Elisa Aguilar: “I can’t imagine a World Cup without Spain”
Elisa Aguilarpresident of the Spanish Basketball Federation (FEB), noted this Thursday that the men’s team faces “two decisive matches” this month against Montenegro and Greece to seal her qualification for the World Cup to be held next year in Qatar, something she is convinced of because she cannot imagine that Spain will not be present at the World Cup event.
“I am convinced that Chus is going to put together a fully guaranteed team to first win in Montenegro and then here in Santiago, and thus put us with a 7-3 that would bring us very close to next year’s World Cup. At no time does it cross my mind that we will be left out of the World Cup,” she stated.
With four games left until the conclusion of the qualifying phase, Spain finds itself with a balance of 5 wins and 3 lossesthe same one signed by Georgia and one more victory than Montenegro, Greece and Portugal. The leader of the group is Ukraine with six wins and only two losses. The first three in each group are classified.
“These two games are key, now in each game you are risking the classification, not only because of your urgency but because the rivals have greater urgency than you,” Aguilar told reporters after attending the presentation of the match on November 29 at the Multipurpose Fontes do Sarwhere the national team will close this fifth FIBA Ventaba hosting the Greek team.
In this sense, the former player admitted that the margin of error is “minimal” for the Spanish team after stringing together three defeats in a row: 91-89 against Georgia in extra time of the match played in Tbilisi; 89-95 against Portugal in Zaragoza; and 108-106 against Greece.
“Spain has to be in the big tournaments, so Spain has to be in the World Cup in Qatar. But it’s not that it has to be, we are going to be there,” declared Aguilar, for whom it is not easy to adapt to this new competition format because “in August you play with some players and now with others who have nothing to do with the summer ones.”
To make up for this setback, the president of the FEB appeals to the experience of the national coach Chus Mateowhom he defined as “a leader”, and the quality of the players despite the fact that the national team is in a “generational transition.”
“Fortunately we have a very broad cast of top-level players, with more than 30 players who are not only those who are in the NBA, the NCAA or the Euroleague, many of them are also in domestic competitions and they are the ones with whom we have qualified so far,” he concluded.
