FCBARCELONA.CAT

15.06.2007 18:30

“Home court advantage is important, but not decisive”

www.fcbarcelona.cat

In the build up to the ACB finals, the Winterthur FC Barcelona players have met with the media to answer their questions on the highly anticipated clash against Madrid.

All the Barça players appeared confident and optimistic. Despite not having home court advantage, Dusko Ivanovic’s men are not concerned given their winning results on the road in the quarter and semi finals.

Confidence

Victory in the semifinals against TAU has given the team the confidence boost they needed to go into the final. “We’ve demonstrated what we’re capable of and I see no reason not to repeat it”, said Roko Ukic.

Another player, Jordi Trias, affirmed “we’re playing well and we’re confident. To beat a team such as TAU has given us confidence because they were the clear favourites for the title. We’ve demonstrated our ability to win on the road; if we play the way we know, we’ll win,” while Jaka Lakovic said “the home court advantage can influence the result, however, we have the ability to win wherever we play.”

The Keys

For the blaugrana players, one of the keys to the final will be the capture the rebounds. “They play this well; we have to close them down well.” This will be key: “to close down the rebound”, said Giuanluca Basile. Denis Marconato has assured that “we will have to defend well and above all, control the offensive rebound; which is Madrid’s main strength in attack.” Finally, Trias stressed “If we’re big in defence as of now – the offence will come naturally.”

Another key to the match ups will be to achieve victory in the first two visits to the Vistealegre. Roger Grimau confirmed they fly to Madrid “with confidence in doing all they can to achieve victory before coming back to Palau.” Basile mentioned the importance of winning on the road: “we must win one in order to come here feeling more relaxed. A 2-0 can be very tough.”

The rival

All FC Winterthur Barcelona players have agreed that Madrid are a tough team. “Apart from having great long throws, they play an intense game and clean up the rebounds effectively. They play fast and are a complete team”, said Roger Grimau. They also took time to highlight the quality of Joan Plaza’s men: “Madrid have six or seven quality players. We’ll have to keep our heads in the game and play intelligently”, affirmed Michalis Kakiuzis. For Marconato, they are “a complete team, with Bullock, Reyes and Herville. It will be difficult to stop all of them; sure enough one of them will score many points, but we hope it’s just one and not all three.”