CBS Basketball in Belgrade!
After a great season in Denmark, the CBS Basketball Female Team decided to face another challenge: A championship in Belgrade.
From the 30th of April until the 3rd of May twelve girls from all over the world and their coach represented Denmark and CBS Sport at the Best Tournament in Serbia.
The start wasn’t the best: During the flight the suitcase of one of the girls was lost somewhere. Of course inside of it she had her basketball shoes, the jersey to play and the toothbrush. We kept our mood up because the adrenaline for the game next day was distracting us from the disaster, and honestly we have to say that she looked cooler in the court with a fancy pair of purple shoes that someone lent to her.
We lost one suitcase but in return we were welcomed with a bus trip to the hotel with a French team of crazy handball guys, whom didn’t know we had a French spy in our team translating everything they were saying about us and in general. For the entire way the sang every kind of French song and they also use random pick up sentences in Serbian with the two volunteers that picked us at the airport. It was a funny moment to enjoy after a delayed flight and a lost suitcase.
Thursday we had our first game. We played against a Serbian team from the University of Belgrade called “FON”. It was such an incredible game! First, even if we lost, our team was great for the entire game; and second, we thought that once the huge human barrier was down (sorry for injurring her), we would not have any more limitations to the basket, instead they sent Sonja Petrovic on the court. At the beginning she just looked like a tall girl super fit, but she turned out to be a great player and also a former player of the WNBA. She stole all the rebounds and helped with two other good shooters the won the game. Final score: 46-33. At the end, it was a great pleasure to deal with players of this level of quality. Later then, Sonja – after we stalked her in the changing room just to have a picture with her – became our mascot.
The second day, we faced another Serbian team from a private University. The second game was really equilibrated and we had a lot of chances of winning. In fact, we almost won the game but then, few seconds before the end a three-point shoot stopped our way to the semifinals. Score: 36-40.
Last game we had was against the losing team from the other group: we fought for 5th place. This time we won big time and we had also much more fun playing without the pressure of the tournament on our shoulder. After the games, was finally time to have a guided tour of the City.
Belgrade is such a wonderful city. It’s cheap and with great attractions and landscapes. We were all the time with a wonderful Serbian volunteer that was always there to help us and we also lost some players of the team during the tour. That’s way we needed a signal to not lost other people around the city. Friday turned out to be a great day! In the evening we went out, and our volunteer took us to a bar where we had such great time singing and dancing together as a team.
To sum up, it was a wonderful experience. Belgrade is beautiful and Serbians are incredibly nice and polite. The volunteers that helped us during the tournament did an amazing job and we always felt welcomed in any occasion. We also want to say thank you to Rikke L & Rikke D from the previous board of CBS Sport for organizing the trip. Saturday we saw the final of the female tournament. Sonja’s team “FON” won against another team without any substitutions – we felt so bad for that -. And we finished our trip with a great night at the party organized for all the players of the tournament.
We didn’t win any trophees which was the goal, but we learned to know each other better and to play and party like a team.
Quick suggestion for the future: don’t lose your teammates during a tour of the city while they are taking photos, because they will never let you forget.