The VTB United League Honorary President Sergey Ivanov commented on the first Moscow Derby in the history between CSKA and MBA (110:78):
– Before that, for many years, you know, there was CSKA – Khimki derby. Now Khimki has been replaced by MBA. I came here on purpose today, to be honest, despite the fact that I am a CSKA fan, not so much to look at CSKA as at MBA. It is the League newcomer. It was interesting for me to look at this particular team, because it is made up only of Russian players. This is an exception for almost the entire VTB League. I know many MBA players because the team mainly consists of CSKA system players. But there are also their young players.
The game style is interesting, very fast, a lot of shots, they don’t hold the ball for 24 seconds. The game style, the approach is interesting. I think that this season, if MBA keeps the same style of play and does not lose much, it will be either in the middle or even higher in the standings this season. I do not exclude that they will enter the Top-6. Because this season the format is completely different and interesting. The team has chances. Moreover, they started well: three games and three wins. So let’s see and I wish MBA the success!
