WORLDSPORTS
APRIL 2014
ALL FOR ONE
The Gilas Pilipinas team is gearing up
for a monumental battle in Spain
FEARLESS DUO
Pingris, left, and David make up the
core of the victorious Gilas team
country’s honor is at stake,” said Reyes, “we must be committed
to give our best and to hopefully put on a decent performance.”
This month, they will begin practice on a regular basis.
Gilas Pilipinas finished runner-up behind Iran in last year's
FIBA Asia Championship held in Manila to punch a ticket to the
World Cup, set from August 30 to September 14 in Spain.
The Philippines is returning to the world basketball stage
for the first time since 1978, the year Manila hosted the international basketball showpiece.
And although the world basketball event is only five months
away and the much shorter preparation time, Reyes is still confident of making up for the lost time.
Reyes said that if the Philippine Basketball Association
(PBA) is “going to release the players to the pool on July 15-20,
we are going to play 12 games in August. It will be a brutal
schedule against tough
competition.”
First off, Gilas Pilipinas
will set up camp in Vitoria,
Spain on August 4 and will
begin a series of tune-up
games against the Canadian
and Ivory Coast national
teams which are not in the
World Cup but are very
strong.
“It will be a sort of warmup and then we’ll play Angola which is a strong team,
twice,” Reyes quipped.
The nationals will play
four games in the first week
and then fly to Andres in
“Surely our boys are
France in response to an
going to be dead-tired,
invitation after the draw was
but I told them that
announced. They will play
we are duty-bound
three straight games against
because our country’s
Australia, Turkey and France
honor is at stake ... we
before returning to Vitoria
must be committed
to give our best and
for the final week of preparato hopefully put on a
tion before the start of the
decent performance.”
World Cup.
“We have lined up New
– CHOT REYES
GILAS PILIPINAS HEAD COACH
Zealand, the Dominican
Republic, Ukraine, Finland,
Mexico and Egypt and will
reprise our actual schedule
by playing three games
straight, take one day off
and then play two games
straight,” Reyes disclosed.
The games will last up to
August 27 when the team returns to Seville which is the venue
where the opening round games begin for Group B on August
30.
For the Philippines to advance to the second round of the
tournament, they will need to win two games, probably against
Senegal and Puerto Rico, although winning even one may
already be a herculean task.
The Philippines has landed in a group which Reyes called as
“very tough” after the draw recently held in Barcelona. 8
sports magazine t h e g a m e
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