Starting from Siberia and Kazakhstan

Again, for the third year in a row, the official season for our team starts from Eastern trip. The Army Men will play two games in three days – at Krasnoyarsk and Astana.

Pre-game breakdown

After the victory in the Gomelsky Cup the Army Men had a “Meet and Greet” with the fans and Season Opening Party. Also the team had three full-scale practices.

All players, with exception of Mikhail Kulagin (foot injury) went to the double-header. Joel Bolomboy flew with the team though he cannot participate in the game as he is not registered officially – he is still in the process of obtaining Russian citizenship.

Due to the absence of the players mentioned above the roster is completed with CSKA-2 guard Alexander Khomenko. By the way, he already travelled with the same flight two years ago, when the youngsters played their league game a day before the main team.

Word to coach

Dimitris Itoudis, CSKA head coach:

We start the new season with high expectations in the league that is considered to be one of the strongest in Europe. In the first game we face Enisey, the team which is totally new in comparison to the last year, they have good athletes, they run, they know how to play the game. We have a good combination of players who have experience and big level of motivation and concentration.

«Relativity» connections

Vasily Zavoruev defended CSKA colors in 2005-06 season. The guard also played for Spartak St.Petersburg together with Nikita Kurbanov in 2013-14.

Semen Antonov played for Nizhny Novgorod with Ivan Victorov from 2014 till 2016.

Past matchups

Wins-losses: 26-1
2017-18 season VTB League games:
06-Oct-2017. Enisey – CSKA: 72-87 (+15)
26-Mar-2018. CSKA – Enisey: 108-73 (+25)

Short dossier

Enisey Krasnoyarsk
Founded: 1981
Colors: blue, white
Home court: Arena-Sever (3,000)
Director: Vladimir Petrokovskiy
Head coach: Oleg Okulov
Website: www.basket-enisey.ru
Trophy case: Superleague B champion (2006-07), Russian Cup bronze winner (2011)