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New season of the Russian CUp is starting in Ufa, and Ural, Dynamo Moscow, Neftyanik and two second division sides, MGTU and Gazprom Stavropol, are in Group B. Ural are starting this season with great ambitions, they are financially stable, they acquired great players and Bashkoristan's governor expects them to reach the Top and a good performance in the Cup. Acquired players worth mentioning are opposite Moroz, Kritskiy, Getman, receiver Shipotko, and they have kept their best players, receivers Kutsmus, Feoktistov, setter Kovalev. In the pre-season, coach Grebennikov only couldn't count on Volkov who was in Rio, and the most important thing is that Kovalev went through the entire pre-season and that he is not 'spent' from national team obligations. The situation at Stavropol is different. They lost all key players from last season (Kobilev, Aksyutin, Zhos, Pyatirkin, Susanin, Svidlov, Klyapnev...). The reason for that are finances, and they haven't even completed the roster. They came to Ufa with only nine players, only two setters and one libero Vishnevetskiy, who is, with Atanashenkov, the only one who 'survived' the sell out. Looking at the results in the Russian second division last season, Stavropol were horrible away with a 7-15 record, and most of those wins came while Kobilev, Aksyutin and Zhos were on the team. With that, Ufa have a rather young team, only setter Ivanov is over 24 years of age. Their championship will start in a month, while Ural's will start a week earlier, so there is difference in fitness. On one side we have ambitious home team with several world class players and based on their statements they will give their max at this tournament, and on the other side we have a second division side who lost all key players from last season and haven't completed their roster. It is important to mention that two tournaments are being played, and that three teams advance from each group, so every point will be important. The difference in quality, experience and current form is on Ural's side and I cannot see how Stavropol can do anything here.