December will be Qatar. Although days ago it was Poland and Slovenia; and to Japan, the Philippines and Indonesia it will be their turn next year. It is that other great World Cups circulate around the nearby calendar. And, perhaps, one of the most attractive to Argentines. Not like football, of course, although the Creole fans will not envy of volleyball and basketball, where new epics, young experiments and replacement processes are also being forged that bring fresh hope for our selections.
Two sports that consolidated their domestic leagues in the ’90s with strong clubs, unforgettable teams and export players. That dynamic pushed up and down: as the selected ones grew, many kids threw themselves at the white and orange balls looking at them with admiration. An example that both volleyball and basketball knew how to spread especially in the interior of Argentina.
► Recovering the vintage shine
Facing the sumptuous epic of post-2001 Argentine basketball, with its cups, medals and NBA legends, volleyball appeared as a vintage memory, almost pop: the bronze medal of Seoul ’88 after the third place in Luna Park of the World Cup ’82, the span of a decade until now unrepeatable. As if it were a custom story, Argentina had to return to the Far East to repeat the feat of an Olympic medal. It happened last year, in the postponed games of Tokyo 2020, with unforgettable early mornings against a team that recovered in time and crowned historic victories against France, the United States and Brazil.
The World Cup that was played in Poland and Slovenia until Sunday gave the team led by Marcelo Méndez the opportunity to ratify the parchments raised in Tokyo last year, an objective that was not too far away: after a stumbled start in the first phase , Argentina thrashed Serbia and was a shot away from playing again for a medal, a wish frustrated in the semis by Brazilprecisely whom he had beaten in 2021 for third place.
Even so, the National Team achieved its best World Cup performance outside the two tournaments it hosted (1982 and 2002), while consolidating a respectable base that enables illusions for several years: Facundo Conte, Bruno Lima, Agustín Loser and Captain Luciano de Cecco, plus appearances by the sub23 Luciano Palonsky, Nicolás Zerba and Luciano Vicentín.
► The Recifazo of the bronze DT
Just as Tokyo marked a path for the volleyball team, it also established a historic closure in the culture of our basketball. Beyond the final performance, it was clear that it would be Luis Scola’s last games; the same of Sergio Hernández in the bank. The rattles of the Golden Generation in the face of the appearance of Facundo Campazzo, Leandro Laprovítola or Nico Brussino were a combination that did not allow one or the other to shine.
An opaque and lackluster job, with painful defeats: from the 50 points of the Slovenian Luca Doncic in the failed debut, to the 40 difference against Australia in the elimination of the quarterfinals. And Scola’s bitter farewell to the dry applause of a half-empty stadiumstill thinned by pandemic restrictions.
But what was going to be a new stage after Tokyo ended up becoming an outbreak of scandal after the dismissal of Sergio Garcíawho came to replace Hernández but ended up ejected hours before the start of the Americup Brasil 2022. Thus, Argentina washed its face and started the contest under the direction of Pablo Prigioni, bronze in Beijing 2008 (again deep Asia as a garden of medals), former NBA and assistant coach of the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Thus, without imagining it, in just nine days put in a victorious charge to end up winning the final on Sunday against Brazil in Recife, imitating what football had achieved on July 10 last year in Rio de Janeiro. A relief for an armored squad with the return of Carlos Delfino, the leadership of Facundo Campazzo (who is still looking for a contract in the NBA) and the consolidation of Gabriel Deck as our great figure not of the future, but of the present, in addition to the appearance of Tayavek Gallizzi from Santa Fe, the only credit of the National League.
All sufficient reasons to dream facing the World Cup in Japan, Philippines and Indonesia 2023for which Argentina must first get through the qualifiers if it wants to defend the runner-up position in China 2019.
