Today «Astana» will play the first home match of the VTB United League in the new season.

The opponent will be MBA from Moscow. Founded in 2013, the club's goal is to develop a new generation of basketball players — many of the team's players are not even 25 years old.

The club competes in the VTB United League for the first time and in its debut match of the tournament on the road beat Lokomotiv-Kuban with a score of 86:73. Forward Evgeny Valiev entered the symbolic top five of the first week of the League.

«MBA is an ambitious, young team. When they entered the League, the fate of outsiders was predicted for them, but the pre-season matches and the game with Loko showed that this is a combat-ready team that must be reckoned with. We will have to prepare well to win,» said head coach Oleg Kiselev.

An interesting fact: ex-forward of Astana Mark Tikhonenko, who joined the Moscow club this summer, plays in the MBA.

The game will be held at the Saryarka cycle track and will start at 15:00, tickets can be purchased on the website Zakazbiletov.kz.

Come and cheer for the team! We need your support!

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

«Astana» held the first home VTB United League in the new season.

Even though the Kazakh team had an advantage in score by the end of the first quarter, the guests could bounce back, regain the initiative and win — 69:103.

The best players in «Astana» were Daniil Aksenov (13 points, 2 rebounds, 4 assists), Mike Myers (11 points, 7 rebounds, 1 steal), and Valery Likhodey (9 points, 6 rebounds, 1 assist).



«Astana» head coach — Oleg Kiselev:

«Congratulations to MBA on the victory. They showed a good, well-coordinated game; it is clear that the summer preparation was excellent, and they entered the season very well.

We were ready not only to fight but even to win. It showed in the first half when we kept our game plan. There were moments when we implemented free attacks, which gave a slight handicap of ten points in the first half.

I can't say the same about the second half of our game. Our attacking game and organization went wrong; we gave a lot of free attacks to score, which gave energy to the MBA, which resulted in such a score.

We must make conclusions. Let's have a little rest, do an analysis and prepare for PARMA-PARI. We will do our best not to repeat today's moments and improve our game.

We played two games in the VTB United League, and many in our team already need to understand at what level we play. No mistakes are forgiven here.»

MBA head coach — Vasily Karasev:

«The first and second quarters were tricky: we didn't quite fulfill the defense plans, and we gave Astana a feel for the game, especially in the first quarter.

Our team plays defense, and after we defend, we have the opportunity to move quickly. Somewhere we corrected this situation, and, probably, in the third or fourth quarters, we already controlled the situation.»
 

 

The next match in the VTB United League will be held by the Kazakh club again at home: on October 13, Astana will host the PARMA-PARI team.

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