Basketball
BOBROV: “We are not thinking about the World Cup anymore, we are thinking about every next game”
Experienced striker of the Ukrainian national team, Vyacheslav Bobrov, shared his impressions of the away win (96:77) against the Dutch team in the 2023 World Cup qualifiers, and also talked about the settings for the encounter with Iceland.
– Slava, what are your impressions of the away match against the Netherlands?
– We are very happy with our result. I can say that the Netherlands is not an easy team. They play well and know how to fight on shields. We played well in defense against their leader, Yannick Franke, we closed. Overall we defended aggressive, controlled rebounds in the second half. All players who applied entered the site, young players gained significant experience. I want to note the very strong individual play of Ilya Sidorov. But the win is a collective result that we must forget now and put all our thoughts into the Iceland match.
– The composition of the national team has changed significantly compared to the EuroBasket. How did it affect this understanding?
“Mutual understanding has gone nowhere. We had time to prepare for the match, moreover, all the men were in the national team. Everyone knows how to work with Ainars, so there have been no major tangible changes to the workflow. Young players should come to the national team, play and gain experience.
– Our team does not have an ideal chance to reach the final. How does this affect the psychological state?
– We are not currently considering entering the World Cup. We play for the honor of our country first. Our war continues and we are grateful to our soldiers who defended Ukraine. We play for our people. As for the results, we have to win every game and only then, if we are lucky, we will have a chance to play in the World Cup. We made our situation worse by losing to Iceland. But even in EuroBasket we were wiped out before the tournament, so we need to confirm the status of the black horse that has already reached the European Championship playoffs.
– On the day of the match against the Netherlands, a big event took place in the Motherland – the liberation of Kherson. How did this affect the team’s pre-match mood?
– In the morning before the match, we all watched and discussed that this could happen that day, because the information appeared earlier. We were waiting for official confirmation and when that happened we had more power, we wanted to run forward. I wanted to show the opponent that we are ready to fight on the basketball court.
– Now every next match is the most important for us. What must be done to take revenge on Iceland?
– They shot a lot of open three-pointers in the first game, they were aggressive, they played good pick-n-roll and their leader Elvar Fridriksson gave us 27 points. We need to close this player, for this we have Vanya Tkachenko, Pavel Krutous, who can play against him personally. Plus, Icelanders have tall men who need to be stopped too. It is important for us to control the election, to run forward. If we run and get free throws, I think we have a chance to beat Iceland. Icelanders, of course, are not sweets: they will impose their game, in addition, they will try to escape. Experienced Slava Kravtsov and Sasha Lipovoy are back in our squad of young players who are not for the first time in the national team. I think the coach will flirt with anyone if possible. We need a result – we need to win more than 4 points and I think we can do it. We will focus on training, deploying their networks and deploying their defenses against duel. So all thoughts on the game, we need a victory because we have no choice but to continue the fight for access to the World Cup.
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.
Three matches were played as part of the 18th round of the Euroleague on December 26.
Partizan hosted Maccabi Tel Aviv and suffered a heavy defeat.
The home team, which started the match better, was separated from the opponent by 11 points (28:17) in the first quarter, and at the end of the first 10 minutes, they missed the 3:13 attack and reduced the difference with the opponent team to 1 point (31:30). In the second quarter, Maccabi seized the initiative and after a 14:0 move, they fell behind by 15 points, 56:41. This part of the game was decisive, since then the away team increased their advantage and achieved +33 points – 92:58 at the end of the third quarter, after which they relaxed a little and allowed the opponent to reduce the gap to the last 25 points – 87:112.
This was Maccabi’s fifth consecutive win in the Euroleague, which moved them up to 14th in the standings.
While the most productive player of the match was Walker, who scored 20 points, overall five of Maccabi’s players scored 10+ points.
Monaco had a tough home win against Real Madrid.
The Monegasques were ahead almost the entire game against Los Blancos, but they could not gain a comfortable distance. At the beginning of the third quarter, the home team had a 14-point lead, but then they missed a move at 4:14 and allowed their opponent to return to the game, and at the end of 10 minutes, Real equalized the score: 70:70. The decisive factor in the fourth quarter was Monaco’s 12:0 breakthrough towards the middle of the 10-minute period, which gave them a 12-point advantage: 87:75. After this, although the guest team reduced the gap, they did not fully return to the game. As a result, Monaco won with a score of 100:95.
Real Madrid’s Ukrainian headquarters Alexey Len He spent 6 minutes on the field and made 1 incorrect two-point shot and 1 foul during this time.
The two visiting players immediately recorded double-doubles. Tavares had 21 points and 11 rebounds, while Campazzo had 28 points and 10 assists. Okobo scored 22 points for the winners, but Monaco showed more team play; 6 home players scored 10+ points.
Virtus Bologna hosted Olympiacos and almost staged a surprising comeback in the fourth quarter.
The home team won the first quarter with a score of 25:23, but then the game went sideways and at the big break the Greeks had a 9-point advantage – 50:41, and before the last minute of the third quarter the away team was ahead +20 – 77:57. The fate of the match seemed certain, but then Virtus got back into the game with a move at 18:3. There was an even game further down the field, where the home team tried to equalize the score, but Fournier’s three-pointer with a score of 92:93 and successful free throws helped the Greeks preserve the victory, but Virtus made a three-point shot for equal score at the last second through Alston’s efforts.
Dorsey scored 23 points and Fournier scored 21 points for Olympiacos.
Europa League. Regular season. 18th round, 26 December
Partizan – Maccabi Tel Aviv – 87:112 (31:30, 12:28, 16:34, 28:20)
Partisan: Payne (15 points + 3 rebounds + 6 assists), Brown (12+2+4), Bonga (10+4+1), Jones (10+6+2), Marinkovich (9+2+1), Washington (8+1 assists), Osetkovski (8+1+3), Fernando (6+4+1), Lakic (6+1+1), Calathes (3+2+2).
maccabi: Walker (20+2+5), Sorkin (17+6+3), Leaf (14+6+1), Brissett (11+3 rebounds), Santos (10+2+2), Gord (9+4+2), Ryman (8+4 rebounds), Clark (7+3+6), Blatt (6+4+7), DiBartolomeo (5+3+1), Lundberg (3+2+2), Levy (2+1 selection).
Monaco – Reality – 100:95 (21:20, 26:23, 23:27, 30:25)
Monaco: Okobo (22+2+2), James (15+4+5), Nedovich (12+3 rebounds), Strazel (12+4 rebounds), Diallo (11+7+2), Mirotic (10+1+2), Theis (8+7+1), Blossomgame (6+4 rebounds), Hayes (4+7+1).
Real: Campazzo (28+5+10), Tavares (21+11 rebounds), Okeke (12+2 rebounds), Dec (9+4+2), Abalde (7+2 assists), Hezonja (6+5+2), Maledon (5+1+2), Procida (3), Garuba (2+2 rebounds), Kramer (2+1 rebounds).
Virtus Bologna – Olympiacos – 94:97 (25:23, 16:27, 19:27, 34:20)
virtus: Wildosa (17+2+4), Morgan (15+5 assists), Edwards (14+1+2), Diouf (12+4+1), Smailagic (9), Alston (8+2 rebounds), Niang (7+4+1), Hackett (6+3+4), Payola (4+1+4), Akele (2+1 rebounds).
OlympiacosDorsey (23+4+3), Fournier (21+1 rebounds), Vezenkov (16+5 rebounds), Milutinov (13+9+5), Peters (13+6+1), Papanikolaou (5+4+2), Walkup (2+2 assists), Ntilikina (2+1+2), Hall (2+2 assists), Morris (3 rebounds + 2 assists).
tournament table
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.
Croatian “Zadar” reported on its official website the transfer of a basketball player from the Ukrainian national team Ivan Tkachenko.
After a short trial period during which the Ukrainian player met the requirements of the coaching staff, a contract was signed with him at the end of the season.
The club has already announced that Tkachenko will participate in the Adriatic League and the Croatian Championship, so the Ukrainian can make his debut for the new team in the local championship match against Kvarner on December 27.
Tkachenko did not sign a contract with any club at the beginning of the 2025/26 season and played in only two official matches after the start of the season – as part of the Ukrainian national team, against Georgia and Denmark in November as part of the 2027 World Cup qualifiers.
Last season Ivan played for Mitteldeutscher, where he won the German Cup. The forward, who played in 32 matches in the 2024/25 Bundesliga, averaged 4.9 points and 3.8 rebounds in 17.3 minutes.
During his club career, Tkachenko played for Ukrainians Cherkasy Mavpy and Prometheus, as well as Finland’s Helsinki Seagals.
Zadar is in sixth place in the Adriatic League Group B with 4 wins in 10 matches, and is in second place in the Croatian Championship with a score of 10-1.
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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.
Star player of Los Angeles Lakers Luka Doncic Against the background of the embarrassing defeat of Houston Rockets (96:119), he explained what the team had to change to improve the results:
“I don’t know exactly what needs to change, but something definitely needs to change. We need to figure it out, that’s what we need to do. Everyone should discuss it.”
I know JJ Redick said it would be disturbing. And that’s the way it should be.
As I said, we need to discuss this. It may be uncomfortable, but everyone needs to try harder, starting with me.
We just have to challenge each other. Everyone should challenge themselves and their teammates. “There’s no way to play the way we play, so we’ve got to be better than that.”
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.
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