Tomorrow, January 15, the capital's basketball club will hold another home match in the VTB United League against VEF Riga, Latvia.

Chronicle of past meetings:Basketball club from Latvia to VTB United League member since 2009.  In different years the result of the team changed as the mentors of the club. The most successful season for VEF was the 2012/2013 season. For a year VEF became the champion of Latvia in 2012 and 2013. In parallel with the championship title, the residents entered the TOP 16 best teams in the European Cup, and also gained a foothold in the 8 best teams of the VTB League, which allowed to enter the playoff round.  Then the team was headed by a Lithuanian specialist Ramunas Butautas, the former head coach of "Astana" from 2014-2016. Regarding the personal meetings of "Astana" - WEF, the teams met on the site 12 times, 4 of which were in favor of"Astana".

Current situation:For the third consecutive season the team is headed by Latvian specialist Janis Gailitis. The composition of the team has changed significantly compared to the previous one, the famous Latvian player, captain of the national team of Latvia Janis blooms, who is well known to the Kazakh public, left the club in the season 2013/2014 blooms defended the colors of the team "Astana". The current leader of the team is the American defender Alex Perez, averaging 12 points per game.

Tournament table:Basketball club " VEF " ranks last in the standings VTB League with a score of 1 win, 8 losses.

Comment I. on the head coach of BC "Astana", Mikhail Karpenko:- WEF excellent team with their "handwriting" of the game, a lot of them are built on the attack from the perimeter, an abundance of three-point shots, a good transition from defense to attack. The fact that they are in last place in the standings does not reflect the strength of the team that the recent match against Avtodor showed where they lost at the very end of the match.  With this team it will not be easy, they are in the same situation as we are, for them the chances to get into the playoffs theoretically still remain.  Our task now move away psychologically from previous defeats, of well-and organized play in protecting and find their best opportunities in attack.  I expect that we will be able to defeat the WEF, but we need to give 100% to every player who comes to the site, and we have already started this work in training.

Where, when, what time?Arena: the Republican cycle track "Saryarka»Time: 19: 30 Astana timeStream: the Website of VTB United League, the site of BC "Astana" TV channel "QazSport»

Source: pbcastana.kz