After knowing the draw for the group stage of the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, Julio Lamas, Argentine coach of the Japan basketball team, admitted that he preferred “not to face” Argentina, with which its managers will share a zone, which will also be Spain, current world champion, and the winner of the playoff to be played in Lithuania between five teams.
“I have the feeling that I do not like having to play against Argentina, I preferred not to face it and do it with another rival. When I had to be in the Argentine National Team and we had to play against Brazil, I was thinking of Rubén (Magnano), or Nestor. (García) with Venezuela, I think they would have liked something else “, recognized the former national selector.
“I think it has been 30 years since Japan and Argentina have played an official match, and I would have preferred to avoid it”Lamas continued, although the draw decreed that the Argentines will share a group with the locals. The fourth member of Group C will emerge from the winner of a playoff between Lithuania, Slovenia, Poland, South Korea, Venezuela and Angola, who will meet in the Lithuanian capital Kaunas.
Lamas, champion of everything with San Lorenzo in the last time, landed in Japan in 2017 with the aim of improving the national team for the Olympic Games, which were postponed in 2020 for a year due to the coronavirus and will begin on July 23 in the Japanese capital. “If I have to say what is handled as an official version is that the Games are going to be held, so said the Prime Minister of Japan”, Lamas bet in a note with Uno Contra Uno Web.
Likewise, the DT recognized that the issue of vaccination in Japan is complicated. The expectation of arriving vaccinated on July 23, the start date of the sports ceremony, is “almost ruled out” and that the “most real” option that the organization is considering is to play with the Japanese public in the stands to “avoid a greater economic loss ” for the country.
“They are playing baseball, soccer and basketball, with a capacity in the stadiums of 50 percent. Tomorrow I will go to see a game. A little that is what is happening. Today there were more than 1,700 infected. Japan has 5,800 dead and it is with 1700 infected daily and it is expected that they begin to vaccinate in the first days of March “he explained.
However, Lamas remarked that in Japan it is “strongly” complied with with measures such as the use of the chinstrap, social distance and the absence of large gatherings, with premises closing at 20. Finally, Lamas gave his opinion on the rivals of zone C in the Olympic event and described: “Argentina and Spain have the collective talent, playing together they reach their best version”.
