CSKA junior team would go to St.Petersburg to play three games of the first round of the junior league. The team rivals would be local Dynamo, Spartak and LenVO. We asked the head coach of the junior team Andrey Maltsev to tell us more about the teams.
- It is hard to say about the current shape of all the teams as none of them played a single friendly game before the start of the league. Of course we met LenVO at the Russian Cup games. But only two players of that team can participate in the junior league because of the age limit. They are Korchagin and Karpeko. It is known yet if they would participate in these games of the junior league as they have enough playing time in the mainline up of LenVO. The rest of the team are the players that one or two years younger than the ones we have in CSKA. It is no surprise as LenVO structure is oriented on the teaching of the young players and not on getting the result. The coach of the team is Anatoly Shteibok who is famous for mentoring Kirilenko, both Pashutin brothers, Panov, Karasev and other players of Russian National team. WE used to have good relations with LenVO. It is worth to mention that in the off-season three their players transferred to CSKA. They are Zakharov, Pekhov and Tyumentsev. So besides the game we would be able to check our prospects for the next season.
Spartak mainly consists of the basketball school of Admiralteisky district graduatees. Among the players who finished the school in the past years are Anton Ponkrashov, Fedor Likholitov, Artem Kuzyakin and Konstantin Nesterov. Last year the team was able to take the 3rd position in the junior league and now they have 3 players coming from he last year roster. They are guards Sergey Ganev, Konstantin Lebedev and forward Konstantin Sedov. Also there is another player who is worthy to attract some attention – Roman Verbin. There was the only reason for him not to join Russian National team of the age. His foreign passport expired and he could not join the teammates for the camps and tournaments.
Current season is the second one for Dynamo in St.Petersburg. The club did not have enough time to join the competition for the players of this generation. Although everyone understands that the Golden fund of Vladimir Rodionov club system bases in Saratov. The young players receives enough playing time in Avtodor. But nevertheless it is worth to take another look at the Dynamo players who were born in 1989 or 1990.
As for the motivation of CSKA players, for them the first round is important as a step to the National team. Despite the fact we have a good, balanced roster that consists of talented players, none of them is the member of the National team. As an example the main contender of Alexey Shved at the playmaker position is Korchagin from LenVO so this time our player has a chance to show his best in the contest.
VTB Teams:
League&Tournament:
