Africa-Press – Botswana. Today, Thursday, at the beginning of the evening (7:00 pm), the National Basketball Team will train to adapt to the floor of the Treichville Sports Palace, Abidjan, stage that will host from tomorrow, Friday, the 26th, the challenges of the fourth and penultimate qualifying window African Zone of Group E for the 2023 World Cup, competition taking place in Japan, Philippines and Indonesia, respectively.
The Angolan flight, which was scheduled to arrive in the early afternoon of yesterday, arrived at the Félix Houphouët Boigny International Airport, in Abidjan, from Casablanca (Morocco), where it made a short stopover, after having completed a pre-competitive internship of approximately one and a half months at the prestigious Centro de Alto Rendimento de Sangalhos, Portugal.
Thus, the trio of technicians consisting of Josep Clarós “Pep”, Aníbal Moreira and Miguel Pontea Lutonda, will carry out a light training session, aimed essentially at physical recovery, given the wear and tear of the long journey.
The later training session will also serve to adapt to the floor of the Treichville Sports Palace, in Abidjan, a city that for the second consecutive time will host another FIBA window, after having done so in the first half of last July. (July one to three).
Meanwhile, eight of the thirteen players chosen to compete in the fourth and penultimate qualifying window African Zone for the Asian World Cup, get to know the old floor of the Treichville Sports Palace, the stage where the hendeca African champions won their last African title, this in 2013, after a long period of dominance of almost three decades.
These are Gerson Gonçalves “Lukeny”, Leonel Paulo, Gerson Domingos, Childe Dundão, Jilson Bango, António Monteiro, Teotónio Dó and Dimitri Maconda, the latter, despite not having made his debut in the national five, trained with the group in With a slightly humid climate, given the rains that have hit the Ivorian capital, Josep Clarós “Pep”‘s pupils will surely adapt as quickly as possible.
Tomorrow, Friday, the race for the 2023 World Cup truly begins for the twelve nations qualified for this stage of the competition. The National Team will face the modest, but dangerous, Uganda Team, fifth in Group E, with five points, against six of the African champions, in third place.
Côte d’Ivoire and Cape Verde occupy the first two places, with eight and seven points, respectively.
The Angolan team is prohibited from slipping during the dispute of the fourth and penultimate qualifying window African Zone for the 2023 World Cup, under penalty of being increasingly distant from the great event, which will have the participation of thirty-two (32 ) nations. The National Team will be able to pay a big bill, due to not having played any control game, before stepping on the soil of Côte d’Ivoire.
Lack of engagement can complicate
The entry of new players, with emphasis on Bruno Fernando, Bamba Cissé, younger brother of the Angolan international, Mohamed Malike Cissé, and Gerónimo Luís, could play against the national team, who are looking for their sixth consecutive presence in a final phase of a World Cup. in the World, ninth overall. The lack of chemistry could be the first opponent of the African champions, who are obliged to make the full if they want to stay in the race for the 2023 Asian World Cup.
The city of Monastir, Tunisia, will host Group F, where the teams from South Sudan, Egypt, Tunisia, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Senegal and Cameroon are, respectively.
South Sudan leads that series, with twelve points, followed by Egypt and Tunisia, with eleven and ten points, in second and third places.
Organizing Committee does its best to organize
The Organizing Committee of the fourth and penultimate qualifying windows of the African Zone for the 2023 World Cup has all the conditions created to welcome the foreign delegations that are already in Abidjan in a dignified manner.
After the “rains” of criticism verified during the dispute of the third qualifying window of the African Zone, a race played from one to three of last July, where the accommodation conditions were depressing, the Organizing Committee managed to significantly fill this gap, for the satisfaction of the delegations, who wait only for the start of the jump ball.
Today, Thursday, the six nations, members of Group E, namely Côte d’Ivoire, Cape Verde, Angola, Nigeria, Uganda and the Republic of Guinea will carry out the adaptation training to the floor of the Treichville Sports Palace, in Abidjan , stage for the dispute of the challenges of the fourth window.
Foreign delegations and others were subjected to a screening test for Covid-19, a pandemic that continues to claim fatalities around the world.
The public, as well as media professionals, will also be tested for Covid-19.
Treichville Pavilion receives improvement works
The old Sports Palace Pavilion in Treichville in Abidjan, venue for the Group E qualifying matches for the African Zone for the 2023 World Cup, from the 26th to the 28th of this month, is undergoing restoration work.
The aforementioned sports infrastructure built in 1978 has the capacity to accommodate three thousand five hundred people seated. The works are fundamentally based on the painting of the VIP tribune, in addition to the changing rooms. Since its construction in 1978, the Treichville Sports Palace Pavilion has truly received restoration work in 2012, when the city hosts the final stage of the African Cup of Nations, commonly known as Afrobasket, in 2013, a competition won by the hendeca African champions. .
Meanwhile, with the group still incomplete, Côte d’Ivoire held a training session yesterday, in the aforementioned venue, with the presence of base Souleyman Diabate, 35 years old.
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