The National Team already has its 16 players for the second qualifying window for the 2023 World Cup, which will be played in three different venues, the Philippines, Japan and Indonesia, from August 25 to September 10 of next year. Spain will face Ukraine twice in this break: first in Córdoba, next Thursday 24 at 8:45 p.m. and, later (and in principle), in Kiev on Sunday 27 at 3:00 p.m.
Scariolo has introduced four novelties with respect to the squad of the first Window, which achieved two victories after beating Macedonia in Skopje and Georgia in Jaén. Francis Alonso and Rubén Guerrero (Unicaja Málaga) and Ferran Bassas (Joventut) return to the national team, while Josep Puerto, shooting guard for Valencia Basket, will debut with the National Team. Darío Brizuela and Jaime Fernández (Unicaja Málaga), Quino Colom (AEK Atenas) and Víctor Arteaga (MoraBanc Andorra) fell with respect to the previous list.
The 16 summoned
Alberto Diaz (Unicaja)
Dani Perez (Baxi Manresa)
Ferran Bassas (Badalona Youth)
Joan Sastre (Lenovo Tenerife)
Francis Alonso (Unicaja)
Josep Puerto (Valencia Basket)
Xabi Lopez-Arostegui (Valencia Basket)
Joel Parra (Joventut Badalona)
Oriol Paulí (Morabanc Andorra)
Jonathan Barreiro (Unicaja)
Dani Díez (Inherits San Pablo Burgos)
Miquel Salvó (Herbalife Gran Canaria)
Jaime Pradilla (Valencia Basket)
Yankuba Sima (Baxi Manresa)
Ruben Guerrero (Unicaja)
Fran Guerra (Lenovo Tenerife)
forward looking list
“It’s a list that keeps going into the future. We incorporated a player who had not been until now in the calls of the Absolute Selection as Josep Puerto, who has been performing for a few months with energy, talent and with progressive improvement in terms of experience in a great team like Valencia Basket. The rest are players who continue in our idea of introducing new players who come out of our training categories and who are making their way into the national competition”, assures Scariolo, national coach, in words to the FEB.
“Also some player who has already been in other stages and previous calls and who we believe can continue contributing. And we have not summoned more veteran players for this Window that at this point in the season they can have more advantage with a week of rest or different training with their teams but that they will be able to join in the summer”, he continues.
Kiev as the venue?
Spain will face Ukraine in a double match with only the Córdoba headquarters as safe. Kiev is in the air due to the tension between the ex-Soviet country and Russia, which can explode at any time. The Government has recommended not to travel to Ukraine and Spanish citizens to leave the country. The various parties involved work on a solution.
One of the possible escape routes was to play both games in Spainto which Ukraine has refused, since the classification is at stake and it is not willing to play two games against the National Team as a visitor.
The rival of the National Team also points out that playing in the country is safe at this time, as the Unicaja trip to measure itself with the Prometey already demonstrated. However, the Ukrainian team has moved to the Czech Republic a couple of days ago due to the latent conflict. The neutral seat is also shuffled, with one of the three Baltic republics as possible hosts of Sunday’s duel.