Lucuix and the substitute after the second place in the world: “We are a hard-jawed team, they have to hit us hard to overturn us”

Almost half of the American champions, I am not here. They have not been called up by the technical director matias lucuix for “revenge” against Paraguaytwo friendlies that will be played in Buenos Aires (Friday at 21:00 in the microstadio of Argentine Juniors) and Rosario (Sunday, at 6 pm, in Provincial Athletics Society), with the attraction of repeating the final won by the Argentine national team in February. How come? Why just like Lionel Scalloni when he started his cycle at the helm of the Major, he is going through the process of generational change in the Argentine National Futsal team.

“The least we try to do is look at the DNI, but we’re in one small replacement”, Admits Lucuix, before the matches against Paraguay, with two different teams for each venue, as well as some players will repeat. Mattia Starna, Massimiliano Rescia, Constantine Vaporak, Angelo Claudio, Andrea Geraghty Y Santiago Rufino, will be the six who will be in both games. The rest, most of the new faces, the generation that will have to maintain the level that Argentina has built in recent years: He was World Cup champion in Colombia 2016 and silver medalist in Lithuania 2021.

Lucuix also has its own trial. Perhaps in a confrontation with Lionel Scaloni, both of whom made their debut as team assistants without having previously managed companies, they took on the responsibility of driving – in his case Diego Giustozzi went to Spain – and achieved sporting successes with their own teams.

It was a natural process, but the Futsal Team TD spoke to the players and then to Claudio Chiqui Tapia, a fan of this sport who, since he took office in 2017, has given him a fundamental push to monitor results. sports not only at an international level. , but also local with clubs.

On the horizon, these friendlies against Paraguay – which he faced in the round of 16 of the 2021 World Cup – will be the prelude to a semester full of activities in Argentina: in September the Final Futsal version in Buenos Aires (against Portugal, Spain and Guarani) and there is also the men’s Copa Libertadores, which has Saint Lawrence as defending champion.

-Substitution implies the subtraction of experience and the addition of the opposite. How is equilibrium reached?

-There are many players who, at a certain age, should already be out. But the least we try to do is look at the DNI. We look for performance and before that possibility they continue to exist. But yes, we trust young people a lot. The truth is that it is a job that we have been doing since 2015, 2016 when we started working as technical staff and we believe that they are what tomorrow will be able to continue to position us in the elite, in the top positions in the world.

-With so many players in foreign leagues, how do you incorporate the notions?

– Not having the opportunity to train weekly or monthly with the senior national team, they (the youngsters) have to be there and they have to start sucking what we want for tomorrow. So it’s a very important part of our planning, which is more annual. And we want them to not only train, but also compete with local league teams, who try to travel to different provinces.

-What do you find when you watch our league matches?

-We try not to differentiate a local team from a “European” one, I try to make it become the Argentine national team, that everyone feels involved … Show them that we are following them, that we analyze them, that they know that the best are from our point of view and this makes us continue to maintain a high performance, which in the end is what the jersey asks of you today. The local league is a bit like the country: it has had its lowest points. Today it is growing. They have become many players from abroad, prominent players and many projection guys who are also taking the last steps because there are already teams from Europe who follow them and want to hire them.

-Do you think that club work today has a standard that benefits those who are called up?

-Clearly. I can tell you that we also take advantage of a little of the work that the coaches do every day, not only the coaches, but also the clubs and beyond the tactics and technique, but in all that are the rules of conduct of coexistence. Our microcycles are usually short, we don’t have a lot of time to work to prepare for a competition, and clearly the players come with the tools because the clubs provide them. There has been an evolution in recent years.

– Going back to the substitute, did the age issue cost you at some point, due to the proximity to some players?

-I had that chance for better or for worse. For the good, because many know what I was like as a player, what I am as a person and I can’t fool them. When you are in this place, players always measure you to see what ideas you have, if you keep doing what you said before, or if you change, or if you fit in. A balance must be found. We must have a certain respect, which comes first of all both from my home and from their home towards us. So, well, it was hard for me, I’m not going to tell you otherwise, but I have a lot of fun and clearly feel I am grateful for my age and for being in this place of privilege.

-What advantages does your age give you, then?

-I had the opportunity to have many more experiences than a coach older than me, because I have experienced situations not only as a player, but also as an assistant in a technical staff … Then you have to entrust everything to the players. Many times I have criticized myself for aspects, mainly strategic aspects of the game, but I think today I try to be a little more rational, more reflective and not very intuitive. I feel I am a better coach today, with a lot to improve, but with clear ideas. With that I go on.

-Is the level at which the national team is measured today not very high?

-I think that after the World Cup in Colombia the bar was already very high: it was a personal challenge as well as a group challenge for each of us who had been in that place. And, after all, sport is a bit cyclical too, right? When you get that high, the dynamic is that it starts to decrease and, well, after a certain process, you start regrouping again and again to get back to that high point. Well, that’s something that didn’t happen. That line wasn’t going down, but we always stayed. I think that the ambition of this group, that flame, is the one that gives us the opportunity to play the finals, to get to repeat a new world final, which after that blow (lost in Lithuania) was very hard for everyone, why lose a world final is very difficult, we managed to win a Copa America.

-This is a strong point …

-It is that when they return to training, whatever it takes: friendly, match, tournament, the players want to be there and they know that this training is what prepares us to be able to compete in the best possible way. Mainly to represent every lover of our discipline, which often we are few, because we were few, but now we are more.

-What is missing in Futsal to be more popular?

-We are a new sport, with a few years of development. We see that transformation. We had the chance to play at Parque Roca recently with 14,000 people and it was something unique. Tears fell from our eyes when we listened to the anthem with so many people … The discipline will go further and tomorrow that long-awaited professionalization of sport will happen, which is what we all seek and that sport will establish itself in society and people. will no longer speak of Futsal as of small kick. He will talk about Futsal as a discipline practiced throughout the country.

-What will we see from Friday?

-We will see a national team that always tries to be the protagonist, but that we also have an additional requirement which is to offer a show and this is the most difficult thing. Many young, new faces who will be the future, who are taking and taking their first steps in the national team, replacing players with a long history and we must give them time. We don’t have to rush or let it burn the phases. It is the same process that we have already done in another time and that has allowed us to be world champions. So I hope people have fun.

– Regardless of the names, this is a team that, unlike many years ago, is now respected by its rivals, do you agree?

– They clearly respect us more. They know that we are a team with a very hard jaw, that they have to hit us many times to overturn us, that we will always be there, that we will always compete in matches until the end and that whatever tournament they prepare and nobody can give us up for dead, because we will compete. always in the best possible way.