The basketball players of FC Bayern Munich missed the second surprise and clearly lost the home game against Alba Berlin 81:96. For the third time in a row, Berlin was handed the championship trophy on the floor of their big rivals and, after winning the cup in the Basketball Bundesliga (BBL), won the double. For Munich it remains a season without a title. It was no consolation on Sunday evening that they delivered a strong performance in the Euroleague and narrowly missed out on making it into the Final Four against Barcelona in the quarter-finals, something that no German team has ever managed to do.
President Herbert Hainer still wanted to have “a good season” at the moment of the defeat, albeit “with mixed feelings”. The strong performance in the Euroleague is opposed to the early cup exit and the lost championship. The players gave their all, but the long season and the efforts in international business ultimately “cost too many grains”. The club must now consider “how we can better sequence this in the future”. One idea is to increase the proportion of strong German players.
Coach Andrea Trinchieri didn’t even want to go into an analysis at that moment; exhausted, he only stressed that “I couldn’t be prouder of the players”. The fact is that given the serious injury situation – four key players were missing in Darrun Hilliard, Leon Radosevic, Corey Walden and Vladimir Lucic – the rest of the squad “simply didn’t have more energy”. Then fire flashed in the Italian’s eyes again: “This defeat is the fuel to come back stronger, harder and better.”
Trinchieri already knew: “The party was only postponed.” Mind you, those of the Berliners
Trinchieri usually paints beautiful pictures with his words to outline the state of the team. From time to time he becomes a tailor whose job it is to get the suit into the right shape, or a mechanic who adjusts one or the other screw on a Cadillac. The same was to be expected before the fourth final game against Alba, maybe a yellow lake in which he was swimming lost, up to his neck in water, it didn’t stop raining…
But the Italian renounced his stories: he became a nihilist. Trichieri, of all people, who, despite all the setbacks, always knew how to come up with solutions and time and time again had proven his talent for improvisation on the pitch. So he said before the second match ball of the Berliners in the Audi Dome that given the prevailing conditions in his squad it was pointless anyway to believe in another miracle: “The party was just postponed.” Mind you, those of the Berliners.
The Bavarians around Nihad Djedovic had no chance in the finals.
(Photo: Oryk Haist/dpa)
Trinchieri was right, also because the situation in the Munich squad hadn’t gotten any better. Leon Radosevic was in the clinic because of a virus, the driver Vladimir Lucic was in the hall but sat behind the gang with the other sick colleagues. Everyone should have noticed on Friday evening that the squad was still good enough to bring their big rivals to their knees. But the question was: can the remaining players in their 84th game of the season still get the strength? Especially since no one should have a weak day in the thinned-out squad – for lack of colleagues who could hide this.
It was hardly to be expected that Berlin would present itself in such a desolate manner again
In addition, it was hardly to be expected that this Alba team, which had been so stable in the past few weeks and had a series of 19 victories, would present itself as desolate in the face of the great triumph as it did in the 60:90 in game three on its own Hall. Alba had fabricated a three-pointer rate of less than ten percent, and as proof, Jaleen Smith, one of Alba’s strong long-distance shooters and top scorer of the day with 23 points, immediately threw two three-pointers into the Munich basket. Center and captain Johannes Thiemann (15 points) acted resolutely under the basket (the national player was the best thrower of the day with 15 points), Alba quickly took the lead 11:0.
In the thing: Berlin’s Christ Koumadje (left) prevails against Paul Zipser.
(Photo: Straubmeier/Nordphoto/Imago)
Once again, the Munich team seemed to be able to surpass themselves. Andreas Obst (11 points) and the tireless fighting captain Nihad Djedovic (11) initiated a race to catch up that brought their team to 11:16. But then the favorite took over again. Either the 2.24 giant Christ Koumadje (11) stuffed the ball into the basket from a standing position or Smith and Blatt (14) scored from distance: At half-time Berlin was leading 52:36.
After the change, the guests quickly countered the hopes that were burgeoning thanks to Deshaun Thomas (12) and Augustine Rubit (15) with two distance shots, Alba went into the final quarter with a reassuring 76:54 lead. The title went to the team that was clearly better in this series of finals, and the bravely fighting Bavarians earned a great deal of respect in front of 5,469 spectators in the sweltering heat. Ultimately, however, it was no longer possible for the flat Munich team against a better and more balanced, new and old German champion.
Internationally, FC Bayern is the measure of all things from a German point of view, on the national stage the Munich team – like in the previous season – paid the bill for it.