Translated material
Backyard Derby
The match "Dynamo" - CSKA was played at an inconvenient time for spectators
There were two matches in the men's super league last weekend. The teams that are ready to claim championship honors played on Saturday. Euroleague participant ULEB Khimki beat Kazan UNICS on their site - 77:71. The capital's derby "Dynamo" - CSKA at the "blue and white" arena in Krylatskoye ended with a natural victory for the army team - 81:73.If we consider that the conventional big four of the super league include CSKA, Khimki, UNICS and Triumph (these are the most stable teams in recent seasons, Krasnodar Lokomotiv does not yet count), then none of the first round matches between representatives of this quartet were played only the Red-Blues and Khimki. Therefore, the match between these rivals, scheduled for December 13 at USC CSKA, is now awaited by fans with great anticipation. In the meantime, Euroleague clubs are solving local problems, methodically gaining points in the standings.
Interestingly, Khimki played six matches in the championship and in four of them allowed their opponents to score 71 points. This is some kind of magical number for the defense of Sergio Scariolo’s charges. In the match with Kazan, the Moscow Region basketball players led with a large advantage at the beginning of the third quarter (50:33), but in the ninth minute of the final period there was practically nothing left of this reserve - 71:69. Then both free throws were converted by Khimki's naturalized American legionnaire Kelly McCarthy, his compatriot and teammate Keith Langford hit the target, and Vitaly Fridzon scored. The hosts, having made four thousand of their fans nervous, still celebrated the victory. McCarthy eventually became the most productive for Khimki (21 points), while Marko Popovic from Croatia continues to shine for UNICS - 27 points. Let us remind you that last week in the European Cup game with the Turkish Besiktas, Marco hit the hoop nine times (!) from behind the six-meter line.
Both in the mid-1990s and the last few seasons, matches held under the loud banner of Dynamo - CSKA often attracted full houses. Nowadays the capital's derby is just an ordinary championship match. For the “blue and white”, the time of haphazardly inviting star legionnaires and insanely large contract amounts has passed. Now the team has only homegrown players, Russian coach Sergei Bazarevich, but, alas, the club is in the basement of the table. Dynamo turned out to be our only team out of four who lost the match of the first round of the European Cup last Tuesday.
Before the meeting with CSKA, Bazarevich's charges received only partial moral compensation for the defeat in the second overtime in the scandalous game with Lokomotiv Krasnodar. The Kazan referee Nail Saitgaleev, who officiated this battle literally and figuratively, was disqualified for a year by decision of the independent appeal jury of the RFB for numerous errors. There have never been such severe sanctions for referees in our basketball. True, there are serious doubts that Saitgaleev will have to serve the entire sentence. No one will be surprised if before the end of the season he receives an amnesty, or his disqualification is converted to a suspended one. These are the realities in our basketball today.
The absolutely ordinary nature of the current derby of Moscow teams was emphasized by the completely inconvenient start time for the fans of Sunday's match - 13.30. At two o'clock in the afternoon, football teams CSKA and Dynamo played in the final round of the Premier League, and the bulk of fans of these popular sports societies concentrated in Luzhniki and the Streltsov Stadium. It turned out that in the Dynamo club, priority was given to the basketball players, and not the men’s team at all. The home team's match against the leader of the women's super league UMMC (Ekaterinburg) began at 16.15.
Despite the fact that CSKA were missing two main players due to injuries (Slovenian forward Matjaz Smodis and center Dmitry Sokolov), no one doubted the outcome of the match. The “red-blues,” even with personnel losses, were able to beat the strong Spanish team “Caja Laboral” (formerly “Tau”) on the road on Thursday in the Euroleague. Evgeniy Pashutin’s players still had strength for Dynamo, although they spent it carefully and sparingly. In the opening period, the nominal guests were in the role of catching up for some time, then they took the lead, and in the middle of the third quarter they led by 15 points. The army allowed themselves some relief only in the final ten minutes. Ramunas Siskauskas and John Holden made the greatest contribution to the red-blue team's team score - 17 points each. At Dynamo, the top scorers were Sergei Bykov (22) and Sergei Monya (18). Former CSKA center Dynamo Alexei Savrasenko, expelled from the army camp last season, did not look his best in the match against his former team - only four points and two rebounds. The Blue and Whites, with one win in six games, share the penultimate place with the Krasnoyarsk Yenisey.
Results. Super League. "Khimki" - UNICS - 77:71, "Dynamo" M - CSKA - 73:81. The leaders are: CSKA - 6 wins - 0 losses, Khimki - 5--1, Lokomotiv-Kuban - 4--2, Triumph, UNICS - 4--3.