Uruguay's Signorelli: ''There's no room for mistakes''

MONTEVIDEO (FIBA Basketball World Cup Americas Qualifiers 2019) — The Uruguay National Team and their dream of being in the World Cup are moving forward and looking toward the next qualifying window in the Road to China 2019. The squad led by Marcelo Signorelli, with a track record of four triumphs and two losses, are focusing on three new and powerful rivals: Puerto Rico, Mexico and the United States.

More than three decades create a historic gap between Uruguay and a FIBA Basketball World Cup (the last one was in Spain 1986) and that is the South Americans’ main motivation. For this reason, FIBA.basketball spoke with Marcelo Signorelli for his analysis before this new stage that is coming our way.

The first challenge will take place on September 14, when they play face to face against the Uni-ted States in Las Vegas. Three days later, and in Montevideo, they locals will then welcome the Aztec team. A few hours after reaching the bronze medal in the most recent edition of the Su-damericano U21, Signorelli shared with us some key insights on what is still on his agenda with the Senior team.

The Uruguayan coach assured that he is preparing the last details in order to prepare for the first two games: “There’s no time to lose. We just ended our participation at the Sudamericano U21 and we are already analyzing our work agenda for the next games that are coming up. We will finish organizing the logistics this week alongside the neutrals; that way we can establish our work agenda, while first thinking about the United States, the first great rival we’ll be facing. The idea is to be there a couple of days before the game.”

Signorelli usualy does not (and does not want to) talk about anything else than what is immediate. Anyhow, he shared some brief ideas about his new rivals: “We're not going to discover anything new about the United States. They have extra quantity and quality to build a great team. We have to wait for the roster that they’ll reveal on September 14, and at the same time we have to design our game plan. It will of course be more physical than what it was in the previous windows.”

After that first game, the team will have a short recovery in their return flight to Montevideo, the city where they will receive Mexico a couple of hours later. The Uruguayan coach also commented: “Mexico are doing very good, they're very strong. Iván Déniz's work has been very good, they portrayed a great level in the last window and they have also been able to continue their success in the Central American games. At this point in the Qualifiers, all teams are strong and there's not much break for mistakes. We have to work hard every single game.”

When talking about Puerto Rico (against whom they’ll be playing on November 29 in Montevi-deo), Signorelli was very cautious: “I’m not denying that they're another great team, but now we're really 100% focused against the United States and Mexico; we’ll have time later to analyze and prepare for Puerto Rico.”

Another situation that has yet to unfold in the Uruguayan team is Jayson Granger’s, to which Signorelli assured: “I'm very optimistic that we’ll be able to count on him.”

The Uruguayan fans’ dream of participating again in a FIBA Basketball World Cup is huge. Marcelo realizes that the road is still long and, in his typical style, when asked about the amount of wins that he believes they need to qualify, he answered: “I don't make calculations, we can't look too ahead. Now I’m just focusing on preparing for the games against the United States and Mexico. That’s the most important thing now.”

FIBA