Отправлено: 09.05.07 20:59. Заголовок: About handball

The most successful “Lada” season in Europe had started with unoptimistic expectations from many Russian specialists and fans. Some people even spitefully proclaimed Togliattians inevitable failure. The reason was a loss of head coach Trefilov who moved to “Zvezda” Zvenigorod with some players of first squad as Shipilova and Romenskaya. However, the new coach Alexey Gumyanov said that no use crying and started searching for improvement. He has found it in the field of tactics and psychology; in addition some young players entirely justified trainer’s confidence.
In CL “Lada” made its way to final without skidding, and this success can’t be called occasional. Gumyanov’s team won 5 matches in group “B” and lost only last (to Gyori ETO) when the result couldn’t make influence on their place in the table. Then Russian champions passed “Vyborg” in quarterfinal (32:32, 33:31) and “Hypo” (28:22, 29:35).
In national championship “Lada” lost 3 points during main round and took the 2nd place after “Zvezda”. In quarterfinal play-offs “Lada” completely destroyed “Zvezda-2” – 36:21 (away), 30:20 (home). Incidentally young players as Olga Chernoivanenko and Ekaterina Davydenko were especially good in these games. Semifinals turned up much more difficult: in first match “Lada” lost to “Dinamo” Volgograd – 24:28. “Dinamo” was a silver medalist of last 5 seasons, is a quite strong club with big ambitions, so you can’t fell yourselves comfortable if you yield to it in the first game when you fight till two victories. But Togliattians managed to use home advance and firmly showed the guests their place – 34:29, 34:27; Bliznova, Marennikova and Muraviova greatly performed in these matches. Alexey Gumyanov said afterwards that his team was very tired due to a hard schedule so he hadn’t been surprised with defeat in Volgograd, but had been sure that the general victory would be on their side. “Lada” won the series 2:1, and will compete “Zvezda” in final.
First battle between “Lada” and “Zvezda” took place on 5th of May in Togliatty, so the team hasn't much free time to recover its strength before the CL final. But Togliattian players must be in a good mood – they defeat their main opponents in Russia 33:28, and made Evgeny Trefilov very disappointed! The second and the third (if the 3rd is necessary) matches are assigned to 26 and 27 of May, but now "Lada" is looking forward to the Champions League final!
Alexey Gumyanov told me a few words exclusively: "We had a tough moment when we lost in Volgograd, at the same moment getting a news about death Ludmila Postnova's boyfriend. The girls were crying. Then we defeated "Dinamo" twice at home. As you know, on last Sunday we played against "Zvezda", and also celebrated a victory. Matches with Zvenigorod team are not just matches for the gold for us – to win was a matter of principle for both teams. That's because there are many ex-Togliattians in "Zvezda", including head coach Trefilov, and some other reasons. The 1st half was tough and nervous, in the 2nd we performed very well and showed our best qualities. We are a little tired physically, however feel emotional animation. We know that "Slagelse DT" is a real "dream team" that has just become a Danish champion, and we are thinking now about how to find the best way to compete them. Be sure, we won't give up. We want to win the Cup very much".

 Отправлено: 16.05.07 15:45. Заголовок: Re:

The first battle against Slagelse dramatically finished with a draw – 29:29. Togliattians were a little disappointed after the final whistle because they had leaded for 3 goals few minutes before the end, but they didn’t show any diffidence. Nobody looked as a person who thought that everything is lost or the chances are minimal. However, should they have? Lada is not a team that feels uncomfortable playing outside. Due to a system of Russian national championship they are used to play away from Togliatty and are used to win wherever they play.
After the game Togliattian players confessed that they felt a little nervousness in the beginning cause they felt the match was outstandingly important – it’s the first time when Russian club came so close to the main European handball trophy, however almost everybody added: “We know that we are not weaker than Slagelse, to say more we are even better trained physically”. The main idea of the speeches was “Danish team has great players, but we will play better next game and they should be aware of being defeated on their home place”.
The head coach Alexey Gumyanov said for us on Wednesday: “I wasn’t satisfied with the draw. We started not well in the first match; the players felt a little shaky, you see, it’s not the same to watch Bojana Popovich on TV and to meet her face to face on the ground. But then we improved our play, and I only wish we didn’t make a few unforced errors in the end when we lost an advantage of 3 goals. There were a lot of amateurs in sporthall “Olimp”, many fans came from other cities, and we are grateful for the support. Our conditions has been growing up, we feel optimistic and are ready to fight. The players are in good form, Muraviova who had a problem with a neck and couldn’t show all her best in first game completely recovered – and the others are fit. We appreciated the strength and skills of Slagelse players, especially Popovich, but we have some ideas how to neutralize Bojana and her team-mates. We expect to see many Danish fans in Brondby, who will try to suppress us and the referees, but I hope for the better. We’ve never been so close to great achievement like this!”
By the way, the match was broadcast on all Russian sport channels (that’s a very seldom occasion for them!), and its rating surprised the channel owners – people liked it more than, for example, translation of the basketball CL male final with CSKA Moscow. All Russian fans are looking forward to the second match: club from little Togliatty has a chance for a biggest triumph. Let’s wait for Sunday... will the Sun shine for the East?