Next Tuesday 29 will begin a new chapter of the journey of Uruguay heading to the Tokyo Olympics. That day he will debut in his group before Turkey. Two days later, it will be measured with Czech Republic, knowing that there are two teams that will access the semifinals.
“It is quite a valid experience. Very interesting for everyone and although there is some member of the squad who has the possibility to confront these types of players almost weekly, the bulk of them do not think they have had so much experience playing with teams of that level, “said the Argentine coach of Light blue, Ruben Magnano, in dialogue with Ovation.
“We are fine. There is an excellent spirit, “added the coach, but did not hesitate to assure that it was” an accelerated course in everything that had to be prepared to get to Canada. The first strong practice with all the members was today (yesterday) ”, despite the fact that at night he added one more before traveling at dawn on Thursday.
The squad is made up of 12 players, but it is also a mixed group between several young people and players with a lot of experience and Magnano himself noticed that.
“I see young people very enthusiastic. They are fighting alongside the most veteran. They know what the idea is. They have had a place and they have maintained it because of their attitudes towards the national team that counts a lot. It is an excellent job and we hope they can capitalize on what they are going to experience ”. Regarding the more experienced, he stated: “I have seen them very well. They all come from very close lived experiences and getting that chip out and getting available to the national team is not easy, even the people who played the playoffs until recently. It’s hard work, but it’s what this type of calendar has and how the calendar grabs us. A rather atypical thing, this of which the selection is training and is playing ”.
An unavoidable factor for every tournament today is a pandemic, and Magnano said about it: “It is a variable. First, you cannot measure how much and how it can hit you from a contagion. It has given clear samples of what it can cause in sports events so that is why we have also opted for a mini concentration to avoid contacts, risk and all that. Everything that is happening with the pandemic is not good for any team in the world, it does not help at all ”.
It should be remembered that in the case of winning one of the places in the semifinals Uruguay will be measured there against one of the two classifieds from the other group, made up of the local Canada, Greece and China. After those semifinals, a final will be played and it will be the winner who wins the place in Tokyo and will play the Olympic Games in group A together with France, Iran and the United States.