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Italy coach Gianmarco Pozzecco. –FIBA BASKETBALL
MANILA, Philippines — Italy coach Gianmarco Pozzecco desires the Azzurri to dream huge of their Tenth Fiba World Cup look as they kick off their Group A marketing campaign towards Angola on Friday at Philippine Area in Bocaue, Bulacan.
“My purpose is that my gamers dream. Dream and revel in and proceed to like one another, respect one another, respect my workers,” stated Pozzecco within the introductory press convention on Thursday at Sensible Araneta Coliseum. “Love the sport. All that basketball may give you, constructive emotion. They did a fairly good job, so I really like them and respect them.”
With the Italians raring to return to the highest 4 for the primary time because the 1978 version in Manila, group captain Luigi Datome hopes that they may proceed to play on the identical web page for them to translate their perfect 7-0 record from their friendlies into World Cup success.
“We’re a group that loves to remain collectively. We like to play collectively. We all know that if we are able to play the identical form of basketball, we will be harmful,” stated Datome. “The purpose is to play as many minutes as potential in that method. I’m actually excited. Very glad to be right here. All of the phases are unbelievable. One month of preparation, very excited, can’t wait as a result of we labored out on this nation and we’re able to go.”
Italy, presently ranked Tenth on the earth in males’s Fiba competitions, took down Turkey, China, Serbia, Greece, Puerto Rico, Brazil, and New Zealand to comb all their tune-up video games earlier than the World Cup.
Datome, the remaining member of Italy’s Tenth-place end within the 2019 World Cup in China, desires to take one step at a time in Group A, specializing in Angola first on Friday earlier than pondering of residence group Gilas Pilipinas on Sunday at Sensible Araneta Coliseum.
“From the little expertise I’ve, we concentrate on one recreation at a time, and our focus is on Angola. In two days, we take into consideration the Philippines. However in fact, they’re an excellent group. They’ll be powerful. Plenty of followers, rowdy followers, noisy followers, however now we concentrate on Angola,” stated the previous NBA participant.
Pozzecco, who confessed to being an enormous Manny Pacquiao fan, agreed with Datome: “Gigi’s proper. We concentrate on Angola. In fact, we all know, we’ll play not simply towards one group, however towards one nation. However we’ll help them, our gamers. It is going to be good for us.”
All eyes are on Utah Jazz winger, Simone Fontecchio, who emerged because the Italians’ essential man of their previous three main tournaments within the World Cup qualifiers, EuroBasket, and the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
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