What is "Red Star", what is the Red ArmyKazan UNICS was the first to get to the offender. “Crvena Zvezda” is a big name, and even among its players there are enough comrades whose track records are well known to fans of basketball who are familiar with basketball. The Belgrade home win against the backdrop of unstable Eurocup performances by Russian clubs was hardly surprising. I was struck by the statistics of the match, which was not shown on TV: on the road Kazan showed a very decent, much higher than average, percentage of hits, but lost. It is nice that when analyzing the causes of the defeat, in addition to nodding to “incomprehensible” refereeing, UNICS representatives called their own flaws. So on Tuesday they took revenge not only on rivals.
The right word, it’s amazing why the “Basket Hall” can hardly be seen filled to capacity. After all, the capital of Tatarstan has a cool team that knows how to perfectly use the home site factor. What a grand CSKA Moscow, that the formidable “Red Star” - the owners no difference. They look convincing. Even frighteningly convincing.
Against the Serbs, Kazan even dispensed with the luck that had helped them so much in the match against CSKA. They made some serious mistakes (Meytin Cleves was especially “distinguished”, sometimes acting as if he had begun celebrating the Constitution Day of Russia in the morning). Antanas Sireyka allowed himself to save for the time being a “joker” of Jared Stevenson, and Yegor Meshcheryakov, who earned the status of a key player by confident actions in the endings, this time did not put the matter back on track, gaining 7 points in the first quarter. Especially good was the reverse dunk of the Belarusian, with whom he shamed the healthy Perot Antich.
It was the tall Antich who at first seemed the main threat to the UNICS ring - he was half a head ahead of Meshcheryakov, who took care of him, and if he received the ball in the three-second zone, it seemed very difficult to keep him. But the hosts quickly adapted to his actions. At the same time, during the second period, the sniper weapons of Milan Gurovich were silent. What turned out to be quite enough to go into the gap. When the Serbian veteran returned the bombardier mood, it turned out that there was no one to support him from the Belgrade, and the Kazan citizens could easily find a hairless couple Sergey Chikalkin - Saulius Stombergas and Stevenson who jumped out of the ambush. Angry Serbs began to be rude, which only contributed to the rapid approach of sweets for the owners of the “twenty”.
Ostend shootingKhimki’s duel - Telindus didn’t, in essence, be a duel. What is not surprising: teams are, as it is now fashionable to express themselves, from different weight categories. After the buildup in the first quarter and a series of strikes by the hosts (15-0 spurt) in the second, the guests were invited to go on a deep knockout. They would be glad, but in basketball you do not want, and before the final gong you can’t get down. The teams began to clinch - and so passed the Khimki hour of reckoning for defeat in Belgium. Fortunately, there are no discrepancies in the judicial records. At “-5” in Ostend, Sergey Elevich’s wards responded with an ordinary victory over an equally ordinary opponent with a difference of “+15” - numerous snipers did not disappoint the boss. However, even in such a trivial plot of the “Ostend” shooting on the guest ring there was a place for three remarkable impregnations-impressions.
The first impression is the defense of Khimki. Do not regard the match with Telindus as a litmus test. But the club achievement of all times, set three days earlier by the minimum number of points missed (52 from the Central Air Force) and the modest 75 for dashing inhabitants of the Moscow Region received from Hapoel, together with the Tuesday meeting, are encouraging. Talking about an impregnable wall or sophisticatedly debugged and thought out to the smallest detail machine for safety net is not necessary yet, but progress is evident. That in a post-match mini-interview, blurry in a smile, was confirmed by Boris Gorenz: “We have enough stars. There is no problem with the attack. One will not beat the other. But at first the defense was a serious snag. But now, we finally took up for the mind. And now we play really team basketball. " An exaggeration, of course, but no longer nonsense.
The second impression is Kelly McCarthy. By the way, this is an amazing thing: out of nine matches held by Khimki in the Super League, ex-captain of Dynamo, currently resting in peace, took part in only two. Far from being the most successful for Kelly. In Kazan, the striker with helpless eyes and pointed ears tried to catch the game rhythm completely absent from his team that evening. Last weekend - mediocre "shot" against the Samara pilots soaring at the bottom of the standings. But in the ULEB Cup, the American is the best in Khimki in terms of utility. In the European arena, McCarthy regularly makes us remember the namesake who became famous during the Cold War. No, of course, the head of the peace-loving black intellectual is not obsessed with extremist thoughts about the "witch-hunt of communists." But in the basketball aspect, the policy of McCarthyism for the authorship of Kelly, like Joseph's social, adheres to radical methods. The striker of the Moscow "star-eaters" systematically represses and undermines the psychological calm of any guardian by constantly and selflessly searching for close contact on the defensive (you should have seen how infuriated Hicks was after Kelly’s sensitive block-shot was recognized as illegal) and he could distinguish himself in the attack. Stable, like traffic jams on Moscow roads, throws that are considered empty and shallow talk about the fundamental difference between the “kopecks” and “treshki” McCarthy became the main help “Khimki” in the attack.
The third impression is three minutes of Pavel Podkolzin. Incidentally, the debut of the center-giant in the ULEB Cup 2006/07. The benevolent audience outside Moscow met a noticeably thinner giant as an epic hero or great leader. The Siberian Shaquille was greeted by a myriad of welcoming shouts and an inspiringly frequent mass clapping of inflatable sticks. At least for the sake of this sweet moment of national unity, Podkolzin should be left in Khimki. In basketball terms, everything is a bit confusing and complicated. Ironically, Pavel had to confront Eric Hicks under the shields, a stumbling block on the way to the NBA for which turned out to be deadlocks of 198 cm (for fun, we recall: Podkolzin is 226 cm tall). "Pug" "elephant" was not afraid, but entered into a decisive battle. First, the American "big" midget with a direct view pierced Podkolzin's endless arms with a medium throw. Then he actively contributed in the stalls to the “air-ball” of the Russian giant that followed in the return attack. Immediately a lighter was thrown onto the parquet with a caring hand. The unlucky Pavel was fit to be really upset. But no - the partners did not let the young man lose heart and continued to sponsor the programs. Their result was a free kick after a foul by Hicks. He is not attracted to vendetta, but already something. Little revenge is sweet too.
Nikita GOLOVANOV
Nikolai TSYNKEVICH