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In the second round of the EC, we have won in the Nordic derby against Denmark (80483). This win means a lot to us, since we were severely outplayed in the last match between the two teams, but have now regained the honour. We seemed like a stronger opponent, although we showed some moments of weakness, which allowed the Danes to be close until the final minutes. However, the final minutes were not totally dramatic - lucky for us.

Our opening to the game was a bit lazy, and the Danes quickly got to their highest lead in the game - 13:6. For the most of the Q1, we were trailing several points behind, but got in to the lead with a dunk of a veteran Håkan Dallius for 21-19, 2:30 to the end of the quarter.

Afterwards we didn't allow the opponent to take the lead again, but it was still a very tight movement of the result at least until the half-time. The difference throughout the Q2 only varied between 0 and +4, so nothing was decided yet. We slightly picked up the pace in Q3, and increased the difference to +8, which put us in a significant advantage ahead of the final quarter. I expected some additional drama in the final twelve minutes (as is usual), but the result remained somewhat static, and only varied between +6 (due to the first two points in the quarter being scored by the Danes) and +12, with the final result being 108-100.

This win opens a possibility of a bit more ambitious approach towards the next three opponents - Czech republic, Portugal and Hungary. Unfortunately we lost our star player Kristian Forsbratt due to the injury, and he will miss the game against the strongly favoured Czech republic . If we are lucky, he will return in full form already for the game against Portugal, but at the moment, things are still unclear. Naturally, we are not seen as realistic 2nd round contenders (unlike the upcoming three opponents), but we still cannot expect these opponents to underestimate us, so any win would be a very good outcome for us.

Best regards





Last edited by Deschamps at 8/4/2025 8:42:57 AM

Beating Denmark is all you need to do to keep at least me happy, well done

In the past two weeks we faced two higher ranked opponents. Czech republic is considered to be a #2 in the group, and Portugal follows as #3. While the Czechs had a quiet tournament so far, the Portuguese have a more chaotic one. They won in the opening of the EC against the group favourite - Spain, but this cost them some ent, and they paid heavily in their last game against Hungary. Luckily we were also able to take advantage of that, and have achieved a very nice victory yesterday.

The game against Czech republic (80489) was quite close until the final minutes. I can't forgive myself for messing with the tactics in the last minute. For the whole weekend I left everything set to 3-2 zone, predicted outside focus and normal pace (so tactics motion) and forgot about it. Then 15 minutes before the deadline I left the focus prediction blank. Even I don't know why I did it, since it makes no sense for such game. So when I saw the tactics outcome, I just hoped it won't be a very close match with a loss, meaning we lost a win due to this last second mumbling.

Although the Czech quickly gained a solid lead of approx. 10 points, we managed to match their pace afterwards. By the half-time they were ahead by 7, then they even got to +12, but again we neutralized this and went to the final 12 minutes only 6 points behind. Seven minutes to go Herman "HHH" Hansson forced a three pointer, which got us to 82-85. Unfortunately, the opponent answered with a similarly impressive three pointer, and then scored an additional one. And soon afterwards another, the score was then 96-82. After that, we didn't have the strength to get back again, so the game was pretty much sealed. Luckily for me, since even with an outside prediction it would have probably not be enough. But it is still a reminder that you should never change a game setup in the last minutes

Before the game against Portugal we were unlucky with the healing process of Kristian Forsbratt, who missed some playing time in the last week by only one day. So we had to accept the fact of his limited role for Monday. The Friday update also didn't bring any good news for us, since our big men were severely underprepared for such a tough game. Due to this, I decided to try an unconventional tactics with Sören Häggin on a PF position, and playing 2-3 zone, since our inside capabilities were rather limited. Of course I hoped they would attack inside, but unfortunately for us, they went with motion, where 2-3 zone is not very effective. On the other hand, I have seen good games of teams (including us) playing 2-3 against outside tactics, since some of the defensive inferiority can be brought back by rebounding. Also with Häggin we gained some offensive power, so all hope was not lost.

The game itself was very tight (80494). Portuguese quickly started with their shooting practice, but luckily for us, we were equally successful in the Q1, which ended 35-32 for Sweden. Unfortunately, Portugal started Q2 with a 16-0 in five minutes. After our guys finally woke up, we slowly but steadily came back, and got to 58-61 by the end of Q2.

Portugal were much stronger in Q3, and their advantage slowly crawled up to +13 (104-91). Their highest lead was a few minutes into Q4 (108-93), but suddenly they started calling timeouts, which is always a good sign (for the opponent - us). We increased the pace and leveled the score 3 min to go. In the last minute Häggin scored for 128-126, and got an extra FT - 129-126. After a fine work in defense we had two additional free throws. 131-126 with 19 s to go. They tried a three pointer, missed, but then got another chance and scored. 131-129. This time it was Hansson who had two free throws. He missed the first one, scored the second one, so 132-129. Four seconds to go, Portuguese scored a three pointer for 132-132. But then our MVP, Herman HHH Hansson scored a buzzerbeater for a sweet victory

So what remains are three games; against Hungary, Malta and Spain.

Currently, the table of the group is

1. Hungary, 3-1, +83
2. Czech Rep, 3-1, +59
3. Spain, 3-1, +40
4. Sweden, 3-1, +3
5. Portugal, 2-2, -14
6. Andorra, 1-3, -19
7. Denmark, 1-3, -23
8. Malta, 0-4, -129

Hungary, Spain, Sweden and Malta have now all faced the same four opponents, the same can be said for Czech Rep., Portugal, Denmark and Andorra. So this makes things a bit clearer among those teams with symmetric schedule.

Obviously we are still the lowest ranked team in the HUN-SPA-SWE circle. However, surprisingly, Hungary has the best starting point and is in serious contention for one of the first two places. Of course, Spain had to endure CT from Andorra and probably even Portugal, but they also struggled a lot against Denmark, which was a bit surprising. But yesterday they convincingly beat Czech republic, so no doubt they can play very well and their roster is probably the best in Europe at the moment.

Our goal is naturally to beat Malta, and to try to threaten Hungary and Spain, who are both significantly stronger. Our odds for getting to the one of the first two spots are obviously very minor, but everything is still in our hands, so we need to play accordingly.

I guess we all understand GS is critical at this stage, and we will need all of our best to be competitive against higher ranked teams. So far, we had some bad luck with injuries, but generally all managers have been really cooperative and prepared their players accordingly. And I thank you for that!

This season, our most impressive player is definitely Herman "HHH" Hansson, who scored 41 points yesterday, was also the top scorer against Andorra (30 points), and also started the games against Denmark and Czech rep (18 and 11 pts). Definitely he can already be named as the "most improved player of the year". I can only hope he will play the remaining three games on at least similar level.