Into the cold

The arrival of CSKA is always interesting

Muscovites are gradually beginning to forget what real winter looks like. Therefore, a visit to the Urals is a good reason to remember this. It is really cold here - as it should be at this time of year. At night, the negative temperature reaches double digits. And that is exactly how, at twelve o'clock at night, the army men reached their destination on the Aeroflot regular flight - after a traditional daytime training in Krylatskoye.

The games in Yekaterinburg are always interesting, and the local public knows this very well. This is why the arena is expected to have its first sold-out this season - Uralmash reported this on Saturday morning. So, if anyone freezes outside, they will warm up under the roof of the DIVS.

The Ural team has been forced to rebuild

It seems that CSKA was here in Yekaterinburg just recently – in mid-November, but since then Rostislav Vergun’s team has experienced many important events. First, about the downsides. The three best scorers at the moment will not take part in the meeting with the Red-Blues. Jeremiah Martin (18.8 points, 4.0 assists) recently suffered a calf injury and will be out for a long time. Johnny O’Bryant (13.5 points, 5.2 rebounds) was dismissed from the team and has already found a new job. As well as CSKA youth alumnus Kirill Mikheyev, who moved to Dynamo Vladivostok. Also, Stanley Whittaker (13.3 points, 3.9 rebounds) is not expected to appear in the ranks of the opponents due to injury.

Now about the upsides. O'Bryant's departure is directly related to the recovery from injury of last year's Uralmash leader Octavius ​​Ellis. The center has not played in the VTB League this season, but managed to make his mark in the recent Russian Cup game, where he scored 24 points and helped his team sensationally reach the Final Four. Forward Hayden Dalton, who moved from Samara in December and is already putting up solid performances - like "23+11" in the aforementioned cup game, did not play in the previous games with CSKA.

One way or another, the Urals team has rebuilt, so it is hard to call them a familiar opponent.

"We have a tough test ahead of us on the road against a team that fights in every game," said CSKA head coach Andreas Pistiolis. "We need to give it our all if we want to take the victory away from Yekaterinburg."

Past matchups

Win/loss ratio: 4-0

Games of the 2024-25 season

25-Sep-2024. CSKA - Uralmash: 98-56 (+42)
13-Nov-2024. Uralmash - CSKA: 70-77 (+7)

Brief dossier

Uralmash Ekaterinburg
Founded: 1960
Colors: orange, black, green
Home arena: Palace of Team Sports (5,000)
President: Viktor Ganienko
Head coach: Rostislav Vergun
Website: bcuralmash.ru
Trophy case: 2-time SuperLeague champion (2022, 2023), SuperLeague vice-champion (2021), SuperLeague-2 bronze winner (2018), SuperLeague-3 champion (2017)