The Red will play their first preseason friendly from 9:00 p.m. It will be in Pergamino, against the team that plays in the Argentine League. Despite the fact that the locals will present a team with many youth players, it will be a good measure for those from Maffei in the face of the upcoming Federal League.
The third week of preseason will start differently for Belgrano: with his first friendly. Starting at 9:00 p.m., the team led by Daniel Maffei will visit Pergamino Básquet, in what will be the first test of the Rojo for the Federal League that will begin at the end of the month.
Pergamino is in the middle of the second phase of the Argentine League, so Julián Pagura is expected to use the friendly tonight to give minutes to the youth and those who do not have as much action in the second division of national basketball. There Pergamino Básquet is going through a positive streak for the first time, since its debut in the category was not good at all.
In the first phase he finished last, while the second started with four falls in a row. Last Friday, against Zárate Básket, he added his third consecutive victory (before he had defeated Racing de Chivilcoy and Lanús), showing for the first time an improvement thanks to his recent additions: Colombian Soren De Luque and Santiago Ibarra from Barader.
Belgrano will play the next Federal League (former Federal Tournament) starting on January 28, sharing an area with Regatas, Somisa and the six teams from Rosario. The Nicoleño squad began the preseason on January 3 with two new faces: shooting guard Octavio Lagger and 2.17-meter pivot Joaquín Lallana, one of the tallest basketball players in the country.
Referring to the latter, Maffei said: “He’s young, athletic, strong, and we’re talking too tall even for the National League. I think that what the boy needs is to make the leap in quality, and he is going to make that leap by having the opportunity to play, because for the coaches out there it is difficult to give a player the opportunity when you have a foreigner on the bench” .
“Here there is going to be a multidisciplinary group focused on collaborating with its development, and it is also going to have the possibility of making mistakes. If we can give him continuity, perhaps we will achieve the objective of helping him in his development and obviously helping Belgrano, because we believe that a player of this size and experience is very good for us”, he added.
The other three major seats will be occupied by Nicolás Maffei, Elías Etherovich and Lucas Nuñez, while the squad will be completed with youngsters with valuable minutes such as Juan Delon, Santino Vercelli and Genaro Calcaterra.
Saint Nicholas Cup
Next weekend, the three nicoleños that will play in the Federal League will play a friendly home run organized by the San Nicolás Basketball Association, and that will feature Sportmen from Rosario as a guest. On Friday they will play at 20 Somisa vs. Sportmen and at 22 Regattas vs. Belgrano. On Sunday the losers and winners will face each other. All the activity will take place at the Fortunato Bonelli, with the presence of the public of all biases.
