– Quimsa (Santiago del Estero, Argentina) vs. San Lorenzo (CABA, Argentina)
. Day and hour: Tuesday 10/27, 17:00. Where to see it: DirecTV.
. Referees: Fabricio Vito, Juan Fernández and Leandro Lezcano.
. Stadium: Sanitary Works (Buenos Aires).
It seemed that this moment would come no more. On March 13 they faced each other at the Estadio Ciudad de Santiago del Estero and, when Quimsa had the chance to win 2-0 to go to the final after winning in Buenos Aires, San Lorenzo snatched the celebration from him, beat him 100-87 ( without an audience) and forced the third game, which was to be played a day later. That day later became seven months and 14 days later, because after fighting it until exhaustion and overcoming all the obstacles due to the pandemic and bureaucracy, FIBA finally decided to play that game on Tuesday, October 27. And the final, between the winner of this game and Flamengo, on the 30th at the Antel Arena in Montevideo.
Honestly, it is difficult to do this preview without tears filling your eyes. He has waited so long for this moment that now that he is close, it sounds incredible. Hundreds of players are still waiting for their chance to go back to work, with also coaches, table officials, referees, physical trainers, doctors, kinesiologists, props, journalists and what do I know how many more people. But if you waited so long, now to enjoy it.
This third game had everything. In short: nobody thought it would be played in 2020, so both San Lorenzo and Quimsa allowed important players to sign in the Mexican League. San Lorenzo, in fact, signed several of them when they were already there: Aguirre, Romano, Hernández and Piñero, plus Cáffaro, authorized to go to the Uruguay Metro. Quimsa let Juan Brussino go and, although he did not have him signed, but supported, Brandon Robinson. When the League, first, and the BCLA, later, began to rush the procedures to start in November and October, respectively, the two clubs realized that they had made battles and looked for how to solve them. Quimsa slapped Baralle de Atenas, Gaskins, who stayed the entire pandemic in La Banda, Kent, who had been booked by Oberá, and at the last minute he recovered Robinson and found Simpson. Plus the new one: Ramírez Barrios.
The San Lorenzo thing was more shocking. For weeks it seemed that he was going to play this game with the 2 that remained from last year (Vildoza, Fjellerup), the only major national contracted chip that was in the country (Maldonado), plus the U23 that he added at the end (Defelippo and Ferreyra) and kids, but in a quick and effective move, he signed 4 foreigners with one serve. First, the one everyone was waiting for (Tucker), and then 3 others with good records (Montero, Satchell and Adrien). And, in the end, he also managed to have Cáffaro on time. From an unarmed match, at the request of Flamengo, it went to a game between two contenders who, in one night, can beat anyone.
However, talking only about sports for this match sounds almost absurd. Although they have been training for a few weeks (several of the foreigners do not complete 7 days practicing), this afternoon is not going to be just a basketball game. It is going to have a huge emotional burden. For the return to the game, for the anxieties accumulated in more than 200 days, for the responsibility of the new ones, for the few training sessions, for the fears of seeing how the body responds. In short, for living a unique situation, which I hope never have to live again.
This seems too much of a fictional movie, not very well scripted, where nobody knows what is going to be found behind the door. Potentially, perhaps San Lorenzo could have a little more hierarchy in its foreigners, but how much weight that will have with so few practices (and in his case, with a new coach), is difficult to measure. We do believe that experience will be very valuable, the intelligence to notice where the advantages will be and, above all, to react quickly to the problems and the windows that the rival opens.
A few days before the return of the National League in bubble format to start the 2020/21 season, this game will be a great initial test of what we will see, at least, until March. The great NBA experience remained in our minds, but here we will have to create our own experience, with all that that implies. Anyway, let’s celebrate. Nothing can be worse than it was.
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