2009-10 Team Profile: Spartak St. Petersburg
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 Despite being a Eurocup newcomer, Spartak St. Petersburg is a classic team in European club competitions - and one of the oldest basketball clubs in Europe, too. Founded on April 19, 1935, Spartak already started to compete in the Soviet Union championship in 1937. Years of obscurity followed, but the then-called Spartak Leningrad earned the right to return to the Soviet Union League in 1958. Spartak stayed in his country's first division from 1960 until the Soviet Union folded in 1991. Spartak had its golden age in the seventies, even when it ranked third in the 1969 Soviet Union championship. With the late Aleksandr Belov as its own superstar and players like Yuri Shtukin, Yuri Pavlov, Leonid Ivanov, Valeriy Fedorov or Aleksandr Bolshakov complementing him, Spartak was one of the best European teams in that decade. Spartak reached the 1971 Cup Winners' Cup final, losing against Simmenthal Milano, but bounced back lifting the trophy in 1973 and 1975, downing Jugoplastika Split and Crvena Zvezda, respectively. Spartak also won the 1975 Soviet Union League and reached the final six other times from 1970 to 1978. Belov passed away but Spartak still added some hardware to its roll of honours, lifting the Soviet Union Cup trophy in 1987 and the CIS Championship in 1992. Spartak bounced back from its recent past last season, finishing fourth in the Russian League - its highest ranking since 1993. Don't expect Spartak to be your average newcomer - the club already knows what it takes to win Europe's second club competition.
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Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Eurocupbasketball.com
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