On November 26, in Nur-Sultan, on the arena of the Republican cycle track "Saryarka", the first home match of the men's national basketball team of Kazakhstan will take place within the qualification for the World Cup 2023. “Steppenwolfs” will meet on their floor with rivals from Syria. The game starts at 20:00 Moscow time. Tickets are on sale only online at Ticketon.kz.

The Syrian Men's Basketball Team is the national basketball team representing Syria in the 5x5 international basketball tournaments. Member of FIBA ​​since 1948.

The Syrian men's national team, oddly enough, played for the first time on the international stage at the European Championship in 1949. For various reasons, that tournament was held in Egypt and not only teams from European countries participated in it, but also the national teams of Egypt, Lebanon and Syria, which eventually became the sixth. By the way, Egypt became the European champion that year. The Syrian team has never participated in the World Championships and Olympic Games, and played 6 times in the Asian Championships and Cups, and their best result was the fourth place in 2001. The team also played twice in the FIBA ​​Asia Challenge, where they also once reached fourth place. In addition, the Syrians played twice at the Asian Games - in 2006 (10th place) and in 2018 (6th place). In addition, the team from Syria made quite a few starts in regional tournaments: they played twice at the Mediterranean Games, but did not take prizes; seven times took part in the Pan Arab Games, where she once became champions, three times silver medalists and one time bronze. Syria has also participated in the Arab Basketball Championships seven times and has one gold, two silver and one bronze medals. They played twice in the West Asian Games - silver and bronze, and also took part in the West Asian Championship 12 times, winning them twice, taking silver twice and taking the third place four times.


Comparison of teams and history of meetings: The national team of Kazakhstan before the start of the qualification is on the 12th position in the ranking in Asia and 72nd in the World, and the Syrian team is in 16th position in Asia and 82nd in the world. The Kazakhstani and Syrian teams have performed at the same Asian Cups (Championships) three times, but they never crossed paths on the site. In addition, the teams once played together at the FIBA ​​Asia Challenge and twice at the Asian Games, but they never met at these tournaments. Thus, the upcoming game will be the first face-to-face meeting between teams in history.

Roster of opponents: In the preliminary application of the Syrians for the upcoming matches, there are 22 players at once, most of whom play in the domestic championship. The Syrian national team, as well as the Kazakh team, qualified for the Asian Cup, and sixteen people of the current composition took part in the games of that qualification. Then the Syrian team won three games out of six, and was able to outplay neither anyone, but one of the grandees of the Asian region - Iran. In those games, George Earl Kell III and Douglas Herring stood out, but they are not in the current application. Among the current players who played in the qualification for the Asian Cup, it is worth highlighting the forwards Vael Jlilati and Amer Alsati, as well as the center Kemal Kanbolat. All of these players are currently playing outside of Syria. So Wael Jlilati is a member of the “Duba Club” team from Saudi Arabia, Amer Alsati plays in the “Shabab Al Ahli” team from the UAE, and Kemal Kanbolat plays for the Turkish “Konyaspor”. Point guard Rami Merzhaneh from Al Zhaish and forwards Jamil Saddir and Tofek Saleh from Al Ittihad consistently played in all six Asian Cup Qualification games. Also in those games, powerful forward Hani Adribi from “Al-Wahda” team, light forward Antouni Bakar and tall center (220cm) Abduwahab Alhamvi from “Al-Ittihad” showed a good game. It is also worth paying attention to the “newcomers” of the Syrian team. Defender Amir-Jabbar Hinton is a US native who has played for the Westchester Knicks in the NBA Development League and is one of the leaders of the Finnish Covot team this season. Center David Hermes was born in Sweden and previously played in the Swedish Championship and American Academy Central Point.
 
Tournament standings: This game will be the starting game for both teams in the World Cup Qualification.

The match will take place on Friday, November 26, in Nur-Sultan on the Saryarka cycle track, beginning at 20:00 local time. All information about the match, lineups, news, photo and video reports, as well as statistics will be published in the Match Center. The online broadcast of the game will be available on the home page of our website and on the FIBA platform www.livebasketball.tv.

It is also worth noting that the return meeting with Syria will take place three days after the game in Nur-Sultan - on Monday, November 29, already in Syria in the city of Damascus at the Al Faihaa Stadium site.

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As a reminder, according to the results of the draw, "Steppen Wolves" got into group "D" together with the national teams of Iran, Syria and Bahrain.

Within the 1st round of Qualification, the Kazakh squad will play 6 matches:

• November 26, 2021 - Kazakhstan vs Syria
• November 29, 2021 - Syria vs Kazakhstan
• February 24, 2022 - Iran vs Kazakhstan
• February 27, 2022 - Bahrain vs Kazakhstan
• July 1, 2022 - Kazakhstan vs Iran
• July 4, 2022 - Kazakhstan vs Bahrain

The Cup itself will be held from August 25 to September 10, 2023 in three countries - Japan and the Philippines and Indonesia.

The National Basketball Federation of Kazakhstan expresses gratitude for the support and assistance in preparing the team for participation in the tournament to the National Olympic Committee, the Ministry of Culture and Sports, the "Samruk Kazyna" National Welfare Fund, the "Sport Qory" Tourism and Sports Industry Support Fund and the Nur-Sultan City Akimat. General sponsor of the National Basketball Team of Kazakhstan - "M-Sport" LLP, sponsors - "Capital City Center" LLP and "Begtas NS" Firm, technical partner - "Transtelecom" JSC, partner - "Kokshe Susyndary" company with the "Prima Naturale" trademark.