For more than ten years, Krasnodar could not defeat Rostov-Don

Krasnodar teams won two big victories last sports week. True, these accomplishments somewhat balanced the failures of other gaming teams. More details – in the traditional review of “MK in the Kuban”.

Balance restored

Lokomotiv-Kuban’s victory over UNICS in the VTB United Basketball League cannot be called unexpected. At the beginning of the second stage, back in the first days of February, the Red-Greens crushed their principal rivals on their court, and it was the biggest victory in the long history of the confrontation between the clubs – 103: 70.

Now Loko has stalled in the fifth position. UNICS also staked out the second line, from which he can no longer move up or down. In their previous match Krasnodar lost to Nizhny Novgorod for the fourth time this season. It became known ahead of schedule that these teams will play each other in the first round of the playoffs. It remains only to play who will get the home court advantage. To dislodge the opponent from the fourth line, Loko needs to defeat both UNICS and CSKA in the last round, and also wait for Nizhny Novgorod’s misfires. The task is extraordinarily difficult, but the first step towards it has been taken.

The game turned out to be interesting. It is gratifying that there were many spectators. More than five thousand people in Basket Hall on Sunday afternoon were not disappointed.

A tight fight went on for all forty minutes. Most of the starting five minutes were guests. But the throw of ex-Kazan Okaro White returned the advantage to Krasnodar – 13:12. The teams often exchanged leadership. There were no significant gaps. At the end of the second quarter, two long-range hits by Jaylen Burford extinguished a spurt that was emerging from Kazan. Score 43 : 42, ahead was UNICS after the first half.

The guests showed a disastrously low percentage of the implementation of long-range shots: only one successful attempt out of seventeen (six percent). Krasnodar attacked from a distance much more accurately: eight out of nineteen (forty-two percent). This was especially true in the third quarter, during which Krasnodar’s advantage reached eight points – 53:45.

The denouement, however, came only in the last period. There was a moment of crisis for Loko, when the advantage swung in the wrong direction – 60:63. The situation was turned over by a phenomenal breakthrough – 13:0. The hosts took the lead with a solid advantage, which they kept until the final siren. The result of the match is 78:70 (23:20, 19:23, 18:12, 18:15).

Jaylen Barford once again won the laurels of Loko’s best sniper. The American has nineteen points. His compatriot Okaro White, who joined the team only at the beginning of the year, played the most productive match for Loko – fifteen points. The Russians also played an important role. Vedishchev scored sixteen points, Andrey Martyuk – thirteen, he also made seven rebounds. For the seventh time Martyuk entered the symbolic team of the week.

In total, the teams met in the VTB United League for the fortieth time. The equality in victories was restored – 20 : 20.

Ahead of Loko on March 26 is an away game against CSKA.

“First of all, I want to say a huge thank you to the fans who filled the Basket Hall stands today and became the real sixth player,” said Alexander Sekulich, head coach of Lokomotiv-Kuban. – In the most difficult moments of the match, we felt their support and found the strength to turn the tide of the game in our favor. Today it was sometimes really difficult, but playing together, for each other, Loko was able to win.

– I think the audience should like such games: open, with a lot of tight struggle, – said UNICS coach Velimir Perasovich. — We wanted to win, but in the last minutes the opponent was more accurate and luckier.

Historic victory with a full house

Handball players of “Kuban” were finally able to overcome “Rostov-Don”. Been getting to this for a long time. This season, two games were promising. Even at the first stage, Krasnodar gave a fight on their court, leading by five goals, but after the break they lost the advantage. At the beginning of February, they played away in a draw. This “world” was the first in ten years! The current champions of Russia in the current draw are losing their positions somewhat. Organizational conclusions followed. The head coach of Rostovites Eduard Koksharov left his post. The legendary pupil of the Kuban handball, the Olympic champion of Sydney-2000, the ex-mentor of the Russian men’s team, tried his hand at women’s handball for the first time.

Interestingly, in the course of the second stage, the “yellow-greens” played better away, but managed to reverse the trend. The home match was not held at the Olimp Sports Palace, but in the playing hall of the regional handball school, which turned out to be happy.

According to official figures, the fight was attended by a thousand spectators, that is, there was a full house. Rostov fans also arrived, fans of Kuban were actively cheering. The atmosphere was amazing! The main thing is that the intensity of the struggle corresponded to it.

The teams were level. More often the guests were in the lead, but they could not break away and in the end they began to give up slack. With the score 25:25, the leader of the guests, Anna Sen, hit the post from the penalty spot. The captain of the “Kuban” Yana Savinova was accurate from the seven-meter mark. Since that moment, Krasnodar has always been the leading party. A minute and a half before the end, Ekaterina Bobina hit the target – 28: 27. In the return attack, Vladlena Bobrovnikova’s shot was beaten off by Kuban goalkeeper Irina Mikhailyuta. She successfully came on as a substitute: seven saves on seventeen shots and 41 percent – a grandmaster result. The rest of the minute Krasnodar “burned” in the attack. The main contribution to the attack was made by the Olympic champion Victoria Zhilinskaite, who scored eight goals.

— Thanks to the fans for coming to Krasnodar. But we did not justify their trust, – said Alexander Burmistrov, acting head coach of the Rostovites, after the match. — “Kuban” tuned in and had a good game. We did not get shots from the back line, unlike the opponent. They did not play out their chances in defense, they were in a hurry in attack. They often led by two goals. We had to break away more, but lost balls. If we had crossed this barrier, everything would probably have turned out differently.

“Congratulations to the team and fans. The support that led us forward was great,” Kuban’s head coach Denis Saifulin shared his emotions. – The task was to stand in defense and run away to counterattacks. Rostov did it even better. But in a positional attack, it is better for us to bring the ball to the right one.

On March 23, Kuban will play away against the leader of the tournament, CSKA.

Sick SKIF

SKIF handball players returned to the game after almost a month’s pause. Long downtime had a negative effect. Alas, the team of Dmitry Karlov failed in Astrakhan from the local Dynamo. The score was 19:35, as if the teams met from different poles of the table. Based on the difference in the score, this is the second most severe defeat of the season. Earlier, with a gap of seventeen goals, they lost to the Chekhov Bears. But the Moscow Region club is the undisputed champion of the country and one of the leaders of the current Super League draw. Dynamo in their time became the second many times in a row, but now they are behind SKIF. Although the last matches Astrakhan had a successful, beating, in particular, CSKA.

Everything became clear at the end of the first half – 22: 10. It was already an unbearable gap. The SKIF attack was a failure: only 47 percent of successful attacks. There was no help from the goalkeepers – only thirteen percent of the reflected shots. At Dynamo, these figures are much higher.

– Half of our staff still hurt yesterday, the guys had a temperature. Viktor Dolinin couldn’t play at all,” said SKIF head coach Dmitry Karlov. There is nothing to comment on the game. Lost outright. Nothing happened either in defense or in attack.

… Dynamo volleyball players ran out of steam after a whole series of feats. In the previous round, they lost only in a tie-break to the championship leader – Moscow teammates. The game in Kazan against Dynamo-Ak Bars, which is third in the Super League, turned out to be uncontested. The owners of the site confidently won each of the games – 3:0 (25:20, 25:15, 25:17). Valeria Shevchuk scored twelve points in Krasnodar.

Krasnoyarsk “Yenisei” was able to beat “Uralochka-NTMK” and outstripped Krasnodar in the dispute for eighth place. There are two more rounds before the end of the regular season. On March 25, Dynamo will host Tulitsa at home, and on April 1 they will play away against Proton Saratov. Yenisey still has difficult matches against Dynamo Moscow and Kazan, so there are still chances for the playoffs.

For the rugby players of the Krasnodar Bogatyrs, the second match of the season turned out to be unsuccessful. In the debut game of the Major League, the second strongest division in the country, Krasnodar defeated Rotor Volgograd at home. Last week, Krasnodar went to Taganrog, where they competed with the local Grad Petrov. The hosts won the first half by a shutout – 15:0. After the break, Krasnodar managed to impose a fight, but failed to turn the tide, losing with a score of 12:20. Ahead of the match with the same opponent at home – April 23.