Together with the two defeats of the Russian champions a week ago by the Cologne Super Cup from the Spanish Ciudad Real and the German Lemgo, the negative is enough to conclude: the elite European level is not yet up to the Bears. The goblet cup won by the team of Vladimir Maximov this spring is not suitable as a counterweight to this point of view. Recall that in the third-ranked continental tournament before the playoffs, losers of the group stage of the championship league are sent to console themselves - so the Chekhovites then got into it. So, the current participation in the 1/8 finals of the Champions League, even if it turns out to be unsuccessful, is in a sense even progress. Sorry, not as significant as we would like.
Why? You cannot answer a quick question. Russian handball players (and handball players too) have to compete more and more with the national teams in the high stages of European competitions. In terms of internationalization, handball does not lag behind other fellow games. An example is the same Gummersbach. In the form of this club, three Serbs, three Icelanders, a Croat, a Frenchman, a Greek, a Hungarian and (finally!) A German opposed the Czechs on Saturday. Note that only the latter is not called up on a regular basis to the national team of his country. Doses this explosive mixture from the bench Icelander Alfred Gislason.
It is easy to imagine how mysterious and unpredictable any team made up according to such a "incestuous" principle. The strongest handball leagues on the planet - German and Spanish - have long ceased to be a collection of twin clubs. They are distinguished by a variety of styles and coaching styles - as it once was in the stunningly abundant major league of the former USSR, uniting unique and distinctive national schools.
Russian handball became the successor of the Soviet, but the Russian handball inherited from it. In something straightforward, implicated in plowing and heroic strength, rejecting the sophistication of technology and the elegance of tactical moves. So - he ran away, fired - and played for years, not noticing how on the sides the rivals went forward. At the same time, diligently (with rare exceptions) they kept the purity of blood. Foreign hand coaches have never worked in Russian handball. And in a whole dozen teams of the men's super league (among them there are by no means poor) today there is not a single legionnaire to be found - at least from neighboring countries!
This seems to be a principled position. It cannot be denied categorically. It cannot be rejected at all. But then we must admit to ourselves that the “purebred” national championship will for a long time vainly beat off fans from allied gamers and beg for a bit of broadcast attention from television companies. Because all teams will remain unimportant copies of the hegemonic team, which is part-time and the national team of the country. For a long time, almost according to the order, the best from greenhouse beds will be brought from all over the country. For a long time, most rivals in the national championship will still give up without a meaningless fight.
And then, to explain failures in the international arena, a jammed record of biased refereeing will be launched from time to time.
On Saturday, she sounded again. Hand on heart, not without reason. Croatian referees treacherously broke the game at the beginning of the second half, when the owners of the Chekhov palace wound up and minimized an impressive pre-entratic backlog. But you must agree: if in a match of this level the team is shamelessly “removed” from her home, this says a lot about the team too.
In the judicial community, the Maximov team (read: “Chekhov Bears”) has a strong reputation for whiners, with a wry grin meeting any whistle in someone else's favor. By the way, the match with Gummersbach was irrevocably lost not when the referees slowed down the “bears” with a couple of unjust decisions, but when the captain Vitaly Ivanov fell into hysteria and was removed, who had been throwing a training ball for a long time on the spare bench a jacket. And immediately came a seven-minute, lost by the hosts with a score of 0: 6.
With such a deficit, and in a week to go to the second leg in Leverkusen.
Handball. Men. Champions League. 1/8 finals. The first match
Chekhov Bears (Chekhov, Russia) - Gummersbach (Germany) - 31:37 (16:20)
Chekhov Bears : Kostygov, Titov; Filippov (1), Chernoivanov, Evdokimov (4), V. Ivanov, Rastvortsev (7), Kovalev (4), Kamanin (2), Igropulo (5), Chipurin (4), Dibirov (4), R. Ivanov.
Gummersbach: Stoyanovich, Fazekas; Wigert (1), Narcisse (4), Ilic (7), Gunnarsson (3), Alvanos (3), Sigurdsson (8), Vučićević (3), Arnarsson (1), Zrnich (7).