On June 13, the men's national basketball team of Kazakhstan will play their final game in the qualification for the Asian Cup 2021. Almost a year and a half later, Steppenwolfs will play their second game against the Jordanian national team. The game will take place in the capital of Jordan - the city of Amman at the "Prince Hamza" arena.

The match starts at 22:00 Nur-Sultan time. Online broadcast will be available on the main page of our website. All information about the match, lineups, news, photo and video reports, as well as statistics will be published in the Match Center.

Recall that in the first game with Jordan in the framework of the Asian Cup 2021 Qualification, which took place in Nur-Sultan on February 24 last year, the Kazakhstan national team missed the victory with a score of 68:71.


The Jordan Men's Basketball Team is the National Basketball Team representing Jordan in the international basketball arena. Run by the Jordan Basketball Federation. Member of FIBA ​​since 1957. The Jordan national team, as well as the Kazakhstan national team, has its own nickname - they are called "Falcons".

The men's national team of Jordan, despite the fact that it has been a member of FIBA ​​since 1957, began to play actively in international tournaments only 25 years later. In 1983, the Jordanians won silver medals at the Arab Nations home championship. Since then, the Jordanian national team has been a regular at this tournament, they have become bronze medalists three times (1987, 1989, 2005), also three times, after the success of 83rd year, they took silver medals (1992, 1999, 2008). In 2007, the Falcons won the Arab Nations Championship for the only time. At another regional tournament, the Pan Arab Games, the Jordanians won gold in 1985 and 4 times (1992, 1999, 2007 and 2011 - the last year of the Pan Arab Games) won silver medals. Also in their region, since 1999, another local tournament has been held - WABA (West Asian Basketball Association) and Jordan is one of the regular participants in this sporting event. Since 1999, the Jordanian national team has participated in 14 WABA championships and won 6 bronze medals (1999, 2004, 2005, 2012, 2013 and 2017), 4 times the team took silver medals (2008, 2011, 2015, 2016) , and in 2002 and 2014 climbed to the first place of the podium. As for Asia, Jordan has been competing in the Championships, now the Asian Cups, since 1983. Since that year, they have played in almost every tournament, in total, the Jordanian national team has experience of participating in 15 Asian championships. The best for them was 2009 - bronze and 2011 - silver. Also, our rivals have played 4 times within the FIBA ​​Asia Challenge tournament and have won gold in 2008 and bronze in 2016. At the Asian Games, Jordan participated 4 times - the first time back in 1986, the maximum of which they achieved was this 4th place. The Jordan national team has twice entered the world elite, taking part in the 2010 and 2019 world championships, but in both cases the team did not go far.
 
Standing position: “Steppenwolfs” confidently lead their group before the upcoming game, having won four out of five past matches. Kazakhstanis in home games were able to defeat Palestine with a difference of three points, but lost to Jordan, also with a difference of only three points. A year later, in Manama, our team did not leave any chances for its rival, having defeated Sri Lanka twice and outplayed Palestine. Then the Qualifying Tournament for our team was supposed to end, but the return meeting with Jordan did not take place, as some of the delegates and athletes who had already arrived had positive coronavirus tests and the team was unable to play their games. And now, after almost six months, the game with Jordan should still take place and will take place at their home site in Amman, so this team is the only one with which the home-away format will remain. Based on this, the Jordanian national team remains the only team in our group that does not have a single defeat on its account. In addition to Kazakhstan, they once outplayed Sri Lanka, but with all this, the Jordanians have the fewest tournament points in the group, which leaves them on the last line, and all this is only because they played only two games, and the last time they went to the court almost year and a half ago. In terms of numbers, “Steppenwolfs” have 9 tournament points after five games and the first place in the group, while Jordan has 4 points after two games and so far the last line.

On June 12, the day before the meeting between Kazakhstan and Jordan, the Jordanians will play a game with the Palestinians, and the result of this game can finally decide the fate of the Kazakhstani ticket to the Asian Cup 2021. In case of victory of the representatives of Jordan, the Palestinians will no longer catch up with the Kazakhstanis in the table and in any future scenario we are going to the Asian Cup 2021. It is also worth noting that our team has made a very good start and the only option when Kazakhstan does not qualify for the Cup is if Jordan loses twice to Palestine and outperforms Kazakhstan, but it’s hard to believe. In any case, Jordan is a team of the level of the Asian Cup and our players need to show everything they are capable of when they get into the number of participants in this tournament. Another piece of news is that the Sri Lanka national team will not play their last game with Jordan in this Jordanian “Bubble”, but this game does not greatly affect the position of the teams in the group. In addition, teams of groups E and C will play in Jordan these days, and in addition to Jordan, Palestine and Kazakhstan, the national teams of Syria, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Iran, Guam and Hong Kong will play.

Detailed information on the participation of the National Team of Kazakhstan in the Qualification for the Asian Cup 2021, the team line-up, standings, schedule and match results are published on the Federation website in the National Teams section.

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Unfortunately, the Kazakhstan men's national basketball team failed to take revenge on the Jordan team in the final match of the group stage qualification for the 2021 Asian Cup. But this did not prevent the “Steppenwolves” from winning a ticket to the continental championship.

It is important to note that Jordan defeated the Palestinian national team the day before, and thus the Kazakhstani team had already reached the Asian Cup 2021, regardless of the outcome of this game. Recall that the Jordanians beat the “Steppe Wolves” in the capital of Kazakhstan with a difference of three points - 68:71, in addition, they are significantly ahead of Kazakhstanis in the FIBA ​​rating - 40th in the world for Jordan and 74th for Kazakhstan. Thus, the hosts of this match were the favorites in this meeting. In addition, a couple of players from the base - Anthony Clemmons and Alexander Zhigulin - did not come to this game in our national team, and Marko Velichkovic played the role of head coach. Rustam Murzagaliev, Nikolay Bazhin, Maxim Marchuk, Robert Pan and Askar Maidekin entered the battle from the start.



After the starting toss, the ball remained with Steppenwolfs and, though not in the first attack, our guys opened the score in this match - Maxim Marchuk scored. Already in the next attack, Nikolay Bazhin scored the first accurate three. However, a good start did not make the game productive. The Jordanians were able to chalk up the first points at the end of the third minute, but in the middle of the first period the score was already equal and not at all effective - 7: 7. In addition to Marchuk and Bazhin, in the first five minutes, only Askar Maidekin gained the benefit of our team's piggy bank. In addition, the judges very often whistled in our direction, and almost immediately after the equator of the quarter, Kazakhstan had five team remarks on its account. Despite the points from Anton Bykov, the Jordanians were able to take the lead, and our team played the role of catching up to the end of the quarter. Our guys had difficulties with scoring and fouls, and Jordan moved ahead by 6 points. At the end of the period, “Steppenwolfs” were able to cope with the pressure and as a result, after two three-pointers from Vadim Shcherbak and a free kick from Nikolai Bazhin, the gap was reduced to one point - 19:18. In general, it is worth noting that the Jordanians scored more than half of their points from the penalty line in the first ten minutes. In the second period, our team began to act more confidently and, as the rivals did not resist at the start, the Kazakh players were able to seize the lead after scored points from Shaim Kuanov, Vadim Shcherbak and Dmitry Gavrilov. Our rivals already had problems with fouls, but for some time our team did not manage to noticeably break away. And yet, by the middle of the second quarter, Kazakhstanis were already in the lead by 7 points. Dmitry Gavrilov made an excellent start of this segment, and Robert Pan also scored points. The hosts of the site quickly exacerbated the situation, reducing the gap to only two points, but in the end, the Kazakhstan team did not allow to catch up and was leading after the first half by five points - 34:39.



After a long break, nothing foreshadowed any changes in the course of the match. Vadim Shcherbak converted another three-pointer, and the difference was 6 points in our favor. But the Kazakh team then had serious problems with the defeat of the rivals' ring, while the Jordanians significantly increased in attack and managed to catch up and overtake the guests quite quickly. In the middle of the quarter, Anton Ponomarev was able to send the ball exactly into the ring from beyond the arc, and then Vadim Shcherbak held it, after which “Steppenwolves” again took the lead and it seemed that the “protective spell” had been removed from the rivals' ring, but this turned out to be wrong ... The Kazakhstani played pretty well in defense, but with an attack, or rather with its final stage - an accurate throw, while there was trouble. Two and a half minutes before the end of the third period, Shaim Kuanov reduced the difference to one point, but before the end of the quarter the Jordanians reached a double-digit advantage for the first time in this game with a swift unanswered spurt. The last points in ten minutes were earned by Dmitry Gavrilov, who set the final score after three quarters - 59:51. The difference was not catastrophic - it is more than realistic to win back 8 points in 10 minutes, but the hosts very tenaciously clung to their advantage. No matter how well the “Steppenwolves” did not work out in defense, but the problems with the implementation of the throws did not disappear anywhere. The Jordanians twice in the first five minutes got to ten points of advantage, but in the end, in the middle of the quarter, their lead was the same 8 points as at the beginning of the period. After the realized “end one” right after the equator ten minutes from Nikolay Bazhin the difference was reduced to five points and it was quite hot on the court. In the next couple of minutes, Kazakhstan's gap was around 7-5 points, and in the end the Jordanians played more confidently, and most importantly, more efficiently than our team, thanks to which their gap for the first time in the match exceeded ten points and amounted to 14. Time was already playing on side of the hosts, and in the remaining seconds it was extremely difficult to pull out the victory. As a result, today's game remained with the Jordan national team with a score of 80:70 (19:18, 15:21, 25:12, 21:19).
 
Best players of the match:

• Jordan: Whom our players absolutely failed to cope with today was the Jordanian “big” - Ahmadam Al-Dwairi, who scored an impressive double-double - 26 points and 14 rebounds, and also handed out 4 assists.
• Kazakhstan: Nikolay Bazhin became the author of the double-double - 14 points and 10 rebounds + 5 assists. Dmitry Gavrilov also scored 14 points, and in addition chalked up 6 rebounds. Vadim Shcherbak has 12 points, and Shaim Kuanov earned 8 points and 3 assists.

Post-match press conference:
 
Detailed information on the participation of the National Team of Kazakhstan in the Qualification for the Asian Cup 2021, the team line-up, standings, schedule and match results are published on the Federation website in the National Teams section.

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