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CSKA office had a lot of job to do this week-end and on Monday. It was not a surprise because all the players and coaching staff had to gather in Moscow and the flights were landing in Moscow with several hours difference. The last player landed in the capital of Russia was Trajan Langdon. Ex-Dynamo player was surprised with the welcome of CSKA. One of the officials nearly get to the plane to meet him, another two were waiting in the flat to find out if the player wants to change something in there and to set the internet connection. It took a player about 5 minutes to express his thought about the flat, to approve a car and to get everything done with the internet.

The time of the first practice was set at 6.30 p.m. in order to give the players time to comfort themselves in Moscow. The coaching staff started the work in Moscow a day earlier. Ettore Messina had the meeting with all of the assistant coaches. And on Monday morning CSKA office passed through the visit of the Smodises. Slovenian forward, his wife and two sons visited the office in order to meet all the staff.

There were 16 basketball players at the first practice. They are forwards Matjaz Smodis, Sergey Panov, David Vanterpool, Nikita Shabalkin, Nikita Kourbanov, Yaroslav Korolev, Alexander Bashminov, Maxim Sheleketo, centers David Andersen, Anatoly Kashirov, guards Trajan Langdon, Evgeny Kolesnikov, Vasily Zavoruev, Artur Urazmanov, Egor Vyaltsev, Igor Smygin. It is already known that some of the players would leave the team after the first camp. For example Egor Vyaltsev will go to Ural Great where he was sent on loan.

Of course there is no reason to make any conclusions about the player’s shape or the difference between Ettore Messina and Dusan Ivkovic practices after the very first day. But one thing was surprising. CSKA is going to have practices on the stadium. It rarely occurred in last 3 years.

The practice finished at 8 p.m. Despite the fact that it was rather hard, the players were leaving USK CSKA in a good mood. We hope that the atmosphere of this kind will remain in the team for a long time.