here for Russian women. Center Maria Stepanova, twice recognized as the best player in Europe, chosen as the official of the Year of Women's Basketball in the Old World, Ilona Korstin, and Olga Arteshina are performing on the banks of the Volga. They spend the lion's share of time on the court, more than or equal to the Belgian Anne Wouters, the Spanish Amaya Valdemoro and the French Edwidge Lawson. In fact, we are seeing the European team under the CSKA flag. There are also Americans - Demia Walker and Christine Haney, but they are not the defining players of the Samara club. From the point of view of popularizing the achievements of Russian basketball, it would be preferable for CSKA to reach the final rather than Spartak. Otherwise, it will turn out that the girls who make up the backbone of the country’s national team have given up on the Americans.
“Bourge” performed the entire preliminary stage and two rounds of the playoffs with actually eight performers. The most productive player in the team is the Greek Evanthia Maltzi, while French national team players Celine Dumerc and the dark-skinned Emeline Ndonga score a lot. There are three legionnaires in total. In addition to the girl from Hellas, these are Croatian Sonya Kireta and American Vicky Hall.
Many more basketball players familiar to Russian fans arrived as part of Ros Casares. American Delisha Milton led Ekaterinburg UMMC to the title of Euroleague champion and was once even recognized as “Miss Russian Championship.” Elena Tornikida, who will turn 43 (!) years old in May, ranks second among Ros Casares players in the continental tournament in terms of scoring and spends 35-36 minutes on the court. The 1992 Barcelona Olympic champion as a member of the CIS team shows a fantastic example of sports longevity. Before leaving abroad in the early 1990s, she played for the real Moscow CSKA and is unlikely to agree that the “rental” wearing of the legendary brand by the Samara club does not distort the historical relationship. Polish center of "Ros Casares" Malgorzata Dydek is the tallest player in Europe (height 217 cm), in the 2005/06 season she defended the colors of UMMC.
If the title goes to one of the Russian clubs, historical confusion is likely. CSKA plans to move to Moscow starting next season. And who then should record the championship - the team that moved to the capital from Samara, counting its history from Aerouniversity, which still played in the lower divisions, or continue the track record of the classic CSKA, which ingloriously and in poverty ceased to exist in 2001. It’s a similar story with the “red-whites”. Spartak near Moscow is a three-time winner of the Ronchetti Cup and last year's winner of the FIBA European Cup. It is wrong to call the team from Vidnoye the legal successor of that team. The patriarch of Spartak and its founder David Berlin, who has been continuously working with his brainchild since 1949, believes that the historical baton has now been passed to the “red-whites” from Noginsk, playing in the second division of the Russian championship. It was in this city that the legendary Spartak was born 58 years ago.