The VTB United League President Sergey Kushchenko commented the results of the Russian national team’s friendly games against Iran in Perm.
About the emotions after games
It’s great that the Russian national team’s games were played in Perm, where our national team played and won its last official game a year and a half ago. Of course, there was a little pressure on our players, because the average age of this national team is only 23 years old. I really like this idea of bringing youth into the Russian national team, I like how Zoran Lukic works with these guys, what kind of game discipline this roster has. The opponent – the Iranian national team – is a World Cup participant, a very tight team, even despite the final result. I think these games will also benefit them.
About the Russian national team players
All the players who represented the Russian national team are playing in the VTB United League, which is a good achievement! It is a tremendous experience that will help them to be back to their teams in a high quality functional state. Moreover, almost all of the players have gone through the Youth League. This means that the VTB Youth League system is already supplying quality players to the Russian national team.
Given the situation our clubs are in, cut off from international competitions, it seems to me that they will change their attitude to the development of youth projects. Although most teams already take it very seriously. The leader is undoubtedly Lokomotiv Kuban, which has long ago decided to rely on its risked players, even at times risking the result. And now we see the fruits of this work: Scherbenev – Martiuk duo works not only in Loko, but also in the Russian national team. I think that Aleksandr is the MVP of the past games. He is already playing very mature, creative basketball, confident in his abilities, making great decisions, knowing when to take the lead or get the ball to a teammate. The rest of the guys are also improving. There should be a lot of games like this to keep the progress going. That is why the RFB President Andrey Kirilenko said that we wlll continue to work on finding decent sparring partners. Both the VTB League and the RFB make decisions manually and support the international agenda.
About the atmosphere in Perm
The atmosphere in Molot is simply unique. If the first game had about 5,000 fans, the second game was sold-out, as usual! There was a lot of energy from the arena, incredible support. The game was a great pleasure both for those who were in the stands and those who watched it on TV. Real men’s basketball!
