Basketball
The opponent openly succumbed to Ukraine at the European Championship. A mockery of fair sport!
The Croats specifically gave the Ukrainians the ending of the game, but not for political reasons.
The European Basketball Championship, already at the start marked by scandals in the matches of Georgia with Turkey and Lithuania with Germany, is in danger of turning into a real farce. Now a very strange episode occurred before the final whistle in the game of the Croatian national team against the Ukrainian team.
At the end of their last duel in the group stage, the Croats, with a score of 90:83 in their favor, unexpectedly … stopped playing. The team literally stopped resisting the opponents and even allowed them to score!
However, politics has nothing to do with it.
The giveaway game
The match between the Croatian and Ukrainian national teams until the very end looked like an ordinary but stubborn match in the spirit of a big tournament. However, with the score 90:83 in favor of the “checkers”, the defender of the Balkans, Bojan Bogdanovich, threw the ball into the ring of the Ukrainians with a foul and then, apparently, deliberately missed a free kick, having received some instructions from his coaches along the way.
After that, the Croats, 19 seconds before the end of the match, decided to quit the game altogether, giving the opponent absolute freedom. The players of the Ukrainian national team, in turn, began to discuss with their head coach whether they needed to carry out a productive attack, but in the end they nevertheless carried out a combination and threw the ball into the basket, reducing the gap to five points.
As a result, the game ended with a score of 90:85, but the most interesting thing is just beginning at this point. After the end of the game, journalists and spectators broke their heads, trying to figure out what the Croats wanted to achieve in general, allowing the Ukrainians to close the gap by a couple of points. The fact is that from a tournament point of view, such a decision looked, to put it mildly, not obvious …
Shortly after the match, Croatian national team player Ivan Ramlak answered in the affirmative to the question that in this way his team tried to avoid meeting the Serbian team in the ⅛ finals. But by doing so, the basketball player confused the situation even more:
Of course, there were such conversations between us. Nevertheless, we will be able to talk about who is waiting for us in the 1/8 finals only when all the matches of the group stage are completed, right? Ramlak said.
Made a mistake in the calculations?
The fact is that the “checkers” could avoid hitting the Serbs only if they took 2nd place at the end of the group stage. In this case, the team would have to meet with opponents who took 3rd place in Group D, and the Serbian team could not fall on him even if they were defeated by the Polish team in a face-to-face meeting.
But the concession to the Ukrainian team could not help the Croatian team to take 2nd place – at least in the event of the victory of the Italians over the British team. After that, three teams at once (Italy, Ukraine, Croatia) would score 8 points each and would be ranked according to the results of personal meetings and the difference in points scored in them. In Italy, it was the worst in any case (-6) – so in the event of a victory over the British, the team was guaranteed to take 4th place in the group, Ukraine with a difference of +6 went to 2nd, and Croatia (0) – to 3- e.
If the Croats had not given the Ukrainians the final segment, but, on the contrary, turned on even more, they could have overtaken the opponent in terms of points difference and gain a foothold in the coveted 2nd line. In other words, the Balkans ultimately simply confused the audience, because if the Italian team won in the first stage of the playoffs, they could come across both Serbs and Finns or Poles – the team did not receive certainty as a result of their machinations.
However, the Croats were still lucky: Serbia defeated Poland (96:69), and Italy defeated Great Britain (90:56). Thus, the 2nd place in group D went to the relatively harmless Finns, on which the Croats left the final 3rd line.
Europe championship. Men
Croatia – Ukraine – 90:85 (21:21, 24:21, 22:25, 23:18)
Source: Sportbox
I am a sports journalist who has been writing for a news website since 2015. My work primarily focuses on sports news, but I have also written about other topics such as technology and the arts. I have an extensive background in journalism, having worked as a reporter for a local newspaper before moving to a news website.
7 games of the NBA regular season were played on the night of December 22-23. Golden State beat Orlando, Boston beat Orlando with a comeback, Detroit beat Portland and other games.
NBO. Regular season. Matches are on December 23.
Cleveland – Charlotte – 139:132 (33:36, 37:27, 34:32, 35:37)
Cleveland: Mitchell (30), Garland (27+10 assists), Wade (14+7 rebounds), Allen (12), Tyson (0) – start; Hunter (27), Bryant (10), Lonzo Ball (6+7 assists), Tomlin (5), Merrill (4), Porter (2), Proctor (2).
Charlotte: LaMelo Ball (23+9 assists), Knippel (20), Miller (20), Bridges (17), Plumlee (5) – start; Mann (13), Green (10), McNealy (7), James (7), Diabate (5+14 rebounds + 6 steals), Connaughton (3), Hall (2).
Boston – Indiana – 103:95 (26:35, 17:26, 31:21, 29:13)
Boston: Brown (31+9 rebounds), White (19), Pritchard (11), Queta (8+8 rebounds), Mynott (2) – starter; Simons (11), Garza (6+9 rebounds), Gauser (6), Gonzalez (6+11 rebounds), Scheierman (3).
Indiana: Siakam (25), Nembhard (20+7 assists), Maturin (16+9 rebounds), Thompson (13), Huff (3) – start; Jackson (9), Furphy (3), Matthews (2), Walker (2), Jones (2), Jackson (0), Wiseman (0), Peter (0).
New Orleans – Dallas – 119:113 (36:34, 21:29, 22:24, 40:26)
New Orleans: Bay (19+7 rebounds), Queen (19+11 rebounds + 6 assists), Fiers (12), Murphy (11), Jones (9) – start; Williamson (24+9 rebounds), Poole (14), Alvarado (6), Matkovic (5), Peavy (0).
Dallas: Davis (35+17 rebounds), Flegg (16+6 assists), Marshall (15+6 assists), Washington (8+8 rebounds), Nembhard (4+8 assists+5 losses) – starter; Thompson (20), Williams (4), Hardy (4), Caleb Martin (4), Gafford (3).
Denver -Utah – 135:112 (40:15, 29:31, 34:38, 32:28)
Denver: J. Murray (27), K. Johnson (20), Watson (20), Jokic (14 + 13 rebounds + 13 assists), Jones (3) – start; Hardaway (21), B. Brown (15), Valanciunas (12+11 rebounds), Pickett (3), Strother (0), Nagy (0), Tyson (0).
Utah: Markkanen (27+8 rebounds), George (20+8 rebounds + 7 assists), Nurkic (17+14 rebounds + 6 assists), Bailey (10), Mikhailyuk (6) – start; Sensabaugh (14), Clayton (6), Filippovski (5), Hendricks (5), Collier (2+9 assists), Williams (0).
Oklahoma -Memphis – 119:103 (31:28, 36:26, 17:19, 35:30)
Oklahoma: Gilgeous-Alexander (31+10 rebounds + 8 assists + 5 turnovers), Jaylen Williams (24), Dort (13), Carlson (11), Wallace (8) – starter; Mitchell (16+9 rebounds), K. Williams (11), Joe (5), Barnhizer (0), Youngblood (0).
Memphis: Coward (16+8 rebounds + 6 assists), Spencer (14+8 assists), Wells (12+5 losses), Jaren Jackson (11), Landale (11+10 rebounds) – start; Caldwell-Pope (16), Aldama (9+7 rebounds), Prosper (8), Jackson (6), Koloko (0).
Golden State – Orlando – 120:97 (26:30, 32:27, 31:26, 31:14)
Golden State: Curry (26+6 assists), Butler (21), Moody (20), Dr. Green (9+7 rebounds), Post (8+12 rebounds) – start; Podzemskie (16), Payton (7), Melton (4), Jackson-Davis (4), Hield (3), Spencer (2), Santos (0), Richard (0).
Orlando’s: Banchero (21 + 12 rebounds + 7 assists), Bane (20), Black (19), Carter (9), Jones (7) – start; Richardson (11), Penda (5), Bitadze (2), Howard (2), Isaac (1), Kane (0).
Portland – of Detroit – 102:110 (26:30, 25:31, 27:34, 24:15)
Portland: Sharpe (25+5 tackles + 8 tackles for loss), Avdija (18+8 rebounds + 9 assists), Clingan (17+10 rebounds), Kamara (8), Murray (5) – start; Sissoko (16), R. Williams (8), Love (5), Rith (0), Rooper (0).
of Detroit: Durent (26+10 rebounds), Thompson (18+12 rebounds), D. Robinson (15), Cunningham (14+9 assists + 5 losses), Harris (12) – start; Ivey (11), Green (6), Jenkins (5), Stewart (3), LeVert (0), Rod (0).
Source: Sport UA
Ralph Bean is a writer for Sportish. Ralph has written about sports news for the last two years, and is currently an author on the site. He enjoys writing about sports, and hopes to cover more stories in the future.
Version Forbes announced its annual ranking of the world’s most expensive sports teams.
NFL franchise Dallas Cowboys, estimated to be worth $13 billion, has led the pack for the ninth year in a row.
While NBA Golden State Warriors ranked second with a valuation of $11 billion, another representative of American football, Los Angeles Rams (10.5 billion), was in the top three.
The top 10, as last year, includes only American teams from the NFL and NBA. There are seven NFL clubs in the top 10 overall, which Forbes analysts attribute to the league’s large-scale television contracts.
Among football clubs, Real Madrid remains the most expensive – the Spanish giant ranked only 20th with a value of $6.75 billion.
Also in the top 50 are Manchester United (24th, 6.6 billion), Barcelona (42nd, 5.65 billion) and Liverpool (48th, 5.4 billion). In total, only four football clubs are represented in the top 50 rankings.
Formula 1 representatives also returned to the list – Ferrari (26th place) and Mercedes (34th).
The 20 most valuable sports teams in the world according to Forbes
- 1. Dallas Cowboys (American football) – $13 billion
- 2. Golden State Warriors (basketball) – $11 billion
- 3. Los Angeles Rams (American football) – $10.5 billion
- 4. New York Giants (American football) – $10.1 billion
- 5. Los Angeles Lakers (basketball) – $10 billion
- 6. New York Knicks (basketball) – $9.75 billion
- 7. New England Patriots (American football) – $9 billion
- 8. San Francisco 49ers (American football) – $8.6 billion
- 9. Philadelphia Eagles (American football) – $8.3 billion
- 10. Chicago Bears (American football) – $8.2 billion
- 11. New York Yankees (baseball) – $8.2 billion
- 12. New York Jets (American football) – $8.1 billion
- 13. Las Vegas Raiders (American football) – $7.7 billion
- 14. Washington Commanders (American football) – $7.6 billion
- 15. Los Angeles Clippers (basketball) – $7.5 billion
- 16. Miami Dolphins (American football) – $7.5 billion
- 17. Houston Texans (American football) – $7.4 billion
- 18. Denver Broncos (American football) – $6.8 billion
- 19. Los Angeles Dodgers (baseball) – $6.8 billion
- 20. Real Madrid (soccer) – $6.75 billion
Source: Sport UA
I am a sports journalist who has written for various websites and magazines. I currently work as an author at Sportish, a news website that covers sports news. My main focus is writing about soccer, rugby and other sports in the world.
On December 20-21, Niko-Basket lost two home matches to Dnepr and Zaporozhye in the eighth round of the Super League and therefore finished the calendar year in 9th place in the standings with 4 wins in 14 matches.
Head coach of the team after the defeat of Zaporozhye (67:78) Valentin Berestnev He listed the reasons for the team’s unsuccessful results as follows:
“Counting the first, third and fourth quarters, we won by one point each. We lost the entire game in the second quarter. We had a 7-point lead in the second quarter, but we finished with minus 9. We lost the fight, lost the rebounds, made childish mistakes. This caused the opponent to get over the shock of being behind 12:19 and the game turned in another direction.
We could not find a leader who could do what Lovings and Lishchina did. Eisa scored almost 30 points per game, surpassing our fourth point.
I would like to thank our fans who supported us until the end. They said warm and kind words to us after the match. This is our first year playing in the Super League. Most of the players have no experience of playing in the Super League: Max (Grischuk), Vitaly (Volodin), Bodya (Likhoy). Zaitsev, Safonov and Garbar have experience. Kabanov has little experience. This is a difficult season for them, which will show who will advance to the Super League level and who will not.
Therefore, I would like to thank our fans once again. There were two alarms today. Yesterday we finished the match three hours later than planned. Despite this, people stayed and supported us. We are very grateful for this support.
We train six times a week, twice a day to improve our game. I believe that we will overcome this situation and have a team that will compete for Super League awards, become a strong middle team and beat everyone at home, just like 10-15 years ago.
Most of the guys have no experience, so mistakes are made. Not technical, tactical. There is a lack of a leader who will take responsibility in difficult times. Now we are looking for such a player in the team. If we can’t find it, we will face three foreign players like most other teams. If our audience likes it.”
Source: Sport UA
Ralph Bean is a writer for Sportish. Ralph has written about sports news for the last two years, and is currently an author on the site. He enjoys writing about sports, and hopes to cover more stories in the future.
Pochettino: The US will have confidence in themselves, otherwise it will not be easy to leave the group
Liverpool announced Isak’s official diagnosis. Will he play against Ukraine?
NBA. Boston’s crazy comeback, Mikhailyuk’s failure with Utah
-
Ligue 13 years agoRenato Sanchez signed in Paris for five years
-
Europa League4 years agoIn transfer alert at Olympiakos for additions and concessions
-
Europa League4 years agoFenerbahce – Eintracht 1: 1: The Germans took 1st place in the Olympiacos group
-
Europa League4 years agoWithout Nainggolan and Samata, the 11th team from Antwerp
-
Europa League4 years agoEuropa League
-
Europa League4 years agoAtalanta announced the acquisition of Boga
-
Europa League4 years agoFears that Zapata will be out for 4 months
-
Premier League4 years agoExcept for the rest of January, Sean was injured