With the last litter – sport

The basketball team of FC Bayern Munich missed the first title of the season. Of course, the Magenta Cup trophy is one of the more insignificant trophies, but both players and coaches looked little amused when the Red Star Belgrade team welcomed them with jubilation. The triumph should have given the Serbian coach particular joy, Dejan Radonjic was known to be the predecessor of Andrea Trinchieri and had to give way to the Italian a year ago.

With Trinchieri, the Munich-based company is known to want to start a new era, which has already worked out passably last season with a cup win and the Euroleague quarter-finals. Now, however, the maestro has to make a major change and integrate nine new players. The Bayern head coach recently gave a lecture on his idea of ​​basketball this season, the most important cornerstones: an aggressive defense with many ball conquests, the ball presentation should take place at high speed and the conclusion should be sought from the three-point line more often than in the previous season .

Especially in the game against the Italian champions Virtus Bologna, a lot of that was to be seen, in Andreas Obst, who moved from Ulm, a strong long-distance shooter joined the Munich team, he was also top scorer against the Italians with 18 points. Darrun Hilliard, who came from CSKA Moscow, is also a good three-point shooter and can bring a lot of speed into the game. Augustine Rubit came from the Lithuanian series champion Zalgiris Kaunas and showed as Bayern top scorer in the final (16 points) that he can help to compensate for the loss of Jalen Reynolds (to Maccabi Tel Aviv).

Bayern’s strength dwindled in the last quarter, also because important players were missing

The approximately 1,100 spectators in the Audi Dome – most of them apparently came from the Serbian community in Munich – saw another significant change: Bayern have increased the quality and quantity of the squad. And that although important actors in Othello Hunter, Nihad Djedovic, Leon Radosevic, Corey Walden, Joshua Obiesie and Paul Zipser had taken their places behind the gang due to injuries. This large squad gives Trinchieri a lot more opportunities – a realization from the brutal requirement of the preseason with three competitions. In addition, most of the approaches have already gained experience with the Italian, which should make it easier to deal with his often rough nature. As in the semifinals, the hosts also dominated the game against Belgrade – until the last quarter when they gave up an apparently secure 14-point lead (57:43). In the final minutes, the effort of intensive preparation could be seen in the reduced squad. The rate of technical errors and missed throws increased, Belgrade knew how to take advantage of the negligence and took the narrow victory with the last throw from captain Luka Mitrovic.

Athens won the game for third place in a close match after two extra times against Bologna 112-111. Nick Weiler-Babb, who returned to the squad after a long injury break, refused to accept a lack of energy as an excuse because they failed to stop the opponent’s run in the closing stages. Nevertheless, the Munich Guard found that it was a successful determination of the position, “such difficult games are important and help us at the start of the season”. The results shouldn’t be overestimated, especially since all teams lacked important players. In Belgrade, Aaron White broke his hand in the semi-final win against Athens, Maik Zirbes stepped in at the old place of work due to a lack of center players. The 31-year-old last played in Dubai and is keeping fit at his former club, where he wants to recommend himself for a new contract.

For FC Bayern there is another test tournament in Bayreuth on the weekend before the season begins with the home game against Ulm on September 26th (6 p.m., Audi Dome). In Bayreuth, Bayern meet Strasbourg in the semi-finals, other participants are the Bundesliga rivals Mitteldeutscher BC and Bayreuth. Incidentally, the trophy is provided by a local electronics store and should be less than the value of the magenta trophy. The Munich players would still like to take him home.