Montakit Fuenlabrada comes off a difficult defeat to AEK Athens, in order to receive CEZ Nymburk on the sixth gameday of the FIBA Champions League. About a month ago, Néstor Rafael “Che” García took charge of the technical guidance at the Madrid-based club.
Agustí Julbe had to step out due to the first unsuccessful results and the 53-year-old Argentinean coach led his team to a great victory against FC Barcelona Lassa for the Spanish League.
Francisco “Pako” Cruz, the man who scored the buzzer-beating three-pointer in the final seconds of the away win over Bamberg, had an interesting albeit short conversation with TalkBasket.net. The Mexican national was asked, among other things, to indentify the alterations in the team’s philosophy after the arrival of Nestor Garcia and the new features that the new coach has brought to the team. Here is what he replied:
“No, there was no change. We continue doing the same things since Nestor arrived on the team. But what other coach are you talking about? Julbe? Ah, this is another story, since he’s not here any more. I do not know why you ask me about that. If we’re supposed to talk about this issue? Of course not”.
Cruz also commented on:
His team’s performance against AEK: “We played very badly and that’s why we lost. We had not been concentrated, did not pay attention to what our coach told us which was to place emphasis on defense. I believe that this was the reason we lost because when we defend, we have good results”.
The goals of this version of Fuenlabrada: “The objective is to take one step at a time, winning every game we play. Now we focus on the game that follows. For sure, everyone wants to play the final phase of the Copa del Rey, as we did last year; so, it’s clear that this is one of our goals. Nevertheless, we are focused on what follows. We have to learn from the mistakes of this game and improve. We must learn from the game against Real Madrid also because it was very hard and physical. I think we can compete against everyone, something which has been made evident so far. We have good players, a lot of talent and it’s up to us how we can handle it, especially on defense”.
