2023-04-19 22:36:32
Athens closed its regular phase of the National League playing the last date with its consummate destiny: having to play the playout to avoid relegation once morest San Lorenzo and with a local disadvantage. And that last duel of the regular phase was once morest Instituto, in a new edition of the Cordovan classic that was played at the Ángel Sandrín. It was a victory of Glory 90 to 70 and ended up marking the clear differences that exist between one team and another: one that finished as number 1 and is the top favorite to win the National Basketball League crown and another that has to play a qualifying round to see if they can hold their own in the main national basketball division.
The Greek will now focus on San Lorenzo and the best-of-five-match tie that will begin on Sunday, April 30, from 8:00 p.m. in Boedo. The survivor of this tie will remain in the National League, while the loser will go down to the Argentine League, the second division of our country.
For Athens, the match once morest Instituto was very uncomfortable: it is that the result of that duel would not change their destiny at all. And this is how Álvaro Castiñeira explained it to World D: “It was a very complex match for us. The idea was to rotate the team. Of all the possibilities that we had, we played it in the worst scenario, without intensity. The idea was to take care of some players, prepare ourselves for what is to come. Instituto played very well and we did not have the intensity at least to match them in intensity and compete with them. It was the worst case scenario for us.”
– Does he rescue something, is he very worried?
– I’m worried. I rescue some things from the second half, some guys that we had minutes and that we were able to recover Lee Aaliya; Matías Stanic or “Maxi” (Araujo)… Some guys have given us things that will allow us to use them in the playout with San Lorenzo. I take that and not much else…
–When you arrived in Athens, the first thing you said was that you wanted to prepare the team for the playout. How did you see that preparation? Is the team going to arrive as you wanted?
–The reality is that the team grew quite quickly. At the time we won three games in a row, everyone suspected that we might get there (to save themselves from relegation, avoiding playing the playout). Having lost to Riachuelo in extra time and having won San Lorenzo in Comodoro emotionally killed us. The team returned to plateau. I hope that we will be that team that competed every night once more. Even when we went to Ferro, we lost it in the last one; We lost the match with Regatas in extra time. That’s the team that was at its peak. But we had a downturn in the last three dates. And I think it is also a product of understanding that we were not going to save ourselves (from playing the playout). We now have time to go back to work and play the peak we played at the time.
–You know well what San Lorenzo is. What location do you imagine?
-A very strong locality. It is a soccer club that makes itself felt a lot when it comes to basketball. They are going to have a strong local team, but we are prepared. Although I have a lot of young players, experienced players can guide these youngsters so they can go and win at Boedo.
Don’t miss it: what Athens fans think of the team’s moment
Institute 90 – Athens 70
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