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Only clubs with foreign coaches will play in the semi-finals
In the national championship among men's teams, four teams continue to fight for awards - the current champion CSKA, last year's silver medalist Khimki, UNICS and the capital's Dynamo. All these clubs are headed by foreign coaches - Italian Ettore Messina, Lithuanians Kestutis Kemzura and Antanas Sireika, Serbian Dusan Ivkovic, respectively. At the end of last week, the winner of the women's championship was determined. For the first time in Russian history, it was Spartak near Moscow (again under the leadership of a foreign specialist - Slovak Natalia Heikova), which defeated CSKA Samara in a tense series of five matches.In the men's semi-finals, on May 16, 17, 20 and, if necessary, on May 21 and 23: CSKA - Dynamo, UNICS - Khimki. The army team won all three meetings of the season (super league plus the Russian Cup final) against the “blue and white”, and twice achieved success with an impressive difference of “plus 19”. In the seasonal relationship between the Moscow region club and the Kazan team, the score is equal - in terms of a home victory.
The quarter-finals passed without much drama, with the exception of the Moscow region derby between Lyubertsy-based Dynamo and Khimki, where four meetings were needed. In other confrontations, the favorites kept to the minimum format. CSKA defeated St. Petersburg "Spartak" (74:52, 90:63 at home and 81:64 away), the "blue and white" from the capital defeated "Lokomotiv" from Rostov-on-Don (67:57, 78:60 ; 84:66), UNICS knocked out the playoff debutant Spartak-Primorye (87:70, 84:74; 85:84). The team from Vladivostok did not betray itself and on the shores of the Pacific Ocean gave battle to one of the recognized giants of our basketball. Let us remind you that in the regular season the “red-whites” pretty much frayed the nerves of clubs with a stronger selection of players. Thus, at the start of the season, the Primorye team upset Dynamo Moscow and Khimki, and lost to CSKA by only three points.
During their first visit to the Far East, already at the finish of the two-round Super League tournament, the UNICS basketball players easily coped with the change in time zones and did not experience any problems in the match with Spartak - 80:62. But in the playoffs, Sireyka’s team did not have an easy ride in the Primorsky Territory, although at first everything turned out more than well. It's hard to remember such a stunning start from Kazan - after the opening throw-in, they scored 14 unanswered points, then continued to increase their advantage - 19:2, 28:9. Nevertheless, Spartak's mentor, former head coach of the Russian national team Sergei Babkov, urged his team's players not to give up ahead of time, and besides, the hall was sold out - 3,200 spectators.
Starting from the second period, the hosts changed and began to dominate on the court, and in the third quarter, after a three-point shot by Nikolai Sukhorukov, they equalized the score - 54:54. But the “red-whites” failed to take the lead. A minute and a half before the siren, Babkov’s team was losing by nine points and almost did the impossible. Two accurate shots by Evgeniy Kolesnikov, a hit by Romanian Virgil Stanescu and free throws by American Derrick Phelps allowed them to get within a minimum distance of the guests. The Primorye team had about four seconds left for the last attack, and Kolesnikov missed from behind the six-meter line.
Recreated in 1999, Spartak-Primorye had the best season in its history. Since there is no tournament for fifth to eighth places, the losers of the quarterfinals are ranked in the final classification in the order of their places in the regular season. That is, the “red-whites” finished seventh in the Russian championship. Another young club, Lokomotiv-Rostov, formed in the summer of 2003, also achieved a better result; the railroad workers eventually came fifth. In the series with Dynamo, they were expected to have at least one home victory, but all the exploits of the Rostovites remained in the regular season - a victory over the same “blue and white” at the Moscow arena in Krylatskoye and a sensational success on the banks of the Don in the game with CSKA .
It is difficult to predict the development of events in the series "Khimki" - "Dynamo" MO, if the key player of the "blue and white" forward Nikita Morgunov, who scored 42 points in one of the matches this season, had not been injured. But even without him, the team from Lyubertsy imposed a fight on Khimki on the road - winning 88:78 and losing 77:82 in overtime. At home, Dynamo looked worse and lost twice - 79:90 and 63:80. “Last year I really regretted that we ended the quarterfinal series against Khimki with a dry score of 0:3. Moreover, in all three games they were unable to offer resistance,” said Dynamo head coach Dmitry Shakulin, who still has not gotten rid of the “acting” prefix. - And this season, with an objectively weaker squad, we created a certain sensation and brought intrigue to the series with Khimki.
Dynamo Moscow Region are classified in sixth place and formally have not made a single step forward compared to their debut season (2003/04) in the Super League. St. Petersburg Spartak closed the top eight. There are five matches left in the tournament for 9th-13th places. Here the Surgut “University” is in the lead, followed in the table by “CSK VVS-Samara”, “Ural-Great” and two obvious outsiders - “Lokomotiv” (Novosibirsk) and “Standard” (Tolyatti). According to the Super League regulations, the “A” division should be left by the team that took 14th place, but the document was drawn up when the financial collapse of Dynamo St. Petersburg was not yet known. Thus, the tournament of the bottom five does not carry any meaning.