A friendly match with the Syrian national team was held by the basketball team of the Volga Academy. Spectacular and unusual-this is how you can describe the meeting in a nutshell.
"Academicians" showed an excellent game, losing to the guests only 10 points. The score of the match is 99: 109, however, the final figures on the scoreboard do not convey all the sharpness of the last meeting. As the head coach of the men's national team of the Academy Olesya Matvienko admitted, such games are a good school for our basketball players.
"I think this is a very good opponent, because men's basketball is different from College basketball, especially since the Syrian team has famous players who have played in the world's leading teams. And they show a completely different basketball, - says Matvienko. – Such games help us gain, for example, experience in working with high players. Because this season our team is average, there are no pronounced high or low players. They will also allow you to learn how to cut off players, push out correctly, put backs, work in front with safety nets against playing with centers. In General, I personally am very happy with the game. We are used to a tough and rough game, so there were a lot of fouls. You need to learn to play cleaner, more competent and less emotionally. The more games we play with such ambitious players, the more we will learn to control ourselves during the game."
"We did not expect such a game from the Syrian national team, we thought the opponents would be much weaker," admitted the student team player Shukhrat Muradkhadzhayev. - While the shot was flying in the first half, we were on an equal footing. In the third quarter, there was a failure, and they "flew" 10 points away from us, and we already started playing run-in-run basketball. Threw, picked up, didn't score, ran back. We couldn't catch up with them in the end."
On the eve of the friendly match, the Academy held a pre-match conference, which was attended by the guests themselves, the players of the "Academy of sports", students and teachers of the Department of theory and methodology of basketball and volleyball.
Head coach of the Syrian national team Salerno Patrick spoke about the team and its plans. "I only work with the team for one week. The team consists of players from 18 to 37 years old. The immediate goal is to perform well at the 2021 Asian Cup qualification, " said the head coach of the Syrian national team, who is originally from the United States. "I have worked with American players in my homeland, and I can see that the Syrian players are physically well prepared and athletic."
An expanded team from Syria has arrived in Kazan - more than 20 players. 12 of them participated in a friendly match, as it should be under the rules of the International basketball Federation (FIBA). "Despite the status of the match, we want to play like at official games," the head coach said.
The Syrian national team arrived in Kazan for a training camp to prepare for the November 2021 Asian Cup qualification matches. The coaching staff plans to hold similar meetings with the UNICS and UNICS-2 teams. Repeated matches with the Volga region Academy team are scheduled for November 9 and 14 at 19.00 and 14.30, respectively, and matches will be held in the gym of the Academy's academic building.