Shorthanded

Our team will play its first game of the year 2013 in Berlin. Transaero charter flight took the army men to German capitol today.

In the Euroleague Top 16 game against Alba Berlin CSKA will miss four players. Injured Andrey Vorontsevich and Zoran Erceg are joined by Sonny Weems and Theodoros Papaloukas. Weems is bothered by his chronically injured ankle and he will practice in Moscow individually. Papaloukas wasn’t able to obtain Russian visa for multiple entries because of the series of holidays so he can’t participate in the games outside the country yet.

“The game which already was considered as difficult will be even more difficult because we can’t have Theo Papaloukas and Sonny Weems with us”, – CSKA head coach Ettore Messina said. “With Zoran Erceg and Andrey Vorontsevich still out we will be tremendously short. So we need all our players to step up technically, physically and mentally to face the very good team which proved its level by qualifying for the Top 16.”