Champions and runners-up battle to overcome The Group of Death

VALDIVIA (DIRECTV Liga de las Américas 2019) - It’s the beginning of February and Group C of DIRECTV Liga de las Américas 2019 starts today at the Antonio Azurmendi coliseum in the Chilean city of Valdivia.

Group C is considered “The Group of Death” since current Liga de las Américas champions San Lorenzo de Almagro (Argentina) and second-place winners Mogi Das Cruzes (Brazils) are part of it along Argentine league second-place winners San Martín de Corrientes, and locals and current Chilean monarchs, CD Las Ánimas.

San Lorenzo, who are also the current Argentina title holders, are the group favorites due to their great depth and the great moment they're currently living in their local tournament, where they're absolute leaders with a perfect record of 11 wins in 11 games.

The men coached by Gonzalo García are full of confidence thanks to their magnificent performance in the LNB.

“We're very good, we feel very strong and we have to maintain that defensive intensity and cover the whole court,” commented shooting guard promise Máximo Fjellerup to the club’s press department on January 26, after their most recent victory, against Quilmes.

For this event, the team is counting on their main men; besides Fjellerup, they’re relying on Nicolás Aguirre and Marcos Mata. As a matter of fact, due to specific conditions of the Liga de las Américas regulations (that allow five foreign players per team), they’ll have to leave outside one of their six imported assets to give space to recently-signed veteran Diego Lo Grippo.

Coach García will have to choose who will rest: Dar Tucker, Jerome Myinisse, Matías Calfani, Joel Anthony, Donald Sims or Ramón Clemente. This decision will be made public after the technical meeting.

For their part, Mogi are also outstanding in their Brazilian league. Although they lost their most recent encounter against Flamengo, before this setback they ranked in nine consecutive victories, showcasing a 14-5 record to rank fourth in the NBB.

Arthur Pecos, Gui Deodato, Shamell Stallworth and JP Batista are the stellar names that Guerrinha is counting on.

“It’ll be a three-day playoff with three direct games. We need to be smart, identify where we can wear them down, and even know the difference we need to establish in our result,” said Guerrinha to the Brazilian league's communications department.

“It’ll be a very challenging game against San Lorenzo. They're the strongest adversary, their game is very physical, very intense, and it’ll be a very hard game. It's difficult, but not impossible. The Valdivian team has good foreigners and will play at home. San Martín are at our level, they have three excellent and experienced foreign players that contribute a lot, as well as good Argentine players,” added the former player that used to be an outstanding figure of the Amazonian team during the 80’s and 90’s.

San Martín will certainly be a complicated rival in their corresponding bracket, and they’ll try to elbow out the remaining continental finalists to obtain one of the two tickets available to the next stage of the tournament. Although they've had intermittent results in the Argentine league, with an 8-5 balance (fifth place), it must be clarified that — to their defense — they've had to play mostly as visitors; which is why Coach Sebastián González feels positive and will try to get the most of this international experience.

“We have to enjoy being in the continent's most important tournament. This will be the first time that I’ll be coaching in it. (Michael) Hicks and (Tomás) Zanzottera have already played in it, but the rest hasn’t. We're proud of what the team did last year, they left us in this spot to play in the tournament in this very challenging group where the champions and runners-up of the Americas are present,” said González to Argentine news source El Litoral.

Lucas Faggiano, Hicks, Jeremiah Wood, Lee Roberts, Zanzottera, Martín Cabrera and Gabriel Peralta are the team’s core.

Meanwhile, CD Las Ánimas will try not to be left behind when they play at home. For this, they’ll completely trust the skills of Argentine coach Lucas Zurita, who has commandeered the club to have the best record of the Chilean league, with a 22-6 mark.

The backbone of the roster, Franco Morales, Arkeem Joseph, Arnold Louis, Brandon Robinson and Julius Holt, is joined by reinforcements Sebastián Suárez, Martín Perdomo, Manny Suárez and JJ Moore.

“For us this is an enormous challenge. We have great expectations of everything that's to come. We’ll be facing three very difficult rivals. We know that we're facing the strongest zone of the competition. This is our first international experience as a club and we want to try to represent accordingly,” stated Zurita to Argentine website Pick and Roll.

The coach also shared some thoughts about what’s ahead for his guys.

“I like my teams to be disciplined, to have a tactical order, and that they try to finish the outlines of the systems we work on. Also, that they pass the ball, that they look for those extra passes. We have a strong scoring power, and the important thing is that players understand that everyone’s moment eventually arrives. They must be patient, they must work for the team. We have to be solid in the defense to be able to win these games,” he ended.

This Friday’s game day will begin with the duel that will be a reminder of last year's edition: San Lorenzo v. Mogi, starting at 6:40 PM, local game time. Then, the locals will face San Martín.

 FIBA