The Dominican national team will leave in mid-June for a training base in Spain and will hold several practice games, with one already confirmed to be against Spain on June 28 at the Pedro Fernández Pavilion in the city of Alicante.
Argentine coach Néstor -Ché- García exclaimed that “my great dream is to get the Dominican Republic to qualify for the Olympic Games in Paris 2024, in France, and I will do everything in my power to achieve it”.
The affirmation was made this Tuesday by the beloved and admired by the Dominican people, Ché García, in his return to the technical direction of the national senior basketball team and in which he immediately prepares to participate -after a quota- in the FIBA Qualifying Championship (Olympic Repechage) to be played from July 2 to 7 in Piraeus, Greece.
He said that it would be his third time that he will attend the Olympic Games, since in the past he had achieved it with the national teams of his native Argentina and Venezuela, but that his greatest desire is to achieve it with the Dominican team, whose people have given him the greatest show of affection that can be given to a foreigner, a unique love that I am grateful for, that’s why I came back, because my heart is here. I never wanted to leave.
Ché absent in the first semester
Garcia was absent in the first semester of this year from the tricolor squad after his participation in the 2023 World Championship, Indonesia, Philippines and Japan, when he signed with the Al Ahli team of Bahrain’s professional league and was later announced as coach of the Saudi Arabian national team for last February’s window.
His place has been taken by young Quintana Roo coach David Diaz, who led the team in the first AmeriCup window and finished with a 1-1 round-robin record against the Aztecs in February’s games in Santo Domingo and Mexico.
Diaz returns to the position of assistant, along with Abraham Disla, who were present at the press conference held this Wednesday in the James Rodriguez hall of the Ministry of Sports, which was headed by the engineer Rafael Uribe, president of the Dominican Basketball Federation (Fedombal) and vice president Junior Paez.
Garcia said that two other people will be in different roles in the coaching staff such as Sergio Jimenez, will be one of his assistants, and German Andrin, will serve as physical trainer, who will replace Daniel Seoane, who directs the national team of his native Venezuela, and Santiago Alfaro will work with the national team of his country, Uruguay.
Games against DR
In the pre-Olympic event, the Quakers will play on July 2 against Egypt, 11:30 in the morning (Dominican time), and the following day against Greece, 2:00 in the afternoon (Dominican time). They are all members of Group B, where the top two teams will go to the semifinals and cross paths with the top two teams from Group A: Slovenia, New Zealand and Croatia.
He will remain in the national team for 3 years
Ché García pointed out that he will remain with the Dominican national team for the next three years (2024-2027), for which he expressed his gratitude to the Fedombal executives, players and coaches with whom he has shared these past years.
He pointed out that “the doors of the selection are open to all Dominican players who play in the different professional leagues of the world at any level, especially those in the NBA such as Al Horford (Boston Celtics), Karl Towns (Minnesota Timberwolves), Chris Duarte (Sacramento Kings), Lester Quiñones (Golden State Warriors) and Justin Minaya (Portland Trail Blazers), among others.
“With the group of players that will go to the Olympic Playoff we will apply all our defensive capabilities, we will be very demanding in that aspect of the game, García said.
The Dominican national team will leave in mid-June for a training base in Spain and will hold several practice games and it was reported that one game has already been confirmed against Spain on June 28 at the Pedro Fernandez Pavilion in the city of Alicante.
Ché García also announced that they are taking the necessary steps to hold other friendly matches against the Norwegian national team on Saturday, June 22, and on Tuesday, June 25, against Portugal, in Spain.
He said that practices on Dominican soil will begin on Monday, June 10 and the following week they will travel to Spain.
Uribe speaks
The president of Fedombal, Rafael Uribe, said that the country will have a great challenge in this pre-Olympic tournament, which international basketball experts describe as “very difficult”, mainly when the two best teams of groups A and B meet, and that is when the options of obtaining tickets to the Olympic Games are latent.
“We are very hopeful that with Ché García as national team manager we will obtain the expected results in the Olympic Repechage and for the first time in history we will participate in an Olympic Games,” said Uribe.
He exclaimed without hesitation that Ché! “Take us to the Olympic Games as you once did with Argentina and Venezuela”.
Source:Noticiassin.com
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