Report.az
Erhan Toker, the head coach of the Azerbaijan national under-16 boys' basketball team, commented on the team's performance at the "Airom Cup" international tournament held in Kazakhstan.
The specialist gave an explanation to "Report" about this.
The head coach of the team, which finished the competition with bronze medals, said that the first match was difficult:
"It was a good preparation tournament for us before the European Championship. The first game was difficult. We couldn't play as we wanted in the morning because we arrived in Kazakhstan at night. The team was not bad in the following matches. Especially the meeting with the Georgian representative "Kutaisi" was difficult. We were better in defense. We finished the tournament in third place. In fact, the "Kutaisi" team was going to finish the competition in the first place. But since we defeated them, the Kazakhstan representative became the champion."
He said that he was satisfied with the performance of some basketball players:
"After the tournament, we held a friendly match with the first team we played against. The opponent added two older players to the squad. True, we lost, but we could have won. We had a bad first half of this game and a good second half. Our result in the tournament is not very important. We are trying to prepare for the European Championship. I am satisfied with some players. But there is a lack of experience. Sometimes we are in a hurry and cannot make the right decisions. I think we have improved the defense. We will do our best to win every game at the European Championship."
It should be noted that the Azerbaijan national team, which lost to "Barsy Atyrau" (54:72) in the "Airom Cup" international tournament, won against "Auyl Sport" (60:33), "Keepers" (71:16) and "Kutaisi" (58:51) teams.
