Vasco X Zalgiris - Semifinal McDonald´s Championship 1999

15/10/1999 : Um jogo para a história.
O Vasco enfrentava o Campeão Europeu, Zalgiris Kaunas da Lituânia, pela semi-final do McDonald´s Championship.
Semi-Final com ares de decisão, afinal o ganhador representaria o Campeão da FIBA, ou o "Campeão do Resto do Mundo", que teria a primazia de enfrentar os Campeões da NBA.

Vale destacar que o Torneio era construído para que o Campeão da NBA enfrentasse um time europeu na final, pois estes times só entravam na competição na semi-final (assim como acontece no Mundial de clubes da FIFA, para traçar um paralelo com o futebol).
Assim o Vasco teria que jogar três partidas decisivas em três dias seguidos para chegar à taça de campeão do Torneio...
Tendo em vista que nenhum clube havia vencido um time da NBA até então, a grande partida do Vasco era mesmo contra os Campeões da EuroLiga.

E Nossos atletas suaram sangue pela vitória!
A maior dentre todas as conquistas de um clube do Basquete Brasileiro!!!
Quiçá de um clube Sulamericano!!!


MILAN, October 15 -- In the most exciting game thus far in the McDonald's Championship, South American Club League champion Vasco Da Gama overcame a 10-point deficit after three quarters, and came back to defeat Zalgiris Kaunas of Lithuania, the defending European champion. It was a huge victory for the Brazilian team. The European champion is generally regarded as the best non-NBA team in the world.

Vasco Da Game was led by Jose Vargas, who went to LSU and Rogerio Klafke, who has struggled during his career to live up to the billing as the "next Oscar Schmidt," Brazil's legendary Olympian. The two players combined for only 10 points in the first half as their team seemed outclassed. But in the fourth quarter and overtime periods, each scored 15 points. Klafke ended the game with 21 points and Vargas, who fouled out in overtime, had 19. Charles Byrd, who had 31 in Vasco's victory over Adelaide on Thursday, added 18 points.
Vargas got his team moving early in the fourth quarter when he scored five consecutive points. The Brazilians continued getting closer, and then with one minute left, Vargas scored a three-point play after being fouled on an inside shot. After Kaunas regained the lead, Klafke nailed a three to put Vasco up by two, 76-74, with 30 seconds left.

Kaunas quickly tied the game on a driving layup through a soft Vasco defense by Mindaugas Zukauskas, but no one could score in the final 24 seconds of regulation.

Vasco took control of the game in the overtime, scoring the first four points and eventually leading by five points on two occasions. When Kaunas closed to within one, Klafke did a very nice Oscar imitation, hitting another three point shot with 1:37 left to ice the victory.

With the victory, Vasco advances to the McDonald's Championship finals. But regardless of what happens, Friday will be remembered as a proud day in their basketball history.

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Postgame Quotes:
ZALGIRIS:
Q: After sending the game into overtime, did you expect your team to respond to that second chance?
Coach Kazlauskas: Basketball is such a sport where you need to play to the end of the game. So it was not the key moment in the game because we had given up more points (easy baskets) earlier in the game.
Q: How disappointed are you that you do not get a possible matchup against the Spurs?
Corey Beck: Oh yes. It was going to be like a dream game to me. I wanted this game so bad. It hurts for me playing in the league for the last few years and getting a chance to play against the championship team.
This team here, I look to myself as being a leader of this team and I wanted to come out and show America that we are capable of hanging around with the Spurs. I was really looking forward to playing those guys, but all those dreams are gone now.

VASCO:
Coach Melendez: I want to dedicate this victory to the basketball from Brazil and Puerto Rico. This was a win for both countries. Again, we played very good on defense. It is a great victory to prove to people that South America has good basketball. I want to thank also all my players. They have worked really hard and they deserved this victory.

Rogério Klafke: For me, I think, the word of the game is defense. We are not playing well the first half, but the second half we came back. It was very difficult emotionally. The ball wasn't going in from the outside, but then we came back and defended well. We have worked hard, especially on defense. We have shown ourselves to the best team from Europe that we are a great team. I am especially happy that we can show good basketball from South America. A lot of people think basketball isn't very strong. We deserve to be here, especially because we have played very well.