The game that the Cuban basketball team will play tomorrow, Thursday, seems like a tough debut due to the absence of several of its most talented players.
Starting against the Argentine team in the first Qualifying Window for the 2027 Fiba Basketball World Cup in Qatar without being able to count on all their men is the challenge for the hosts, who have been preparing for a few days at the headquarters of the Havana Sports City Coliseum.
Among those absent are Howard Saint Ross and Jasiel Rivero, the latter suffering from an injury, and in that sense, the technical director of the Island team, Osmel Planas, assured JIT: «despite the absences we have in the cast, there is a very good atmosphere and a lot of willingness. “Circumstances force us to depend on a very young team, but with a lot of will to do the job and a lot of talent.”
“We have been working together for two years and that gives the team a good chemistry, and on this occasion Karel Guzmán joins us, who has not been with the national team for a few seasons and despite that in training he has shown to be in tune with our work philosophy,” he added.
The rival has considerable credentials in the international context due to its high quality, and this is recognized by the Cuban high command.
“We are going to face a great team like Argentina, which is runner-up in the Copa América held three months ago, which has always been among the best 20 teams in the world, with many players in high-level leagues such as those of Spain, Turkey and Brazil and that obviously represents a great challenge for us,” explained Planas.
Anchored in group D in this first phase, they will also have to play against Uruguay and Panama, of which the first three will advance to the next round. In that stage, the 12 best teams on the continent will perform in search of seven places in the World Cup.
“Despite that, we face the challenge with a willingness to qualify for the next phase, in any case in another group we would have had Brazil, Venezuela and Colombia as rivals who also have a high level in basketball,” he contextualized.
He also explained that they had to choose to seek advancement in South America, due to the United States government’s visa denials to countries like Puerto Rico and the Bahamas, so it would not be possible to play in Central America.
“On Thursday we will go out to win, because we do not compete with another mentality, we will try to put on a good show and play with our weapons, we will try to fulfill the tasks we set ourselves, which is the only way to achieve victory against a rival of the quality of Argentina,” he concluded.
After that match they will travel to Buenos Aires, where they will meet again, on December 1st, in the return match of this round-robin event.
