CSKA Moscow 2009-10, team profile
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2008-09 RESULTS
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Euroleague
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Regular Season
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7-3
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Top 16
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5-1
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Quarters
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3-0
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Final Four
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Finalist
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Russian League
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Regular Season
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22-0
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Playoffs
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Champion
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Cup
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Semifinalist
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As the most dominant team of the decade, CSKA Moscow enters the 2009-10 season with the only ambition to win its third Euroleague title in five years. The perennial Russian champs bring back many of the faces that have carried the torch in recent years as the club reached a record seven straight Final Fours and four consecutive title games - something that only Varese, Real Madrid and ASK Riga have done in the past. But this time it will be with a new face, Evgeniy Pashutin, on the sidelines as the team’s new head coach. CSKA’s six Euroleague crowns rank it second all-time behind only Real Madrid. The club is also the proud owner of 40 domestic titles in the Soviet Union and Russian domestic leagues. CSKA's 25 titles between 1945 and 1990 amounted to more than half of those available in the highly competitive Soviet Union, with legendary players over the years such as Sergei Belov, Vladimir Tkachenko, Stanislav Eremin, Vladimir Andreev, Anatoli Myshkin and Sergei Tarakanov plus head coach Alexander Gomelskiy all belonging to the very elite of European basketball history. CSKA and Madrid dominated European basketball in the 1960s and the team stayed fully competitive in the ‘70s and the mid-‘80s before bouncing back from tough times. Then CSKA achieved total dominance in the Russian League, winning all nine crowns between 1992 and 2000. On the European level, CSKA has made the Final Four on nine occasions since 1996, including the last seven Euroleague seasons. Several more Russian League titles and Russian Cups have also come, but CSKA remains hungry. The club’s recent success can be split into two parts: before the arrival of head coach Ettore Messina and with Messina. CSKA began building greatness with the 2005 Final Four in Moscow in mind. Players like Theodoros Papaloukas, J.R. Holden, David Andersen and Aleksey Savrasenko were among those expected to lift CSKA to glory. But despite an unprecedented 60-4 overall record, CSKA was left disappointed by not winning the Euroleague Final Four. That summer, Messina arrived and CSKA managed to bring in Matjaz Smodis, Trajan Langdon, David Vanterpool and later Tomas Van den Spiegel to join Papaloukas and his crew. Instant success followed, as CSKA topped two-time defending champion Maccabi in Prague for its first continental crown in 35 years. CSKA had an excellent campaign in 2007 as well, but came up short, losing 93-91 in an incredible title game against Panathinaikos. CSKA cemented its status as a dominant team for the era by claiming another crown, beating Maccabi in the 2008 final for its second title in three years. CSKA remained the team to beat in 2008-09, winning its regular season and Top 16 groups and becoming the first team to qualify for the Final Four. Once it knocked off Regal FC Barcelona in the semifinals, CSKA paid a high price for a bad first half in the title game against Panathinaikos. Nevertheless, CSKA rallied from 23 down to get the chance to win at the buzzer, but Ramunas Siskauskas missed from downtown. Hungrier than ever and with a new coach leading the charge, CSKA will be back with just one goal: Getting back to the final and finishing on the winning side in 2010.
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