«Astana» will meet in the away game with the most western based team of VTB United League Polish «Zielena Gora»

13.12.2020, 18:00    Views: 271
Source: Press service
Author:
Towards the end of this year, the basketball club «Astana» will take another trip within the framework of the VTB United League, which will start in Poland, where our guys will play an away match against the local team «Zielona Gora». The game will take place on the night of December 14-15, beginning at midnight Nur-Sultan time.

«Zielona Gora» - is a Polish professional men's basketball club from Zielona Gora, founded in 1946. This season, in addition to participating in the VTB United League, the team competes in the Polish Championship.

Achievements:
  • Winner of the Polish Championship — 2012/2013, 2014/2015, 2015/2016, 2016/2017, 2019/2020
  • Silver medalist of the Polish Championship — 2013/2014
  • Bronze medalist of the Polish Championship — 2011/2012
  • Polish Cup Winner — 2015, 2017
  • Silver medalist of the Polish Cup — 2016, 2018
  • Polish Super Cup Winner — 2015

Team roster:

The Polish team has radically changed their roster compared to last season. The club cancelled contracts with all imports, among them the leaders of the last season, the Americans — Drew Gordon, Tony Meyer, Joe Thomasson and Swede Ludwig Hakanson. Croatian Ivica Radic and American George King also had left «Zielona Gora». In addition, the team did not renew contracts with local players — Poles Jaroslav Ziskovski, Przemislav Zamoyski, Mikołaj Wetlinski and Katzper Makowski.

Zielona Gora basketball club 2020/2021

Only three players have remained in the team since last season and all three with Polish passports — guards Lukazs Koszarek, Marcel Ponitka and Kacper Traczik. Four Americans joined Zielona Gora at once this season. First of all, it is worth noting the centre Jeffrey Grosell, who is very well known to the fans of the capital team, since in the 2018/2019 season he played for Astana team, and last season he played in the French «Orleans». American guard Chris Richard is also known in Kazakhstan, as he previously spent three seasons in the Aktau “Caspiy”. In addition, Chris played for the Estonian VEF and the German “Tigers Tubingen”, and two last seasons with “Oradi” twice became the champion of Romania. Forward Cecil Williams before the Polish team had spent one season in the French team “Sorgues Avignon” and one season in the Portuguese “Galitos-Barreiro”. Forward Blake Reynolds after university spent only one season in the Bulgarian team “Chernomorets Burgas”. Danish guard Gabriel Lundberg spent three seasons in Denmark with Copenhagen «Wolfpack» and «Horsens» before joining «Zielona Gora», and three seasons in Spain with «Manris» and «Canarias». It is worth noting that with the latter team he became the winner of the FIBA ​​Intercontinental Cup. In addition, the Polish team signed two Latvian players. The most experienced forward Rolands Freimanis, who started in the Latvian clubs «ASK Riga» and «VEF», then spent quite a lot of time in Spain with «Kasahol», «Huesca», «Lagoon Aro» and «Girona». In addition, he played for Italian “Sutore”, Ukrainian “Chemist”, Estonian “Kalev” and Russian UNICS. He also played in Turkish “Usak” and “Gaziantep” and Greek “Ifaistos Limnou». Rolands also spent last season in Poland at «Anwil». Forward Janis Berzins played seven years in Latvia with «Valmiera» and «VEF», then there was one season in the Italian team “Orlandina”, and the last two seasons he spent in Latvian “Ventspils”. The team also signed up three local players who had previously played only in Poland — forwards Filip Put and Kacper Porada, as well as a guard Daniel Szymkiewicz.

Head coach:

The coaching staff of «Zielona Gora» continues to be headed by Croatian specialist Zan Tabak. As in the previous season, the Polish coach Arkadiusz Miloszewski is helping him. The newcomer to the coaching staff is the Spanish specialist Felix Alonso.

Zan Tabak
 
Rival leaders:

The team leader in terms of performance and efficiency is Danish guard Gabriel Lundberg. Geoffrey Grosell, Rolands Freimanis, Chris Richard and Marcel Ponitka also show excellent statistics. The coaching staff of the Polish team are also constantly realising on the court Cecil Williams, Blake Reynolds, Janis Berzins and Lukas Koszarek.

Tournament position:

«Zielona Gora» have already played nine games since the beginning of the season and were able to win three victories. Poles had started frankly unsuccessfully — with four defeats in a row from “Zenit”, “Nizhny Novgorod” and twice from “Lokomotiv Kuban”. Jacques Tabak's team won their first victory at home in the match against «Tsmoki Minsk», then there was a major defeat from «Zenit» and an unexpected victory over UNICS. And in the last two matches “Zielona Gora” beat “Yenisey” away and lost to CSKA. Three victories of the Polish team allow them to be one line higher than “Astana” in the standings.
 
Game history:

The teams have played four games, two matches each, in the past two seasons. “Astana” has a clear advantage based on the results of the games, as Kazakhstani team did not suffer a single defeat in four games.
 
Interesting Facts:
  • Former Astana player Jeffrey Grosell is defending the colours of «Zielona Gora» this season.
 
The match will take place on Monday, December 14 in Zielona Gora at the Hala Zelena Gora arena, starting at midnight Nur-Sultan time. The online broadcast of the match will be available on our website in the Match Center section, as well as live on the QazSport TV channel.

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


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