Translated material
Revelations of the ULEB Cup
Our clubs were defeated by the modest Turov and Friborg
In the ULEB Cup, the second most important and largest continental club competition in terms of the number of participants, four rounds out of ten were played in the group stage. 54 clubs, divided into nine sixes, are fighting to reach the 1/16 finals. The three best teams from each sextet will receive tickets to the playoffs, plus five more teams that took fourth place with the best additional indicators (number of wins, ratio of game points).Russia delegated four participants to the tournament, and for Khimki, Lyubertsy Triumph, and the capital's Dynamo, the question of continuing to fight for the trophy at the end of the group stage is unlikely to be pressing. Most likely, these teams, which are performing quite successfully in the Russian Championship, will receive the coveted tickets ahead of schedule. But Kazan UNICS, with one win and three defeats, is in last place in Group I, and basketball players from the capital of Tatarstan will have to make every effort to cling to at least a partially salvage fourth place.
It is possible that significant personnel changes may soon occur in the leadership of the club, which is suffering a real disaster both domestically and internationally. First of all, this concerns the Lithuanian coach Antanas Sireika. Still, the credibility of the patient UNICS President Evgeniy Bogachev is not unlimited.
In the fourth round, the Kazan team hosted the Polish “Turov” from the city of Zgorzelec and, in the presence of two and a half thousand spectators gathered in the stands of the “Basket Hall”, lost with a score of 75:80. Both opponents showed poor execution of long-range and free throws, and in the latter component they missed a total of 21 points due to joint misses.
2007 European champion Nikolai Padius plays for UNICS; sniper Sergei Chikalkin has extensive experience, including Olympic experience, playing for the national team. Dmitry Sokolov and Victor Keira can well be called candidates for the extended list in our national team, but they, along with the Frenchman Tariq Kirksey, the Romanian Virgil Stanescu, the American Jerry McCulloch, the Slovenian Marko Tusek and the Serbian Dusko Savanovic, were unable to beat the team representing the city with the population 33.5 thousand inhabitants and does not have any famous performers in its ranks.
The history of “Turov” is unique and somewhat reminiscent of the biography of the former Dynamo near Moscow, now performing under the name “Triumph”. Several years ago, “Turow” competed at the level of the voivodeship championship (an administrative-territorial unit in Poland, analogous to our region), then moved from the second league of the national championship to the first, after which it received a pass to high society. Not on a sporting basis, but thanks to a wild card, as I took fourth place. In three seasons, Zgorzelec's team went from an unknown newcomer to a silver medalist and made its debut in European competition.
The ending of the meeting between UNICS and the basketball “dwarf” turned out to be dramatic. Losing 75:77, the hosts had 15 seconds to attack, but McCullough made a run. By the will of the calendar, Khimki also had to fight on the road with a club that was part of the leading group of the Polish championship - with Anvil (Wloclawek) competing in European competition for the eighth year in a row. Here the intrigue of the match turned out to be more twisted, and overtime was required to determine the winner, which ended with the success of the Russian club - 102:99. As part of Khimki, 24-year-old American Dan Ewing had an excellent match - he had 30 points and a very important long-range goal, which allowed Lithuanian Kestutis Kemzura's team to send the match into extra time. Ewing, along with Kelly McCarthy, who had accepted Russian citizenship, provided Khimki with a five-point lead during overtime, eliminating the question of a winner.
Triumph suffered a brutal fiasco on the road. The defeat, albeit with a minimal score (77:78), happened in a completely unbasketball Switzerland. The offender of Stanislav Eremin’s team turned out to be the most modest “Friburg”. The capital's Dynamo team defeated "Panellinios" in Greece - 83:76.
ULEB Cup. Team position. Group "D". "Pamesa" (Spain), "Khimki" - 4 wins, "Nancy" (France) - 2, "Anvil", "Azovmash" (Ukraine) - 1, "Skyliners" (Germany) - 0. Group "E". "Buducnost" (Montenegro), "Triumph" - 3, "Gmunden" (Austria), "Friburg" - 2, "Antwerp" (Belgium), "Hapoel" (Jalil-Elion, Israel) - 1. Group "F". "Crvena Zvezda" (Serbia), "Dynamo" M -- 3, "Telindus" (Belgium), "Nymburk" (Czech Republic) -- 2, "Panellinios", "Fortitudo" (Italy) -- 1. Group "I" " "Hapoel" (Jerusalem, Israel), "Turov" - 3, "Strasbourg" (France), "Den Bosch" (Holland) - 2, "Zadar" (Croatia), UNICS - 1.