“Well, there are seven of us, no longer eight,” shouted one of the organizers of the match, who provided fans with a free bus from the Krylatskoye metro station. There was just over an hour left before the game. - Should we go? And let the bus stay at the Palace, no longer runs.
The leadership of blue and white has not been able to solve the problem with the occupancy of the auditorium. Eugene Gomelsky, the club’s president, counted on the fact that “the path to the stadium will not overgrow from the rich region”. But this track has not yet appeared.
Before the match, the arena was pretty vain. Club employees excitedly prepared for the first game of the tournament. So, they managed to make the Euroleague emblem only at the beginning of the game, and stick it on the flooring only at a long break. Dusan Ivkovic, by whose behavior it is possible to understand how the game will go, was calm and indifferently watched the team warm up. Sasha Obradovich, his colleague from Cologne, was desperately writing something on a tablet. Such gestures usually do not draw combinations, but someone else's portrait.
Children rushed into the hall (even the dozing guests in the elite box startled), who were invited to fanat for the team. At first they rushed for ice cream, but did not find it on sale (sandwiches with sausage for 30 rubles did not interest them). Then they tried to take soft chairs in the VIP box, but the guard stopped the disgrace. As a result, teenagers only in the middle of the second quarter (and not without the efforts of the organizers) were seated with professional fans of the club, who happily began to teach the younger generation to the chanting room, where they put something on Spartak. Probably on Friday at the school where the children came from, it will be a lot of fun.
The club did not particularly bother about the grand opening and celebrate the team's debut meeting in the most prestigious tournament. They showed a clip where fragments from the film “Alexander Nevsky” were awkwardly mounted with game moments. Girls danced with swords. We showed the Euroleague video. It never flashed Sergei Kushchenko. And this is the main sensation of the evening.
Some sort of intrigue was only at first. The Germans diligently defended themselves and did everything so that in the first quarter only Lazarus Popandopulo, Antonis Fotsis and Travis Hansen scored points. But it was not the tension that crushed the guests, but a stupid episode. Two seconds before the first break, they entered the ball from the side (the score was 18:15 in favor of the hosts), but managed to lose it and let Hansen throw the exact “three”.
In the second quarter, Ivkovich was already mocking his opponent, releasing an experimental team, giving a lot of play to young children. Six minutes before the break, even Sergey Monya appeared on the court - is this not the main indicator that everything was clear with the result?
Young on emotions brought the score to 41:21 by the big break and completely switched to enjoying the game. All this led to the fact that the opponent began to reduce the gap. Ten minutes before the end of normal time, the score was 57:43, Ivkovich immediately released the fighting staff and easily regained the advantage - albeit not the same as before the break. The idea that the Germans had a chance did not arise even once. Even when they were three points from Dynamo twenty-six seconds before the end of the game.
Alexey Shevchenko
More information about the start of the Euroleague - in the Double Team and Over the Ring blogs