Men’s basketball: They took us away – Ivkovics

According to Stojan Ivkovics, no one abandoned the fight (Photo: Vas Népe / Tamás Unger)

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The Hungarian national team returned home from Ljubljana on Friday morning, from which they left prematurely, but we cannot consider it a failure. Five of our players and one staff member tested positive for the corona virus, which is why, at the initiative of the International Basketball Federation (FIBA), our team had to come out of the bubble and not play in the qualifying rounds of the Championship of Europe on Saturday against Austria and Monday against Slovenia. However, the points from the two games were not awarded to the rivals with a difference of 20-0, we can recover the games lost in the qualifying round in February.

“They took us away, but not FIBA, but circumstances He took out the balance Ivkovics Stoyan, Federal captain of the Hungarian national team. “We were the best team, and if we had won one of the two games, we could have celebrated it. On the other hand, I am glad that we were successful in sports diplomacy, as without our five players we would not have been sure of winning any of the games. It feels uncomfortable, but I’m proud of the team in every way, the guys showed a high pain threshold, good people, they didn’t give up the fight, they fought all the time to stay there. Nobody else has a team like that, everyone has signed up to help, they care about the national team ”.

BEFORE THE ROOF

FIBA’s approval came on Friday, shortly before 2:00 p.m., so the Slovenia-Austria clash, originally scheduled for February 19 next year, will be played in Ljubljana starting Sunday night. at 20:10 hours, after the Austrians lost their capacity due to the elimination of the Hungarian team. On Saturday, Slovenians working with new federal captain Aleksander Sekulic, who was appointed earlier this month, clash with the Ukrainians, who will play the Austrians on Monday. The remaining five group meetings (four of which are also ours) will have to be played between February 15 and 22, 2021, also in a bubble, but it is not yet known which country will receive the right to settle.

The tests were positive for Csaba Ferencz, Szilárd Benke, Benedek Váradi, Máté Pongó and Norbert Tóth; all five players had been previously infected. The last two also gave a negative sample on the field after the positive one, while according to our information, based on the inspection of the other three players at home, two were found to be negative and only the sample from Szilárd Benke was positive again.

“We calculate in advance that it is acceptable for one or two people to get sick – Ivkovics said. – That none of the sixty members of the other three national teams, including six of us, is a bit steep … We could not think that of the ten members of our team of sixteen who had already recovered from the disease, five were giving positive sample, the other five negative players. , although they are in an airspace during discussions and training. Meanwhile, our mixer, who took care of each player, is completely healthy … “

The specialist added that due to a bad sampling experience, a letter was written to the organizers asking another reputable company to test our selection on our own, but this was not allowed by the hosts. It is also a strange addition, according to the federal captain, that Váradi was in top shape within a few days, Benke was between seventy and eighty percent, but Zoltán Perl was very exhausted from the previous infection, he would not have taken it into account , he also skipped workouts.

“It’s like a crime writer wrote our history Ivkovich said. “The guys worked well, but the condition we had to face is tragic. You can only go to train, then they will quarantine you, waiting to be taken out of the “cell”, preparing for the game, but you do not know if tomorrow you will be sick or will produce a negative test … We do not have to regret, we are very much more comfortable than healthcare. “

The national team wanted to get through rehearsals as soon as possible because nobody knows what will happen in February; if there is a vaccine by then, it is even conceivable that normal matches will follow with spectators in the stands. In any case, our national team has won 12 of their last 14 European Championship qualifying matches, so it doesn’t seem like an impossible task to get one of the next four.