Knowing that the big guns will not represent Argentina at Las Vegas in the FIBA Americas tournament, Sergio HERNANDEZ announced the full list of players that will wear the Albiceleste, looking for a place in Beijing 2008.
Without "NBAers" Manu GINOBILI, Andrés NOCIONI, Fabricio OBERTO and Walter HERRMANN, our manager opted for a squad composed by:
Juan Ignacio "Pepe" SANCHEZ, Pablo PRIGIONI, Antonio PORTA, Nicolás GIANELLA, Paolo QUINTEROS, Carlos DELFINO, Matías SANDES, Federico KAMMERICHS, Hernán JASEN, Diego LO GRIPPO, Leonardo MAINOLDI, Juan GUTIERREZ, Gabriel FERNANDEZ, Luis SCOLA, Román GONZALEZ, Rubén WOLKOWYSKI and Leonardo GUTIERREZ.
The natural leaders and key starters will be Luis SCOLA, Pepe SANCHEZ and Carlos DELFINO.
There is experience in WOLKOWYSKI, Gabriel FERNANDEZ and Leo GUTIERREZ. It'll be mixed with exciting youth and some hot-shots that are playing in Europe: Pablo PRIGIONI, Hernan JASEN and Federico KAMMERICHS (a Walter HERRMANN clon) being the stand-out players of this group.
But there is still one little obstacle for HERNANDEZ to overcome: Pepe SANCHEZ and Leonardo GUTIERREZ are yet to confirm their intention to play in the tournament.
The team will gather on 23 July in Bahía Blanca (in the southern region of the Buenos Aires province -where Manu GINOBILI and Pepe SANCHEZ -among others- were born). Bahía Blanca is considered the capital of basketball in Argentina. A place were basketball is even more popular than football. Two weeks after the initial meeting they will play there a friendly match against Uruguay.
They will play the Super 4 Tournament in Santa Fé (6 and 7 August) against Uruguay, Canada and Spain. On 16 August they will travel to Puerto Rico to play the Tuto Marchant Cup (together with the home team, Brazil and Canada) and on 22 August they will fly to their final destination: Las Vegas.
In other news, HERNANDEZ have also announced the team that will take part of the PanAm Games in Rio 2007.
Luis CEQUEIRA, Raimundo LEGARIA, Antonio PORTA, Nicolás GIANELLA, Pablo MOLDÚ, Mariano BYRÓ, Diego GARCIA, Javier BULFONI, Matías SANDES, Patricio PRATO, Andrés PELUSSI, Gabriel MIKULAS, Leonardo MAINOLDI, Diego LO GRIPPO, Martín LEIVA, Damián TINTORELLI, Román GONZALEZ and Juan Ignacio JASEN.
Its great to see that Hernán JASEN is back in the team. PEPE is a fantastic point guard but my preference for that position should go to PRIGIONI as he compliments Luis SCOLA amazingly. Together they make a great partner.
ReplyDeleteDespite knowing all this however I'm still a bit upset about the prospect of playing without our NBA superstar. But draw has been favourable towards us and most likely our biggest test will come in the semi-finals, either against USA or Brazil.
It's difficult to know what the team shape is going to be, since Pepe is notconfirmed yet, would also be interesting to know if the other players that has been called to the National Team will be present, as Kammerichs has quit from NT many times, also would be important to know if Prigioni and Jasen can perform at a high level with consitency, good news is Brazil and Puerto Rico will probably have problems with their NBAers as well, and there's always the chance to qualify a few days before the olympics.....
ReplyDeleteWelcome to our blog Leonardo.
ReplyDeleteI felt terrible when I first heard of Manu, Chapu, Oberto and Walter pulling out of the FIBA Americas tournament.
But taking a look at this list, I think there's still hope to qualify for the Olympic Games in this competition (without having to play the next qualifiers which will be a nightmare with a lot of top teams from Europe playing there).
I think in PEPE, DELFINO, KAMMERICHS, SCOLA and WOLKOWYSKI, we've got a great starting lineup. And we can count on excellent back-ups like PRIGIONI, JASEN, the GUTIERREZ. Not to mention the hot scorer QUINTEROS.
I look forward to this FIBA Americas tournament to start!
We'll follow the action here.
Thanks for posting.