"We played the full 40 minutes without defense": Popovic and Akhmedov about the opening game of the Russian Cup

Zenit-2 head coach Oliver Popovic commented on the loss to CSKA-2 (101:69) in the first match of the Winline Russian Cup Round of 32.

— Today we were terrible. Congratulations to CSKA-2 on a well-deserved victory. We played 40 minutes without defense at all, completely lacking concentration, which is why the score turned out like this. Whenever the team loses, the coach is to blame, that's normal. We simply played without any focus one-on-one, didn't take advantage of bonus fouls, and went the full 40 minutes without defense. How we started the game is how we finished it.

— Will you make any changes in offense going forward, or is the focus primarily on defense now?

— Are you implying that we scored too few points? In previous games, this team averaged 80 points, so there is no need for change. But there are days when offense doesn't work. We need to defend. Today we didn't defend at all. CSKA-2 is a physically strong team and does everything at a very high pace offensively. So, the problem is not in the offense. We started slow, started soft and played like that the whole game. They just scored easy points in fast breaks.

Team captain Elkhan Akhmedov also shared his thoughts after the match against CSKA-2.

— We played terribly the whole game. From start to finish. Honestly, no comments.

— At one point in the first quarter, you cut the deficit to 7 points. What allowed you to do that, and why couldn’t you keep up the momentum?

— We found our defense for a moment, the opponent missed a few attacks, but then everything went back to how it was in the beginning. They found open shots and made them. We couldn’t run the floor or execute our offense calmly, which is why we played so poorly on defense and allowed over 100 points. You can’t win like that.