Army men the first to force The Channel

Taking into account the long pauses between the games in the beginning of May, our team was anxious to move. Transaero flight took CSKA to London for the games of the Euroleague Final Four.

The team did not change its usual schedule even before the main basketball event of the year. Army men practiced at USH CSKA at noon and boarded their comfortable Boeing at 5:30 pm. Flight 9797 took traditionally had some players’ and coaches’ relatives on board but most of the companions decided not to come to Albion shores too early.

Unfortunately, it appeared impossible to keep the roster without losses. Dmitry Sokolov was seriously injured during the practice on Monday. The tests in GMS Clinic confirmed the initial diagnosis by the team’s doctors – left hamstring muscle tear. The center will definitely miss the games in London, but he went there to support his teammates and to receive conservative therapy. So, CSKA has all main team players, including Dmitry Korshakov who is not on the team’s Euroleague roster.

It should be mentioned that O2 Arena in London is familiar for many red-blues. Four Russian National Team players (birthday man Evgeny Voronov, Alexander Kaun, Anton Ponkrashov and Victor Khryapa) won the bronze 2012 Olympic medals here, and Sonny Weems played here for the Toronto Raptors against the New Jersey Nets during NBA regular season in March of 2011 (losses 103-116 and 136-137 3ОТ).

CSKA was the first on the location. Wednesday will feature the weightlifting practice in the morning, video session in the afternoon and basketball practice on “secondary” London SoccerDome floor. Real Madrid is expected to be the last one in the British capitol on Wednesday evening.