Agostina Burani, Andrea Boquete and Julieta Mungo spoke in the preview of the South American in San Luis. The expectation, the locality and the anxiety to jump onto the field.
The countdown began for a new and exciting challenge from Argentina. With San Luis as the venue, the National Team led by Gregorio Martínez is getting ready and fine-tuning details for the 37th South American Women’s Seniors, seeking to defend the title won four years ago, with the happiness of being local to its people and many mixed feelings for a team that wants to leave the flag high. From August 1 to 6 and with two venues such as Villa Mercedes and San Luis Capital, Argentina will face an important challenge at home.
Just a few days before the start of the South American, with the National Team entering the final stretch of its preparation and with the desire to go out on the field, three pillars of the albiceleste team such as Agostina Burani, Andrea Boquete and Julieta Mungo broke down the details of what the group lives in the previous tournament.
“I am very happy to return to the National Team, there is nothing more beautiful than this, I am very excited and eager”Boquete explained. And he continued: “The team is excited to compete, we haven’t done it for a long time and already the feeling of doing it again generates it for us. Argentina is that: claw and heart, and we want to show it by playing. We are preparing very hard, with a lot of desire, and we are focused on the objective. We want to represent the country in the best possible way, today we are doing it from training and I think we will also be able to achieve it within the tournament “.
Burani, sub-captain of the selected team, also emphasized the preparation carried out by the team since the beginning of July, highlighting both the daily work as well as the desire and mentality of this group: “The team is fine. The preparation is being very hard but we are very eager and excited, wanting the tournament to start now. Gregorio has a strong game philosophy. We are joining in that, knowing that each one comes from her club playing a different game, so all this preparation serves to strengthen the team well and arrive solid. We have to focus on ourselves, on continuing to improve and for things to turn out a little better each time. The friendlies with the men helped us to improve and polish things, and then they will think about the rivals that we have in front of us, game by game”.
For his part, Mungo highlighted intensity as one of the great qualities that Martínez’s team will have, relying on solid defense and fast transition play. “We have been preparing very well in these weeks. They were very positive training sessions seeking to be intense and running, we continue to work on the details in recent days, polishing them, and I feel that as a team we are doing very well. I think that the intensity goes to a characteristic that is going to mark us and represent us as a team, playing fast and intense. We focus game by game, we have to go step by step. We are going to leave everything to try to repeat the title that the girls won in the last tournament”.
Undoubtedly one of the details that is not overlooked will be the location in San Luis. The Senior National Team will once again be a local in a tournament after three years, recalling the passage through the Americas Olympic Pre-Qualifiers that were played in Bahía Blanca during 2019. For the players, this possibility of playing at home is an extra additive which is exciting, since several carry out their club seasons abroad (of the final list, 11 of the 12 athletes served outside the country in the last year) and the reunion with the people is something wonderful.
“It is a pride to be in the National Team and that on top of that it is a tournament within our country, knowing that most of us are away all season and our people have not seen us play for a long time. For us that is something unique, it is always a happiness to be in this country. For me it is always a pride to be here, in the last tournament I had to not be able to play any game and personally I am very excited and want to be able to play again wearing the light blue and white “Agostina reflected.
“It is very nice to play at home. Families and friends are going to come and that is a plus for us, something very exciting. I think we are going to have a lot of people supporting us here in San Luis and we are happy for that”Boquete detailed for her part, one of the players who will have the unique possibility of having several of her affections close by due to the proximity of San Luis to her native Mendoza.
While for Juli Mungo, close to turning 25 years old, it will be the first time that she will enjoy participating in a tournament with Argentina as a local. “There is nothing more beautiful than wearing the light blue and white. Personally, it’s the first time I’m going to play a tournament here in my country and I’m super happy because I imagine it’s going to be an incredible experience”expressed the forward who debuted in the absolute team for the 2019 Pan American Games.
Argentina will play a Seniors contest again after passing through the Americup last year, a championship in which the National Team was affected by the cases of Covid-19 in San Juan, Puerto Rico. For this reason, this return of the national team to the fields represents much more than the desire to defend the title of Tunja 2018, but rather the desire to play together again personally and as a group.
“For us it is a revenge”Boquete recounted. “We want to show how we are as a group and a team, what we can achieve as a National Team. We really want to compete, the group is doing well and excited about it. I think we are going to have a great tournament. You have to go step by step, you don’t have to get ahead of yourself. The first thing we have to do is consolidate the team. The most important thing we have now is the South American and we are focused on that. Obviously we always dream of what is to come in the future, but this is step by step, doing things well and we have to start doing it now to be able to get there in the best way “he added.
Burani, for her part, summed up these same sensations of sharing together again on a court: “Last year what we all know happened to us, and the truth is that we haven’t been the full team for a long time. It’s been a long time since we could play together and we really want to do it “.
