The last visit of the basketball club «Astana» to the southern capital took place over a year ago. After such a long break, our team will again meet with the «Almaty Legion» on their territory on December 8 and 9 in the framework of the National League. Both games will be held at the sports hall of the KazNU named after Al-Farabi, starting at 20:00 Nur-Sultan time.

«Almaty Legion» - is a Kazakh professional team from Almaty, part of the basketball club «Almaty», which was created in 2006.

Achievements:

• Two-time winner of the Cup of Kazakhstan — 2015, 2016
• Champion of the Higher League of Kazakhstan — 2017/2018
• Silver medalist of the Major League of Kazakhstan — 2016/2017
• Silver medalist of the National League of Kazakhstan — 2007/2008, 2014/2015
• Bronze medalist of the National League of Kazakhstan — 2008/2009

Team roster:

Last season, for financial reasons, the main team did not participate in the National League, and the club only fielded a second squad for participation in the Premier League. This season, a lot of players who have already played for Legion rejoined, but let's start with the newcomers. Russian guard Sergei Marikhin previously played for «Nizhny Novgorod» and in January 2017 took part in the match against «Astana». Then he played for “Ryazan”, Stavropol “Dynamo” and “Zenith 2”, but, although he is declared for Almaty team, he has not yet played a single game in the season. Oleksandr Kodola is an experienced Ukrainian guard who was born in Moscow. Oleksandr became the champion of the Ukrainian first league in the squads of “Kirovogrd” and “Zhytomyr” with a difference of seven years, and also actively played in the 3X3 teams, winning gold medals in the Ukrainian Championships in 2019 in the PRO category, and in 2020, in addition to becoming silver Prize-winner of the Ukrainian Superleague Basketball Championship 3x3. Also in the roster of the Almaty team is the Russian guard Roman Lagutin, who played for the Almaty team the year before last. Roman previously played for the Russian teams «Avtodor», St. Petersburg's «Spartak» and «Irkut», and spent the last season at «Sinegorye» in Kokshetau. Another foreign player in the “Legion” is the Uzbekistan citizen — center Dmitry Sviridov, who has long become familiar in Kazakhstani basketball. Dmitry once played for the Belarusian “Grodno 93” and “Minsk”, the Slovenian “Hopsi” and the Kosovo “Besa”, as well as the Georgian “Tskhaltubo”. But for almost the entire last eight years he has played in Kazakhstan for «Barsy Atyrau», «Kapshagay», «Caspiy» and «Almaty Legion».



As of the Kazakhstanis, of course, it is worth noting the center Vsevolod Fadeikin and the forward Roman Marchuk, both had played for “Astana” some time ago. But if Roman Marchuk actively plays in matches for “Legion”, then Fadeikin is still only a nominal member of the team, having not played a single game. The main Kazakh core of the team are Vadim Korzhov, Temirlan Dzhunusov, Nikita Timofeev, Anuar Shakirov and Konstantin Marzan, but Daniel Albrant and Maxim Rakovskikh have not yet played a single game in the “Almaty Legion”. In addition, the club has a second team this season, which plays in the Higher League — “Almaty Legion 2”, and from it, Stanislav Sakhipov often there to help the main team, as well as Vadim Fabrikantov was also announced once.

Head coach:

The coach of the “Legionnaires” this season is the Russian specialist Oleg Kiselev, who had already headed the Almaty team earlier. And he is assisted by young Leonid Voronushkin, for whom this season is his debut as a coach. Earlier Leonid was a player in the “Almaty Legion”.

Team leaders:

Legion veteran Dmitry Sviridov is the most effective and efficient player at the moment. Another leader of the team is Roman Marchuk. In addition, Vadim Korzhov and Roman Lagutin play the main roles in the team. The main players are also Alexander Kodola, Anuar Shakirov, Temirlan Dzhunusov and Nikita Timofeev, and Konstantin Marzan and Stanislav Sakhipov also receive a lot of playing time.

Game history:

In the framework of the championships of Kazakhstan, “Astana” have met with the “Almaty Legion” 13 times, they also once played in the Cup of Kazakhstan, and the capital team has an absolute dominant position — 14 wins in 14 matches.

Tournament position:

“Astana” currently dominates the Championship of Kazakhstan and after eight victories in eight games, confidently find themselves in the first position. “Almaty Legion” is now on the second line of the standings with two defeats in eight matches. The upcoming two games will affect the position of Almaty team — they claim to be in the first line, but for this they have to win, and in case of defeat, they will go down to the third place.

Interesting Facts:

• Oleg Kiselev, the current coach of the “Almaty Legion”, being the coach of “Barsy Atyrau”, who deprived “Astana” of the title of Champion of Kazakhstan in the 2015/2016 season.
• One of the leaders of “Almaty Legion» Roman Marchuk, not only previously played for «Astana» but also a brother of Maxim Marchuk.

The matches will be held on Tuesday and Wednesday — December 8 and 9 in Almaty on the court of the sports hall of the KazNU named after Al-Farabi, beginning at 20:00 Nur-Sultan time. Live broadcast of the matches will be available on the home page of our website and on our YouTube канале.

Detailed information about the tournament, tournament tables, schedule and match results are published in the Tournaments section.

“Astana” didn't visit “Almaty Legion” in the southern capital for over a year. Almaty team was on the second line in the standings before this game and were definitely going to resist our team, but the capital's squad arrived in Almaty as a favorite. In this game, Emil Rajkovic released imports Devin Marble and Jeremiah Hill onto the court.

The game started completely under the control of our team. Devin Marble opened the scoring and Robert Pan, with his three-pointer and two free throws, only strengthened the position of our team. Dmitriy Gavrilov and Maxim Marchuk brought our advantage to 13 points in the fourth minute, when at the same time the hosts could not open their score. At the end of the fourth minute, Almaty players were able to hit the target and started being more competitive in their performance. Until the end of the first quarter, a more or less equal struggle took place. During this time, Jeremiah Hill, Rustam Murzagaliev, Anton Ponomarev and Askar Maidekin replenished our numbers on the scoreboard substantially, and two three-pointers from Vadim Shcherbak established the final score of the first quarter — 16:31 in our favor. In the first minutes of the second quarter, “Astana” kept a comfortable distance of 15 points, but “Almaty Legion” continued to fight and at some point was able to seize the initiative. Our advantage has not completely disappeared, but closer to the equator of the quarter it has almost halved, reaching eight points. Although the points earned by Jeremiah Hill, Vadim Shcherbak and Roberta Pan quickly returned the advantage of “Astana” to fourteen points. Until the end of the first half, “Legion” was able to win back several points, but the teams left for a long break with an eleven point difference in the score — 39:50.



The hosts, after switching sides, continued to resist and did not allow our team textend the gap further, which went up to eighteen points in advantage of “Astana» in the first five minutes of the third quarter. “Legionnaires” showed a good game and after five minutes of the third segment of the game were losing only twelve points, that is, they lost only one point in five minutes. The Almaty team imposed their pace in the game and in two minutes and twenty seconds before the end of the third quarter their lead was reduced to nine points and the intrigue in the match remained quite sharp. But the points of Devin Marble, Maxim Marchuk and Askar Maidekin returned a double-digit advantage for “Astana”, which finished the third period with a gap of 13 points — 60:73. But in the fourth quarter the capital's team managed to break the hosts' game and two minutes later our team was already winning more than twenty points. Our guys did not stop there and continued to be getting their wat, and by the middle of the fourth quarter Jeremiah Hill brought our lead to thirty points. The hosts clearly couldn't work out the last quarter, and they lost control of the match to our team. Thirty points difference five minutes before the end of the game have already ensured the victory of “Astana”. Two and a half minutes before the end, Andrey Litvinenko brought his team's score to one hundred points, while “Astana” has already won more than thirty-five points. The last points in this meeting were scored by Anton Ponomarev, who established the final score — 67: 107.

Most productive:

• «Astana» — in this match all the players of the capital's team who entered the court scored points, but Askar Maidekin became the most productive — 22 points, who, in addition, made 5 rebounds and 3 assists. Jeremiah Hill chalked up 15 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists and 3 steals. Devin Marble and Robert Pan scored 13 points each, but Robert also chalked up 6 more rebounds. Anton Ponomarev had 12 points, 7 rebounds and 4 steals, and Maxim Marchuk, although he scored only 3 points, made 13 rebounds and 3 assists and 3 steals. 
• «Almaty Legion» — Roman Lagutin became the most productive among Almaty people — 27 points, 4 rebounds and 2 steals. And Dmitriy Sviridov has 8 points and 12 rebounds.

 
Consequences: “Astana” continues to confidently continue without defeats on the first line of the National League, meanwhile “Almaty Legion” after this defeat lost the second position, giving it to “Barsy Atyrau”.

The next match: the second game of the series with the “Almaty Legion” will take place tomorrow on December 9, also in Almaty on the site of the sports hall of KazNU named after Al-Farabi. The match starts at 20:00 Nur-Sultan time. The online broadcast of the game will be available on the home page of our website and on our YouTube channel.

Detailed information about the tournament, tournament tables, schedule and match results are published in the Tournaments section.