Astana
“Astana” at the beginning of the season shows mixed results. In the first 6 rounds, she won 4 times, but lost twice to the devastating scores of her direct rivals – Aktobe (1:4) and Kairat (0:3), moreover, on her home court. In the last matchday, the Capitals missed several obvious scoring opportunities, and the level of team play in defense turned out to be glaringly low.
Because of this, the current champion could only score 12 points and was behind the leading Kyzylzhar by 6 points. With a match like this, it will be extremely difficult to defend the championship this season.
kaiser
“Kaisar” debuted in the elite division with defeats to “Kyzylzhar” (0:1) and “Atyrau” (1:2), but then managed to rehabilitate. In the next round, Viktor Kumykov’s team shared the points with Aksu (2:2), and won 3 times in the final three. It is worth noting that we managed to beat rivals who did not finish the beginning of the season. Nevertheless, wins over Kaspij (3-1), Shakhtar (2-1) and Żetysu (2-0) gave the players confidence and helped the club climb to 6th place in the table.
Forecast
Kaysar’s recent successes are unlikely to be an indication of progress in the club’s game. A rather lower level of resistance helped to achieve such results. I expect Astana to react positively to this match after a devastating home defeat.