The LEB Oro returns after the break through the FIBA Windows and the UEMC Real Valladolid Basketball returns to the charge. The blanquivioletas resume the competition on the pitch of the Melilla Sport Capital“a difficult field”, as the coach acknowledges, and in which his team will try to return to a positive dynamic after a great start to the season.
Work week: “It has not been the ideal week at work level. We have had many problems training with the rigor and capacity with which we have been doing it in the first weeks of this league, but they are circumstances to which we have to adapt. Melwin Pantzar and Jordy Kuiper arrived on Wednesday, Kevin Allen has not trained and we don’t know if he will be in Melilla. This means that we prepare for the game with many open doubts as to who is going to be there and how they are going to be”.
Melilla Sport Capital: “All this even above the respect that Melilla generates in me, who plays good basketball, has done very well in many of the first games and the result has sometimes been unfair to them. It has players that we will soon see at the highest level like Guillem Ferrando, a good American like Alex Thompson, Samu Rodríguez, who already played very well in LEB Plata and is standing out in LEB Oro, Gonzalo Delgado, who already played well in Girona. They have the incorporation of Mulero or Joan Pardina, a classic in the league. The capacity of their bases is important, also with Javi López. It is the second team that scores the most and we have the second best defense in the competition. We will see what prevails. If we don’t defend, it’s going to cost us”.
Kevin Allen: “Right now, it’s not on the way yet. The latest news is that they have finally granted him the visa, having everything in order from the beginning. It is incomprehensible that the consular bureaucracy has been so delayed. And instead of giving it to him by hand, like this, in close proximity, they have sent it from Chicago to Detroit, where his house is. He has had to go back and today he will be waiting at the door for the package with the passport and visa to arrive. Immediately afterwards, he will try to catch the first plane that leaves for Spain and then he will travel to Melilla. I have prepared the game thinking that he will not be there and I think he will not be there. He hasn’t trained for ten days and I imagine he has lost some form. If he can arrive and help us, he is welcome, but from minute 1 this week I have spoken to the team as if we were not going to count on him. The objective and the speech is to win ”.
Absence. “It annoys me, limits me and conditions me. It is a game of brutal importance. If we are able to win it, the team can chain a good series of victories. Traveling to Melilla is not a bad trip, but it has a condition that makes it difficult. It is always a difficult flag to play. They play good basketball, they’ve been strong at home, they’ve also played a great game in Burgos and it slips away at the end. We have trained with the invaluable and essential help of homegrown players Pablo Martín and Juan Lambás, because without them we would not have been able to work at a certain level”.
international. “Melwin has come with a lower back problem and Doctor Alonso and David Velasco have done a fabulous job to recover it in record time. Jordy Kuiper has been good, with the rush of having debuted with his team, but Kevin’s loss conditions us. We are not going to play with 4, but with the team I have been clear that he is not going to be with everything he supposes. You have to approach the game in a different way”.
Paron. “We saw the break as very good because of what he assumed after the initial effort, but he stopped us dead with a great dynamic of play and results. We can’t do anything to control it. We hope we have taken advantage of it in the best possible way to rest and clear our heads. It’s a pride to have internationals on the team, but, excuse me, it’s a chore to have them on Wednesday before playing the weekend. Unfortunately we have run into I don’t know what problem at the consulate and the return of Kevin Allen has been delayed.
Provision. “All the players are very willing to help, another thing is that they are more or less successful. Other players must assume those minutes of Kevin Allen and leadership. Kevin is the third player who takes the most shots on the team. No academy player travels with the team, the Clínica Sur-Aspasia RVB of the EBA League has an important match in Bilbao and we believe that with all the Seniors we are in good condition”.
