Loco-the motive of victory: who will challenge CSKA in the United League Super Cup
""The VTB United League 2026 Super Cup will be held from September 17 to 20, in which Turkish "Anadolu Efes" and Bosnian "Igocea" will play together with the leading Russian teams. """" The tournament will be held for the sixth time, and so far the trophy has always remained in Russia: even invited grandees like "Fenerbahce", "Crvena Zvezda" and "Partizan" have not been able to win it. "Zenit" won the Super Cup twice, and CSKA won it three times. The Army team is approaching the current draw in the status of reigning champions, but it will not be easy for them to defend the title. Why — in the "Izvestia" article.
The Trimble factor
Last year, the United League Super Cup was held outside of Russia for the first time. At ""Belgrade"" arena, which holds 18 thousand people, CSKA skating rink walked through the "Crvena Zvezda", winning against the Euroleague club with a difference of "+ 22". "Zenit" ""won back from "-19" against the star BC "Dubai" and also secured entry to the decisive match of the tournament. However, there was no bright fight in the final. A powerful surge from the Army team in the second quarter sent the blue-white-Blue players into a knockdown, from which they never recovered (96:79).
After the success in the Serbian capital, CSKA had a very bright season, winning all the tournaments in which the team participated. In the summer, the Army retained the championship squad, making only one change: instead of Luka Mitrovich, Kirill Yelatontsev, twice the best young player in the United League, joined the team. However, the Army team's roster has not yet shown the same stability. """""" Andreas Pistiolis's team lost four out of four matches at the training camp (they lost at home to Perm "Parma", as well as on the road to Besiktas, Galatasaray and Tofashu). In Belek, the team's leader, three-time United League Playoff MVP Melo Trimble, could not help the team due to a muscle injury. Whether the American will be able to recover in time for the Super Bowl is a big question. Without Trimble, it will be extremely difficult for CSKA to expect to reach the finals. ""To do this, they need to win against "Igokeya" and "Lokomotiv – Kuban". The tournament will be held in the format of a group stage, followed by matches for 5th and 3rd places, as well as the finals.
In the current circumstances, Krasnodar residents look like the favorites of their group. Yes, they will come to Moscow without Vsevolod Ishchenko (heals a leg injury), but with perhaps the strongest squad in recent years. Let's remind that in the summer "Loko" signed strong foreign players — Marcos Knight, Trevelyn Queen and Alexey Pokushevsky. All three have experience playing in the NBA, and Knight was one of the leaders of UNICS in the 2022/23 United League championship season. The club also retained captain Patrick Miller and center Alain Hadzhibegovich, while the Russian core was reinforced by Russian national team players Andrei Lopatin, Maxim Barashkov and Gleb Firsov. """""" Tomislav Tomovich's team beat ""Tofash" and "Petkim" at the pre-season tournament in Turkey, but lost to "Turk Telecom" and "Anadolu Efes".
Three realignments
"Loko" basketball players can play with the latter again in Moscow. The Turkish club, which won the Euroleague in 2021 and 2022, frankly failed the last season in the main European tournament — they took the penultimate place in the regular season. This led to a global restructuring of the squad, as a result of which the experienced coach Pablo Laso received at his disposal such stars as Dario Sharic and Mike James. The latter spent two controversial seasons at CSKA. " " After Moscow, Mike managed to play 13 matches for "Brooklyn", and then became a legend of "Monaco". The star defender led the Monegasques to the "Final Four" (2023), won the MVP award of the season in 2024 and came out on top of the list of the best snipers in the history of the Euroleague. Last season, the team from the principality began to have financial problems, which led to the dissolution of the team and the loss of professional status.
"Anadola" "" in addition to Mike from Monaco, another important player arrived — point guard Matthew Strazel, as well as the top scorer of the European Cup in the Romanian "Cluj" Daron Russell. Jordan Loyd— the leader of Zenit's "golden squad" for the 2021/22 season, also remained in the squad. By name, it is the Turks who look like the Super Bowl favorites. "UNICS and Zenit" will try to prevent James and Co. from reaching the finals.
In the summer, Kazan replaced the experienced Velimir Perasovich with his assistant Milos Karakash, and also replaced all the foreign players, with the exception of Jalen Reynolds. """""""""""" The best snipers of the United League – 2023/24 Xavier Ratan-Mays (after Yenisei, he managed to play in Real Madrid and Bayern Munich), former Zenit and Utah striker Luka Shamanic, the best scorer of Parma last season Brandon Adams, C.J. Bryce (started last season) have arrived in Kazan. at UNICS) and center David McCormack. The latter was signed just the other day, when it became known that another "big" Angel Delgado was injured in a match for the national team. Among the Russians, the team was reinforced by Evgeny Baburin, Nikita Mikhailovsky, Makar Konovalov and Alexander Gudumak. Of the important losses, Dmitry Kulagin's departure to "Zenit" is worth highlighting.
In the opening match of the tournament, Kazan will face the team of their ex-captain. Kulagin's signing is a great success for the blue-white-Blues. And in general, "Zenit" Russian roster can claim to be the best in the United League. But there will not be as much help from legionnaires as in recent years. Ike Irebu and Nate Mason are inferior in class to the backline players who left the Northern Capital this summer. Therefore, it is possible that in case of failure in Moscow, the St. Petersburg club will enter the free agent market in search of creators.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
