U18 Final Four: Argentina, Cuba, Dominican Republic getting ready for WCH

LIMA, Peru, August 3, 2017 -  A preview of the U18 World Championship in Argentina will be ´played during the weekend at Manuel Bonilla Coliseum of Miraflores, Lima with the Herbalife Final Four Cup gathering the teams of Argentina, Cuba, Dominican Republic and hosts Peru.

“This event has become a classic and now adds more importance since it offers the participants the chance to arrive in better shape to the world championship in Argentina. We all know the organization of this competition requires of a great effort so we want to express our appreciation to the Peruvian Federation for the work carried out to secure the success,” said Cristobal Marte, president of NORCECA and of the Control Committee, during the preliminary inspection of the teams.

Before the initial whistle on Friday with the match between Dominican Republic and Argentina, the coaches of the teams shared their expectations:

Etanislao Vachino, coach of Argentina: “We come here after 15-day camp in Buenos Aires and now we start our preparation for this Final Four with great expectations. The opponents we already faced last year so this will allow us to gauge our improvement towards the world championship at home.”

Tomás Fernández, coach of Cuba: “This competition is very important because we will arrive grateful about the things that will happen in Peru. We will be able to catch rhythm and prepare tactically with the matches here. From this group, four of them took part in the U20 world championship in Mexico while the rest trained in Havana.”

Alexandre Ceccato, coach of Dominican Republic: “Our first goal for this competition will be to fine tune the team in order to get the best game rhythm possible since the last time the team was together was for the U18 Pan Am Cup. Then a group moved into the junior team that took part in the U20 worlds. Now we have to resume the work against very strong rivals in a very interesting competition.”

Marco Quiroga, coach of Peru: “I am very happy about taking part in this competition because the team had many warm-up matches during our tour in Europe. Here the game system will be more demanding wth the challenge of winning first place. In this tournament we will evaluate where we are and what we need to improve for the world championship because they are young players under a very strong emotional pressure. I need to evaluate also the regularity of the competition, the control of the technical part and to find out the rhythm.”