Even exotic “Clippers” did not cause so much interest in Moscow. Then, on the approaches to the hall, many offered a ticket for the passage, but now, on the contrary, they called for an extra ticket at Leningradka. The season record, which was proudly announced in the arena, took place - USC was visited by 5500 people. Probably, even among the Catalans, accustomed to the noise of their own blue-pomegranate arena, goosebumps ran under the skin from the entourage - the best club in Europe did not fall into the mud.
He only at first frightened the audience. A couple of misses from under the ring (albeit not from the simplest positions) allowed Barcelona to seize the initiative. The guests realized a couple of rare counterattacks, and jumping Fran Franz Vasquez began to collect a collection of covered throws: his victims in the first half fell almost all the “big” CSKA - David Andersen, Matyaz Smodis and Thomas van den Spiegel, who first came to the site after an injury.
Instead of demoralizing the hosts, the defensive successes of the Catalans initiated a block-party by CSKA. The victim, van den Spiegel, caught Denis Marconato, who had left him awkwardly, and before the big break Smodis was marked by two “pots”, including “active” to active Gianluca Basile in the last seconds of the first quarter.
The last surge in the activity of “Barcelona” was a couple of “treshki” Yaki Lakovich, skillfully tearing the distance with David Vanterpool. In the Slovenian Yaku Fighter, CSKA found its own bombers. Just think, the rival together grabbed Smodis and Andersen under the ring: the Moscow “big” gladly went to the perimeter, from where they threw them in a row for three attacks. Twice - for sure. And soon Trajan Langdon “tricked” poor Basile with feints and also fired from afar - 28:23.
By the way, Theodoras Papaloukas stepped on the scene: to admit, it was his appearance that inspired energy in the unintelligent army team. Theo even before the break thrice cunningly slipped under the ring, and shortly after a pause he added Andersen's slip to the ring and once again went under the shield, forcing the coach of the guests Dushko Ivanovich (out of habit called by the informant Ivkovich in the pre-match performance) to put Rodrigo on Papas De La Fuente.
The tenacious forward of the Spanish national team did not have time to do anything. He didn’t even stop Papaloukas from time to time clearly to be a dude. And with impunity - blue garnet did not keep pace with the rebounds. By the way, CSKA won by a small margin in this component: a high percentage of hits (54.7 versus 46.8) did not allow the crush experts to shine in the full sense of the word under the shields. Before the break, the Spaniards never even took the ball on the CSKA shield, and for the entire match they got the right to re-attack only three times (Muscovites a little more - five times)!
Meanwhile, the “Barca” things went wrong. Nadezhda Slovenia Lakovich crawled under Alexei Savrasenko’s hard block shot, flying off the front line to the photo corr, and Savrasenko himself forced Ivanovich to ask for a timeout, realizing Vanterpool’s cool dagger transfer. The pause gave nothing. After it, the army team scored eight more points in a row (69:52), leaving no doubt in the end.
In the rest of the time, the Barcelona residents dressed in a fluorescent yellow guest uniform resembled Tajik builders next to condescending noble Muscovites. The difference somehow easily and beautifully jumped to the upsetting twenty player. ”His unfortunate“ Barcelona ”, oddly enough, deserved it.
Have you noticed the references to the best Euroleague sniper Juan Carlos Navarro? One of the leaders of the Spanish national team limited himself to a miserable dozen points under the tutelage of tenacious John Holden, Papaloukas and Vanterpool. “We did a great job against Navarro, not allowing him to do signature twos with Marconato,” stated Ettore Messina. Having taken the “trump card” from “Barca”, CSKA deservedly received such a great advantage, which after the whistle, the guests together called too big.
No, the army team did nothing superfluous in this match.
Nikolai TSYNKEVICH