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Argentina: "Every game is like a final"

Intensive preparations, South American ball wizardry and bags of motivation. Argentina plan to give the crowd something to shout about at the 2011 Fistball WCH and improve on their 5th place last time out.
 

Intensive preparations, South American ball wizardry and bags of motivation. Argentina plan to give the crowd something to shout about at the 2011 Fistball WCH and improve on their 5th place last time out.

The Argentina national team's clearly stated aim is to improve on the 5th place they achieved at the 2007 World Championship. But that will not be easy, as head coach Galan Pablo well knows: "Austria, Germany, Switzerland and Brazil will be hard to beat. For us every game is like a final and we've prepared ourselves accordingly." Consequently, Argentina's preparations for these games have focused strongly on technical, tactical and psychological aspects with a view to causing an upset. The ten-man squad that will feature in the 2011 Fistball WCH from 7th to 14th August was finalised at the end of June. "All our players are incredibly motivated and are giving everything to be in the best possible shape when they come to Austria," says coach Galan Pablo, showing just how much faith he has in his team. And there is no doubt that the players will bring plenty of the South American ball wizardry with them that the spectators especially enjoy so much.

The Argentinian team arrives in Europe on 26th July so that the players can spend a few days training in Frammersbach (GER) before several of them compete for Rosario, the reigning South American champions, in the World Club Championships in Freistadt. Their opponents are the runners-up in the Austrian championship, Union Schick Freistadt. But coach Galan Pablo reckons that the World Club Final will not be the only final contested by an Austrian team this year: "Austria has a very big advantage at the World Championship: they're playing in front of a home crowd. That will give them a lift and we expect that whoever wins this year's title will have to overcome the Austrians." But the Austrians, for their part, are not underestimating the opponents they face in the preliminary round. Martin Weiss, experienced spiker in Austria's national team, says, "The Argentinians pose a real threat. For me, they're already among the top five favourites this year."

PHOTO
Front row, L to R: Carlos Cagnone, Pablo Parra, Martin Zubiri, Juan Mascali, Santiago Landucci.
Back row, L to R: Alfredo Thiesing, Pablo Galan (coach), Ernesto Lorte (assistant coach), Libero Capelletti, Francisco Landucci, Leandro D´Angelo, Romeo Dominioni, Martin Vazquez.
Missing from the photo: Federico Fritz


Team Argentina

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