Lokomotiv Kuban dealt with the outsider, but lost to the champion

“MK in the Kuban” talks about the results of the new sports week. Our teams played important matches, as well as games with champions and outsiders.

Injury and removal

Handball players of the Krasnodar “Kuban” after two “warm-up” defeats of outsiders of the Super League met with more serious resistance in two home games. The principal match with “Astrakhanochka” riveted the most attention. The battle was really interesting. “Kuban” has shown that it is capable of defeating this opponent. But, alas, Krasnodar literally gave the victory to the Volzhanka.

Most of the meeting “Kuban” was in the lead in the score. Including two personnel losses prevented to bring the matter to victory. In the first half, Olympic champion Victoria Zhilinskaite hit her opponent in the neck while playing defense. Obviously unintentionally, but the judges decided to show her a red card. The second trouble was even more serious – the injury of Ksenia Trukhina at the end of the meeting. Ksenia was carried away from the site in her arms. And soon after the match, the disappointing news followed that this season was over for the line player due to a rupture of the cruciate ligaments of the knee.

Krasnodar could not find justice for one Astrakhanochka player – welterweight Polina Sharkova (nee Vedekhina). She “shot” fifteen goals, exactly half of the team goals – a rarity by handball standards. Heads of one Vedekhina “Astrakhanochka” would not be enough, if “Kuban” realized their chances. At the beginning of the second half Krasnodar were in the lead – 20:15. And for a long time they led at least two or three goals. Fatigue affected the hosts, and the guests’ bench was wider, and this affected the result of the game, especially considering the removal of Zhilinskaite and Trukhina’s injury. Over the last nine minutes, the Krasnodar team failed to excel even once. The game of the usual reliable Diana Golub did not work out. Often, barbells helped the guests. “Astrakhanochka” won – 30: 27 – and six points ahead of the standings.

On Sunday, Kuban had a game against Dynamo-Sinara. Previously, Volgograd teams were a powerful force in both men’s and women’s handball. In 2009-2014, Dynamo won the Russian championship six times in a row, but now it is in the second tier. After the defeat of “Kuban” from “Astrakhanochka”, Volgograd players were able to get around it in the table.

In a face-to-face meeting, Kuban won quite confidently. In the first half, Krasnodar conceded only seven goals – 13: 7. Zhilinskaite returned and became the top scorer of the match, she scored seven times. In the second half, the guests got a little closer in the score. The shortest distance was three goals, which grew to a total of seven. Kuban won – 26:19 – and overtook Dynamo-Sinara, returning to sixth place. This completed the first round. Ahead, by the will of the calendar, again a meeting with Astrakhanochka on November 25, now on the road.

Krasnodar SKIF played with an outsider of the men’s super league – Akbuzat Ufa. The meeting took place on the road, so it was impossible for Dmitry Karlov’s team to relax. It didn’t turn out to be a simple match, although the final advantage of one goal (31 : 30 in favor of SKIF) may inflame the imagination about the intensity of the struggle too much. The ending took place, in general, under the control of Krasnodar. After the score 24:22 in favor of “Akbuzat” Krasnodar fifteen minutes before the end turned the tide of the meeting. They were leading by three goals two minutes before the final siren. The hosts scored the last goal a second before the end. And they did not have time to bring the game to a draw. Ruslan Dashko, the right welterweight of SKIF, “redeemed” the disastrous match against Viktor. In a lost match against former teammates, the newcomer of SKIF did not score even once, he also received a red card. In Ufa, he scored eight goals, becoming the top scorer of the match. Another SKIF recruit, Timofey Maslennikov, has seven heads.

Anomalies and a full house

Basketball “Lokomotiv-Kuban” played two matches last week. Rivals in their level were extremely polar. First, the champion of the VTB United League, Zenit from St. Petersburg, came to visit, and then Krasnodar paid a visit to the outsider of the tournament, Minsk. The team of Oleksandr Sekulich took its due, but could not encroach on the championship.

The fight against Zenit turned out to be remarkable. The first half of the meeting turned out to be smooth, but abnormally ineffective. Its result is 29 : 25 in favor of Loko, which is more in line with the quarter.

The real pretzel teams discharged in the second half. The third quarter was a real nightmare for Loko. Her result is unusual for professional basketball. Zenit won with a score of 30: 5, and the hosts scored four points in the last minute from free kicks. So Zenit took the lead by 21 points.

Krasnodar miraculously “resurrected”. Loko did not stop fighting and was incredibly able to get closer and then even the score after a three-point shot by Jaylen Burford – 61: 61. He scored 22 points, and the rest of the Loko players – no more than eight. Then luck left the hosts: several shots did not enter the St. Petersburg ring. And Zenit did not miss its own: the key was a long-range hit by ex-Loko player Dmitry Kulagin, 68: 62 – Zenit was still stronger.

On Sunday Krasnodar played in Minsk. The Belarusian team lost in all nine matches earlier. Nevertheless, Loko’s mentor Alexander Sekulich called this type of opponent the most dangerous. 9727 spectators gathered in the Minsk-Arena sports and entertainment complex. This is a season record in the VTB United League, which is exceeded by three thousand at once (the previous one was set in Perm). However, the full house did not spur the local team to accomplishments. Krasnodar increased and increased its advantage: 92 : 70 (18 : 16, 28 : 21, 23 : 20, 23 : 13) – perhaps the easiest replenishment of points reserve in the current season. Andrey Martyuk scored twenty-two points, Burford – twenty-one.

Loko also finished the first round. Next, the team will have a home game against UNICS Kazan on November 25th.

Dynamo volleyball players have not been able to please their fans for a week now. They again went to Kaliningrad, where they previously played in the Russian Cup. And we’ve made at least some progress. In the Cup, we lost to the national champions from Lokomotiv with a dry score – 0 : 3. Now they managed to “pick up” one game. Loko won 3:1 (23:25, 25:20, 25:20, 25:21). And the match lasted exactly two hours. Maybe this will make the Dynamos believe in themselves more.

– In previous matches, after mistakes, we fell apart, “buried” ourselves. We managed to avoid it today. In the first game they acted just fine. Then they began to lose concentration, and the difference in the class, the capabilities of the teams immediately began to affect, – said the head coach of Dynamo Pavel Zabuslaev after the game.