U-Banca Transilvania with a good chance at CSM Oradea
This is one of the most balanced duels in the Fiba Europe Cup groups between the best Romanian teams of the moment. Both teams have a very good roster and each one won their home games in the previous meetings: U-Banca Transilvania 2 times in Cluj-Napoca, in the domestic league and Fiba Europe Cup and CSM in Oradea only in the Romanian league, hoping today to take the revenge in the European competition too.
I think U-Banca Transilvania has a good chance to seal the deal today because:
- If you compare the key-players, the visitors have bigger names, like Darko Planinic, Patrick Richard, Donatas Tarolis, Artis Ate and so on, who played at a higher level, including Euroleague. CSM Oradea has no player who can match this level.
- Dusko Vujosevic is a tough technician, well-known in entire Europe for his strategies on both sides of the court and his advice can make the difference especially in this kind of games
- Since the beginning of the season I saw – and I mention it – U-Banca Transilvania as a title contender for the Fiba Europe Cup, which is not the case with CSM Oradea. They are a decent team, but average and they proved their weaknesses last round at home against Tsmoki-Minsk that didn’t give them a chance.
- If you compare the other results from the group, it seems that the visitors are the favourites because they lost with a minimum margin away in Minsk, then winning in Israel, while Oradea won with a small margin against Ironi Nes-Ziona and lost big time at home against the team from Belarus.
- U-Banca Transilvania had more rest, playing at home during the weekend, in the domestic league and, at the same time, CSM Oradea had two games away, travelling much more.
Photo: Fiba Europe Cup
Gratian Cormos
