14.01.2008, 04:00
Buducnost Bows Out

“While we played a good defence, we were in front. In the second half we were a totally different team, and I don’t know why it happened. Oltchim took the advantage of that and turned the situation in their favour. I am sorry....

Buducnost Bows Out

With the help of 5,000 supporters in the “Moraca” hall, Buducnost T-Mobile managed to play a fantastic first half against Oltchim Rm Valcea and was at the end of the first half leading by 2 goals with the score at 12:10.

But by no means was this match cut and dried! Oltchim from Romania made a stunning comeback in the second half scoring seven consecutive goals in the first ten minutes of the second half and from then on, it was Oltchim who were dominating the game. At the end of 60 minutes, thanks to the seven goals scored by Tacalie and Maier, five by Meirosu and Stanca in addition to the 13 saves from goalkeeper Dinu, the result fell in favour of the guest team 32:21.

For Buducnost T-Mobile Radicevic was named top scorer with five goals, followed by Radovic, Dragutinovic and Damjanac, who scored three goals each. Nevertheless, this defeat did not come as a surprise, not just because Oltchim was the best team in the group, but especially due to three; Radovic, Jovanovic and Jovovic, key backcourt players being out at the moment due to health concerns.

“While we played a good defence, we were in front. In the second half we were a totally different team, and I don’t know why it happened. Oltchim took the advantage of that and turned the situation in their favour. I am sorry for our great fans and because I think we didn’t’ deserve to lose with such a big goal deference”, stated Jovanka Radicevic.

Oltchim’s goalkeeper, Luminita Dinu, told of how happy everyone in the team actually was because of this victory and especially due to the fact that the Romanian side finished the group with the maximum 12 points.

“Before the game in Podgorica we played a match in the Romanian league against Brasov and lost two players, Luca and Gatzel, due to injuries, and that’s why it was not easy to play Buducnost. That was the case especially in the first half, when the young team of Buducnost played better. In the second half, the intimidation of playing in a full hall disappears and that is when everything fell into place. We deserved the victory. I wish Buducnost all the best in Cup Winners’ Cup”, said Luminita Dinu after the game in Podgorica.

After a defeat against Oltchim, Buducnost was waiting for the Sunday’s result from Viborg, needing the victory of the Danish team against FTC Budapest Bank to keep the third place and go into the 1/8 finals of Cup Winners’ Cup. Viborg won the game (39:30), so Buducnost will continue playing in Europe, in the competition that they have won twice (1985 and 2006). They will come up against the Spanish side Bera Bera.

“We knew Viborg was stronger than Budapest, and that the Danish team should win the game. But, you never can be 100 percent sure. So we waited until Sunday, and finally the good new came, although we are sorry that we depended on the teams defeat. But, we deserved the third place; we worked very hard from August of the last year. We don’t know a lot about Bera Bera, but we can not underestimate them, because they are playing a strong league, even if we know they are on sixth place in the national championship. For those matches we will have a stronger team in the Cup Winners' Cup, because of the arrival of Katarina Bulatovic and Ana Bulatovic”, said the captain of Buducnost T-Mobile Dragica Orlandic.

TEXT: Sasa Joncic