Spanish ACB basketball - Sunday November 19 at 12.30 - FC Barcelona v Bruesa GBC Tickets

Barcelona have got off to a shaky elling to Gerona, Fuenlabrada and start in the ACB, yet their Badalona? No, of course it’s not. Euroleague form has been outstanding. Since the last Sports Matter, they have picked up comfortable wins against two recent champions of Europe, Benetton Treviso and Zalgiris Kaunas. So, why the superior performances against supposedly much better teams on the European stage? Read the papers and they’ll give all the usual cods about Dusko Ivanovic having concocted a playing style more suited to the continental game… but the real reason is more glaringly obvious. What are world class players like Mikael Kakiouzis of Greece and Jaka Lakovic of Slovenia doing at a team like Barga? Because they want to spend their weekends trav-
It’s because they want to win the Euroleague.
That’s the problem Barcelona will always have. Players don’t come here because they have any affection for the Barga legend, or because they have always dreamt of winning on the road at Murcia, they see it purely and simply as a chance get some glory on the European stage, and Barcelona’s performances in the ACB generally suffer because of it. Rant over, and the Euroleague opposition this week is Fenerbahce Ulker, another club that is associated to a football club, or at least half of it, because this Turkish side is the result of an amalgamation between two clubs last summer,
but they have yet to register their first win the competition. Most of their roster are Turks, including international Mirsad Turkcan, and Ibrahim Kutluay, once of the SuperSonics. Also watch out for American Will Solomon, once of the Memphis Grizzlies. Five days earlier and Barcelona have an ACB match at the Blaugrana. That’s against newly promoted Bruesa, better known as Gipuzkoa Basket Club, from San Sebastian. Look out for Michael Bradley, a centre who was traded to Bruesa by the Philadelphia 69ers this season.
Barga play at the Palau Blaugrana, which is part of the Camp Nou complex, located next to the football club’s museum and shop.