Bartzokas: «There are many positives that we need to build on»
Giorgos Bartzokas and Sasha Vezenkov spoke at the press conference immediately after the Super Cup final between Olympiacos and PAOK.
The Super Cup MVP, Vezenkov, was the first to speak. He said: “I’ll say the same things I said yesterday; I can’t say anything different. When you lead by 20 points and give a very good and talented team like PAOK the opportunity to come back and reduce the game to one or two possessions, you put yourself at risk of losing. We have to look at why this happens. The fact that it’s early in the season is not an excuse. We have already started our competitive games. This was the smallest of the five trophies we were fighting for; we lost the EuroLeague Super Cup. We have three more goals ahead of us, and we have time to work. We need to work on the basics, because there are times when we play very good basketball, build a big lead, and then something is missing to help us maintain the tempo. I won’t make excuses about missing players. We need to see what went wrong. We didn’t play good defense in the second half. We’ll look at our mistakes and improve. Congratulations to PAOK for what they are doing. We are focused on our own team, on how we can improve and build chemistry. It’s important to get wins this early in the season. Now we’re going to Lithuania to win and improve.”
Olympiacos' head coach Giorgos Bartzokas then got to comment on the game: “First of all, I would like to congratulate the organizers. What we are missing is a full arena with supporters from all the teams. There was an enthusiastic atmosphere with the crowd that was here, more than yesterday, and a civilized atmosphere. Those who came to the arena and those who watched on television saw a very entertaining game. There were almost 200 points scored. Both teams have exceptional offensive talent. PAOK once again proved that they are a high-level team. We controlled the game throughout. PAOK went ahead by four or five points at one stage, but for most of the game we were ahead by significant margins. At the end, they made some difficult shots with players who are not usually the ones scoring those shots. When you are 20 points down, you shoot without pressure. The momentum was not on our side; we felt the pressure, we got anxious, PAOK came back, but we handled the situation well at the end. We got an important victory. Every title is important. Sasha tends to focus on the negative aspects of things, whereas I also see quite a few positives. A team that has changed its point guards is consistently scoring close to 100 points. There are many positive things that we need to build on. I wish PAOK all the best and success in their European campaign.”