The Argentine men’s basketball team is already in Mar del Plata, where he will develop a concentration in the continuity of his preparation for the qualifying rounds and the AmeriCup in Recife, Brazil.
All the players and the sports director of the Argentine Basketball Confederation (CAB), Andrés Pelussi, arrived at the “Astor Piazzolla” International Airport this Sunday afternoon, by air, from Bahía Blanca. The group immediately moved to the center of the city, to settle in the Hotel Spa República.
There he was received by the councilor and former professional basketball player, Nicolás Lauría, an important promoter of this concentration of the national team in Mar del Plata, which will conclude with the game against the Bahamas, next Monday, the 29th, at the Pan-American Sports Center “Islas Malvinas”. ”.
The first to get off the bus was Máximo Fjellerup, and the last, with his typical tranquility from Santiago (the one that he hides very well inside the court from his intensity), the “Tortu” Gabriel Deck.
Coach Néstor García, his assistants Pablo Prigioni and Leonardo Gutiérrez, press and props arrived a couple of hours later, by land.
It is worth remembering that among the 14 summoned by the charismatic Bahian technical director, only one works in the National League, pivot Tayavek Gallizzi. All the rest play in foreign leagues.
And there is also a great connection with Mar del Plata, since García himself was coach -and champion- with Peñarol, Gutiérrez also played -was champion- and directed the “milrayitas”, and also Facundo Campazzo, Nicolás Brussino and Juan Pablo Vaulet They went through the Garay and Santiago del Estero club. And the aforementioned Gallizzi played in the National League for Quilmes.
The squad will have all day Monday off and will begin training on Tuesday at the “Islas Malvinas” Sports Center.
The National Team will remain in the city until Monday 22, the date on which it will travel to Victoria, to face Canada as a visitor, at the start of the second phase of the qualifiers for the 2023 World Cup that will be played in the Philippines, Japan and Indonesia.
And he will return on Friday the 26th or Saturday the 27th, to wait for Monday the 29th, a day in which he will receive the Bahamas, in the official return of the selected team to the stage in which he obtained the title (and the qualification for the London 2012 Games) in the Americas Olympic Qualifying 2011.
That was the last tournament that Argentina played in Mar del Plata, although it records a more recent performance. It was on July 5, 2015, in a friendly match against Uruguay, that he marked the farewell of “Leo” Gutiérrez from the “albiceleste” team.
