Tonight (Tuesday), Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv will face off against Fenerbahce Ulker of Turkey in a best of five quarterfinal series. Games 1 and 2 will take place in Istanbul.
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By Amy Samin
Tonight (Tuesday), Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv will face off against Fenerbahce Ulker of Turkey in a best of five quarterfinal series. Games 1 and 2 will take place in Istanbul. Maccabi will be playing with their full roster of players, all of whom are fit and ready to play.
Looking ahead to Game 1, head coach Guy Goodes said, “The teams will be learning each other in the first game, because neither has had much time to become familiar with the other. We’ll need to be focused, because in games like this, especially when you don’t know your opponent very well, the game can get away from you. You have to stay alert, react, and be ready for certain things. In the first game there is always a certain amount of familiarizing yourself with your opponent.”
“The goal is to win the first game, not to steal a victory. We don’t deal in theft, we want to win one of the games here and bring the deciding game to Tel Aviv. If that happens, God is great. Fener is a very high level team, with lots of ability, and we’ll have to be at our best in order to win.”
Nate Linhart added, “It’s the moment of truth for the club; we’re here for one reason, and that’s to try and get a win. We’re focused, ready, and confident. I didn’t see the city of Istanbul on the way to the hotel, because I was asleep. I’ll see it when we’re on our way out of town.”
And what did Fenerbahce’s head coach, Zeljko Obradovic, have to say? “We worked hard all season to be in this situation, to have a chance to go to the Final Four. We are very motivated. We play against a great club, a great team, and with great tradition. They have six Euroleague titles. But I also think it is normal to believe in our chances. We will go game by game. Pini [Gershon, one of Maccabi’s assistant coaches and a former head coach for the club] is a friend of mine, and I always enjoy meeting him.”
