"You are upset?" - the question asked at the end of the press conference, sympathetic in content and mocking in the context, as always, did not catch the resourceful coach of CSKA by surprise. "Well you, I'm happy!" - with a sad smile, Ettore Messina joked gracefully. But a little later, he seriously rhetorically asked the tactless questioner: "Would you be happy if your team lost this way?"
Indeed, CSKA looked weird. Not only as a team as a whole - catastrophically amorphous at the start and unable to cope with the simple zone protection in the end, but also individually. After another defect in defense, Andersen clapped his eyes sacredly for exalted army fans with confusion. Replacing the game, Van den Spiegel, Kurbanov and Pashutin did not strengthen the game at all. A very average match for themselves was held by Holden and Savrasenko. But the most important thing - and this struck me the most - after a series of fantastically successful performances, Papaloukas seemed to have a pale shadow of the best basketball magician of the Old World with a pale shadow. Booker intercepting the ball from Theo, who was dozing off on the floor, as an amazingly well-marked illustration, can be safely recommended to the marketing specialists (if they exist) of the newspaper "From Hand to Hand". And the apotheosis of the Greek misadventures was the ruined last attack, which Theo, according to reasons not established by the investigation, completed a hasty inaccurate throw characteristic of himself in this match.
The wise Messina, of course, did not rush to the public search for those responsible for the fearless, in general, for CSKA defeat among the sponsored. Instead of conditional scapegoats, the coach presented to the audience his own thoughts. And while the first of the Italian reasons for the unfortunate incident (the absence, unfortunately, of the chronically injured unique of Vanterpool) seems indisputable, the second - the unimportant physical conditions of the wards - is beyond doubt. “Khimki” looked more reckless and fresh throughout the game.
However, the imperfect form of red-blue may well be a working and planned moment. Surely on her new peak Messina will try to bring the team closer to April. But the neophyte coach Khimki Kestutis Kemzura has to force things - the threatening departure from the ULEB Cup could put an end to the happy joint future of the Lithuanian and the Russian club. However, according to Kemzura, the main principle of the coach is “Be in the game!” And, it seems, he was not used to throwing a white flag either locally or globally. Indeed, even having fallen from “+10” in the first ten minutes of shock to “-5” in the kissel third, “Khimki” did not lay down their arms, which sometimes happened to them in the old days, but continued to fight through “I can’t”. “We understood:“ +10 ”for CSKA equals“ +20 “for any other team. Therefore, I am especially pleased that, despite the periodic“ slippage ”in the attack, we did not let the army go too far and turned the tide of the meeting.”
At the end of a rather detailed speech, in which individual warm words were addressed to the “second front” of Dyachka and Pozzekko, Kemzura was honored with a new masterpiece: did CSKA coach beat him before? - from the author of the mentioned original appeal to Messina. This time it turned out even funnier. After a short pause for reflection, the thoughtful expert replied categorically “no!”, Which only provoked the unabated writing fraternity. “Well, well, then you, with Dynamo St. Petersburg, drove them home, about the same, in one point? ..” - with insistent polyphony sounded around. Kemzura, slightly discouraged, was in no hurry to change the facts of his biography: three times with a concentrated look he carefully rummaged in his memory, but three times he extracted a short negation from it. Until he finally convinced those present with his debut argument: “I actually didn’t work at Dynamo last year ...” There was nothing left - the journalists gave up.
Surrendered (even more figuratively) yesterday and CSKA. As they say, to the delight of the winners. And, I think, the joy is very timely. Neither one nor the other will have problems with motivation. After an almost scandalous all-round event with elements of chess blitz and judo from Dynamo, the second undeserved defeat in a row (and Khimki's failure to enter the semifinals of the Russian Cup cannot be called otherwise) could come sideways on approaching Tuesday. Now the hosts will approach “Crvena Zvezda” in an excellent mood and with two scalps of the clubs of the first Euroleague basket (collection combination!) In the bins. And the army team to the beginning of the Top 16 - prickly and hungry. As always after infrequent losses. Which, too, agree, good.
Nikita GOLOVANOV