Heavyweights

The basketball carousel does not let the army men to stop. On the next morning after the game against Zalgiris the team went to Vnukovo airport and took Transaero flight to Prague.

The charter plane was fully loaded this time. Two teams went to Czech capitol – 14-man main team and junior team which will play ‘test’ games on O2 Arena (formerly, Sazka Arena). The youngsters will face Czech U19 Team twice – the locals prepare for the home World Championship which will take place this summer.

The flight had even more weight because it had big bosses aboard. The passengers were joined by Sergey Ivanov, the Head of Presidential Administration of Russian Federation, as well as Vyatcheslav Poltavtsev, Norilsk Nickel Deputy General Director, GR, and Leonid Isakovich, Sports Projects General Director.

The team had just one hour of rest after arriving to the hotel and immediately went to practice on O2 Arena.

“First of all it will be a very special visit for me personally and for many CSKA people because of great memories of our win here in Prague in 2006,” CSKA head coach Ettore Messina said. “And I think the game will surely be tough. We have to play in just two days after the difficult Euroleague game. Our team had problems against Nymburk past season and it was not easy for us to win in Moscow. We have due respect towards Nymburk as a team which is well-coached and well-organized.“