Sudden losses: the Russian national basketball team will perform at the World Cup without Swede and Kulagin

Last Monday can be called “black” for Russian basketball at least in 2019. With an interval of several hours, the RBF officially announced that the upcoming World Cup, which will determine seven of the 12 participants in the Tokyo Olympics, will be held without the participation of Alexei Shved and Dmitry Kulagin. Two key players of the national team and the real stars of domestic sports, to replace which Sergei Bazarevich with all the desire and urgent need, there is absolutely no one.

What happened

Swede's health problems have been going on since last season, which turned out to be crumpled for the leader of Khimki and one of the most striking performers in European basketball at the present time. Having missed almost three months due to a fracture of the left hand finger (from November 2018 to February 2019), Alexei triumphantly returned to the site, deservedly won the title of the most valuable player in the VTB United League regular championship regular season and was preparing to help the Moscow Region team interrupt CSKA’s hegemony on the domestic arena, but ... He again went to the infirmary after the first match of the final playoff series with CSKA due to a foot injury.

In the offseason, a member of the symbolic Eurobasket 2017 team, in which the Russian team ranked fourth (taking into account previous results in the post-Blatt era), worked on an individual program and systematically prepared for participation in the World Cup. The Swede was waited until the last in the camp of the domestic squad, and the basketball player himself did not hide his desire to go to China.

But the pain in the injured foot did not disappear, and Alex did not go through an in-depth medical examination. Serious physical activity, which is necessarily accompanying any training process, is contraindicated in the next four weeks, which makes it impossible for the defender to speak at the championship of the planet.

The situation with Kulagin, the most successful Russian basketball player in the World Cup qualification (Swede played only one match in it, both because of injuries and in connection with Khimki's participation in the Euroleague), was an absolute surprise for everyone, including Dmitry. Before the start of the national team’s training camp, which opened in July, a universal defender, along with all other candidates for a trip to China, underwent a medical examination, which revealed a retinal detachment of both eyes in a 27-year-old basketball player, which required urgent treatment.

“I am still at a loss, because I have never complained about eye problems. Many thanks to the doctors of the Russian national team. We can say that they saved my eyesight, ”Dmitry said in a commentary to the official website of the RBF, which, on the recommendation of doctors, had to abandon speaking at the championship of the planet.

What injuries of the Swede and Kulagin threaten the Russian team?

The maximum possible three wins at the preparatory tournament in Verona, where Russian basketball players beat the teams of Venezuela, Italy and Senegal in turn, can mislead inexperienced fans. Like, the striking talent of sniper-veteran Vitaly Fridzon and the energy of young players like Grigory Motovilov, desperately clinging to the chance of their whole lives, will help if not completely compensate for the absence of Kulagin with the Swede, then at least minimize its impact on the final result.

This is actually not the case. Basketball players of this caliber, capable of making the difference at the highest level (as it was, for example, in the playoff matches of the previous European Championship), cannot be completely replaced with the help of cunning tactics or at the cost of increasing the load on other experienced performers.

For example, to Nikita Kurbanov and Andrei Vorontsevich, from whom, in any case, at the World Cup, it would be required to do literally everything. Especially in the three weeks remaining before the start of the tournament.

“Now the team will be hard. Although in the friendly matches that we saw in Moscow and Verona, we can say that our players have a great desire, energy and character. Is this enough to solve the tasks set - only the basketball court will show. Forecasting, given how many injuries have fallen on our team, should be extremely careful, ”said Eurobasket 2007 champion of the Russian team to Izvestia, and now the head of the professional basketball department of the RBF, Nikita Morgunov.

And one cannot disagree with him, given that in a meeting with Senegal, forward Sergey Karasev, who injured his toe in a collision with an opponent, also received minor damage.

The lack of two extra-class players in the back line, one of which has the unique ability to earn points for the team even in the most difficult situations (and do not forget to “feed” partners with transfers in more advantageous positions), and the second is a real universal and in fights for the team selflessly fulfills each episode on both sides of the site, it is unlikely to affect immediately.

At the first group stage of the World Cup, Bazarevich's squad will have to meet very ordinary opponents - minus, of course, the Argentinean team, which is part of the world’s basketball elite, and the Russians will have to try hard to rank lower than the second in the fight against the teams of South Korea and Nigeria.

But further problems will undoubtedly arise: joining the fight for medals without the Swede and Kulagin, not to mention Timofey Mozgov, who will also not fly to China, will be incredibly difficult for domestic basketball players. But the question of getting into the number of participants in the Olympic qualification, in four tournaments of which a total of 24 teams will play, the Russians must decide in any composition in order to qualify for a trip to Tokyo next year.