{"id":35895,"date":"2021-05-26T20:13:37","date_gmt":"2021-05-26T18:13:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/web.demo.olimpia.iquii.info\/final-four-on-the-road-day-2-the-first-practice-in-cologne-no-wait-its-leverkusen\/"},"modified":"2021-05-26T20:13:37","modified_gmt":"2021-05-26T18:13:37","slug":"final-four-on-the-road-day-2-the-first-practice-in-cologne-no-wait-its-leverkusen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.olimpiamilano.com\/en\/final-four-on-the-road-day-2-the-first-practice-in-cologne-no-wait-its-leverkusen\/","title":{"rendered":"Final Four On The Road Day 2: the first practice in Cologne, no wait it’s Leverkusen"},"content":{"rendered":"

The teams\u2019 arrival at the Cologne headquarter was completed late on Tuesday evening.<\/strong> Efes got to the hotel for second, after Olimpia, then CSKA Moscow came and finally FC Barcelona. And then the structure was suddenly populated with people, polo shirts with team logos, players, staff members. The anti-Covid rules are tight. For example, the presence of more than 24 people at a time is not allowed even in the dining rooms, so teams had to split the attendance. The first official moment is the traditional photo session involving the four team captains. The common trait is not just the recognized seriousness, professionalism, and longevity of all four. Each of them is a product of their team\u2019s country. Dogus Balbay is the captain of Efes, Nikita Kurbanov is the captain of CSKA Moscow, Pierre Oriola of FC Barcelona. Our Andrea Cinciarini takes his time to talk mostly with Balbay, maybe there is some position affinity, friendship born on the court, while guarding each other.<\/p>\n

The team had its first meeting this morning. It took place at 11.30 in the hotel of course and was useful to break up an otherwise very long day. A nice interview with Sergio Rodriguez appears in the Spanish newspaper Marca: “The EuroLeague is a very tough competition, not to be compared to others: you play 10 months to reach the playoffs and in a few days you have to move another step and then everything is possible during a single weekend. Personally, I played the Final Four almost every year, except my first one, when I was at Estudiantes, and at the end of my second year at Real Madrid. Going to the Final Four is rightly celebrated as a win, but then you go play them and if you don’t win, you feel bad. Every time you play one Final Four, you are aware that it could be the last one so you try to live it to the fullest, because you don’t know if there will be another. But the best thing is to always deal with it naturally.\u201d \u201cI have seen many times – Kyle Hines said – the underdog team leaving from here with the trophy. They are special games, in the semifinals, in the final, anything can happen, you just have to be prepared “. \u201cThe guys have had an amazing season so far, our veterans have helped the young players to improve, and they are the ones who brought us here, we just travel with them,\u201d says Coach Ettore Messina.<\/p>\n