MADRID, 27 Abr. (EUROPA PRESS) –
Jorge Peleteiro, coach of the Spanish soccer team for people with cerebral palsy and acquired brain damage, assured that they are “looking forward” to the World Cup that Salou (Tarragona) will host next month and where they hope to certify an improvement that can bring a little closer to the great powers with which there is still “a very big jump”.
“We are looking forward to the start of the tournament, we have been blank for two years due to the pandemic, it has been very hard to keep the team training with a very distant goal and the athlete accuses him of not being able to compete every year. It has been complicated, but We are looking forward to it, we have worked well and we have prepared well,” Peleteiro said in an interview on the website of the Spanish Federation of Sports for People with Cerebral Palsy and Acquired Brain Injury (FEDPC).
On the improvement of the national team, he warned that “it must be taken with caution.” “Step by step, all the work is settling in and creating security in the team. Taking a quick leap can be counterproductive, the League and the national team are growing and the coaching staff are happy, but we prefer to go little by little to settle the project we have planned,” he said.
The technician believes that “to aspire to higher levels you need patience and work”, but that they are “on the right track”. “There is a very big gap between the current level of Spain and that of world powers such as Russia, Ukraine, the United States or Brazil. We do not think beyond reality, we have been improving and we hope to certify it in the World Cup,” he added.
Now, “the idea” is to improve the fifteenth position of the last two editions of the competition, although the team does not set “a specific goal”. “But we do want to be fighting in the group stage to try to get through to the top two. And if not, to be between ninth and twelfth, with which we would already improve the results of the last two editions”, admitted the man from Alicante. .
In the first phase they will face “in a complicated opening match” Ukraine, a “top world team that always fights in each championship for first place”, but with the unknown of what their preparation will have been for what is happening in the country with the invasion of Russia.
“Argentina is one of the best teams in South America, we met in Seville in 2019 and with a very bad result, but I am convinced that this time we are going to compete much more, and Northern Ireland we meet in the 2018 European Championship with a positive result, it is a tough rival that makes it difficult for you to counterattack, it will not be easy and you will have to fight it because having a better or worse classification will depend on it”, he detailed about the other two rivals.
In any case, Peleteiro knows that “Spain is not among the favourites” and that in this sport “it is difficult to hit the bells because there is a big difference between the teams that are at the top compared to the rest”. “We are going to the World Cup with enthusiasm and with a head, knowing who we are. We will see a team that works hard, with courage and attitude, we are going to fight every game until the last minute,” he stressed.
“The goal is to get through to the top two in the group stage, that would be a brutal success. Going third would also be a good result because we would improve the two previous World Cups. I don’t like to score a result before the start, we have to play each match, see how the team competes, apply what has been trained and plan game by game”, declared the coach.