Just eight minutes before the final siren, the Chekhov Bears led the eighth finals against Gummersbach in a second match with a two-goal margin. This was not enough to correct in its favor the total balance of the two meetings (plus 7 was required), but it was enough to leave the site of the Wilhelm-Dopatka-Halle arena without looking at the floor. Alas, the Chekhov fell again in the end, giving it with a score of 1: 6. And this again gave occasion to complain about the marginal favor regime created for them in the matches of the national championship. To fix the skill of the game “through I can’t” to the club students of Vladimir Maximov, in fact, there is nowhere.
However, in the Leverkusen match, the “bears” deserve praise for having abandoned the tournament context with a gigantic domestic deficit and tried to focus on the high-quality performance of a single match.
For a long time it turned out at the Maximov’s just great. Moreover, at first the rivals were even taken aback by the impudent tactical choice of the Russians. They tried to beat Gummersbach with his own weapon: jet shoots in a counterattack and a “quick center” (immediate resumption of the game after a goal conceded).
It’s not often that you see the host team coach burning the first timeout already in the 5th minute of the game. Alfred Gislason had to do just that. Three consecutive swift raids from goal to goal failed Chekhov left-hander Dmitry Kovalev, and the total advantage of the German club was halved. The inflated tone of the Icelandic helmsman caused Gummersbach to drop complacency. He did not repeat debut failures. The advantage of the guests never once exceeded those three goals. But! After all, the first case of leadership of the owners of the site is dated in the protocol only ... 57th minute.
However, the inability of the “bears” to withstand the stress of the European cup endings has already been said. We add only that together with the team, on a wave of someone else's will, the coaching staff sailed, which excellently led the game for most of it. But at the decisive segment of the match, the namesake Vladimir - Maximov and Kushnir - clearly missed the moment when it was worth recalling the tired Alexei Kostygov from the goal, who completely ceased to cling to other people's throws.
And the main assistants - point guards let down the trainers. Both - Vitaly Ivanov and Vasily Filippov - played faded. This significantly reduced the breakdown power of Chekhov's positional attacks. Moreover, the defense system of Gummersbach accentuously worked to neutralize the main bearer of the Bears, Alexei Rastvortsev. He was only allowed to quit exactly once.
An unexpected advantage of the Russian champion is the ultimate concentration on the game. It is rare that during the whole match none of the “bears” allow themselves not only dissatisfied replicas, but even a sidelong glance towards the referees. Note that the Slovenian couple Repenszek - Pogozhnik did not give any reason for that. But here we can argue about where the cause is and where is the effect.
The Euro Cup season for the spring Cup Cup triumph ended this time disappointingly early.
We assume that under his curtain Maximov’s team made a useful adaptation voyage. Very soon, at the end of January, she was practically in the same composition, only already in the rank of the national team, to return to Germany. To the World Cup.
Handball. Men. Champions League. 1/8 finals. Re match
Gummersbach (Germany) - Chekhov Bears (Chekhov, Russia) - 32:29 (17:17)
Gummersbach: Fazekas, Stoyanovich, Ramota; Wigert, Narcisse (7/1), Ilic (2/1), Gunnarsson (7), Alvanos (4), Sigurdsson (6), Vucichevich, Arnarsson (1), Spatz (1), Lutzelberger, Zrnich (4).
Chekhov Bears: Kostygov, Titov; Filippov, Chernoivanov, Evdokimov, V. Ivanov, Rastvortsev (1), Kovalev (7), Kamanin (2), Igropulo (7/3), Chipurin (10), Dibirov (2), R. Ivanov, Tatarin.
The first match (2.12, Chekhov) - 37:31.