Michael Koch head coach of “Telecom” of Germany calls Georgia the country of basketball, because he have seen a lot of successful and really good players from Georgia.
According to one match, Koch cannot describe “Armia”, name strong and weak points of the club, but he says that “Armia” played better than in the first match and showed a very high class. According to the match of “Armia”, Koch says that they won because they were lucky in this match.
“Armia” did not win any Eurochallenge match but it does not mean that, the club is weak. It is going without saying that it is a strong team. I had heard that Giorgi Gamkrelidze was a strong player and I assured in it. He used to play in one of the high-class German clubs as well as in Ukraine. It is already a big achievement and it reflects on his playing. Zaza Pachulia who plays for NBA is the most successful among Georgian players. In a word it can be said that Georgia is the country of basketball”-stated Koch.
In spite of a good start finally “Armia” lost 71:75 with “Telecom”. In the first time “Armia” was winning with 17 points and then “Telecom” was luckier.

According to German coach, “Armia” showed a very strong zone defense and started playing with quite aggressive and difficult combinations, but German coach changed a tactic and introduced a very affective tactic while playing.
Finally, Germen responded to an aggressive playing of “Armia” with simple combinations, maximally used centre and finally won.
On December 11 “Telecom’ needs victory, the coach has also an optimistic mood and completely mobilized. As he says, he did his best to learn playing style of “Armia”, but he thinks that “Armia” will do all its best in responsive match and Kote Tugushi will offer another combinations.  
Statistics where is written 5 failures of “Armia’ and 2 victories of “Telecom” does not mean anything for Koch.
German coach also talked about the failures with “Holon” and “Antverpen”. He named the reason of the failure with “Holon” injury of 39-year-old Ensimger:” Ensminger is favorite of the club, he is the best play-maker and the best at rebounds, besides this he is very experienced”.

Jared Jordan is the captain of the club, he is the leader of Eurochallenge as well as the club. Robert Varden is the best shooter. As for defense, Koch has  young players in this zone.as he says, he has brought three of them and hopes that they will succeed.
For the match which is held on December 11 he has no injured players, everyone is in a good physical condition.
 As for his impressions on Georgia, he showed a big surprise. He has seen a lot of countries, where he has had matched, most of them are located in Post USSR spare . Koch is under impressions and appraisal the government, which managed to calm the country down in such a short time period. “the government deserves only appraisal, which changed Georgia so much and managed to do so many things in such a short time. Even this hotel where are we living (supposedly, he meant “Holiday Inn”) it is ultra-modern and it is close to the standards of the leading countries. Tbilisi surprised me, only beauty is not the main, it is evident that the city is taken care”.  
P.S. talk with the head coach of German club was possible after the match at Tbilisi Sports Palace. Tomorrow is match. Here is a statistic below and two best teams go through the next stage.

 
The last round. December 11
“Antverpen” – “Hapoel”
“Armia” – “Telecom Basketb”
 

Eka Lolua