There is an image that remains imprinted in the minds of the Pallacanestro Trieste fans after Wednesday evening’s match in Tenerife: that of a team that, for twenty-eight minutes, he gave the impression of being able to teach basketball to one of the battleships of the Champions League.
In an impregnable fort like the Santiago Martin Arena, Trieste played the part of the protagonistregardless of a roster reduced to a minimum by an infirmary that doesn’t seem to want to empty itself. Without Moretti, with Sissoko still in the box and with Ramsey’s sudden injury (an ankle problem which only emerged on the eve of the match), coach Gonzalez’s match plan had turned into a mission bordering on the impossible.
Yet, Trieste dominated. He moved the ball with an efficiency that stunned the Spaniardsfinding clean conclusions and defensive solidity that yielded an incredible +16 (49-65).
At that moment, the feeling was not only that of being able to win, but of being able to rewrite the hierarchies of the groupmortgaging a qualification that would have been miraculous given the starting conditions. But then the light went out.
Those last twelve minutes were a long climb: a 34-12 run that turned the match around bringing the Spaniards to 83-77, transforming a historic evening into an analysis of one’s limits. It comes naturally to ask whether tiredness could be the only alibi. Certainly playing with such short rotations against a deep and experienced team like Tenerife pays off in the long run.
But there is one thing that cannot be ignored and which brings to mind the memory of the championship match against Trento. Even on that occasion, Pallacanestro Trieste had given the impression of having the game in hand, only to then melt when faced with the opponent’s change of pace.
More than a physical collapse, a sort of difficulty seems to emerge in managing the breaking moments of the match. When the opponent increases the pressure and the inertia changes, the team struggles to find securityto slow down the pace to break the partial of others. It’s a bit of a paradox of a team that indulges the talent of its protagonists when it’s confident, but which still seems to lack that “dirty” cynicism necessary to freeze the result when energy is running low.
Coming out of Tenerife with an 84-82 defeat after leading like that hurts, because qualification was there, within reach. The awareness of being at the level of the best in Europe remains, but also the warning that in international basketball, as well as against the top of the class in Italy, it is not allowed to stop playing before the fortieth minute. The lesson is clear: to truly become great, you have to learn to understand that when the games get “dirty” you have to stay in it and win even by overcoming difficult moments.
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