The South American team finished fifth at the 2011 Boys’ Youth World Championship at home and many of the players that represented their country two years ago have kept their place in head coach Fabian Muraco’s roster for the tournament that is about to get under way on August 22 in Turkey.
Argentina was drawn to play in Pool B at the Baskent Volleyball Hall in Ankara, along with the teams of Estonia, Iran, Japan and Mexico. They do not have an official game scheduled on the first competition day, so they will open their campaign with a match against Iran on Friday.
However, the Argentines played a joint training match against Egypt this morning at Baskent and they shut out their opponents by 3-0 (25-17, 25-19, 25-23).
This has been only the latest of many friendly matches that the team played during their preparation for the World Championship. Coach Muraco is very pleased with the way his team trained for this tournament. ”We had a very good preparation and trained hard,” he said. ”We played many friendly matches and we are ready for a tough championship.”
Despite Argentina’s good performance in previous world championships, Fabian Muraco refuses to assign the role of one of the favorites to his team. ”We are only thinking about our next game. We will be taking it step by step, match by match, and depending on the results we will move forward. Nobody is the favorite. It will be a very difficult World Championship.”
For more news from this competition, click on Junior World Championship 2013 M.