The Junior men’s team of Spain is ready for the FIH Men’s Junior World Cup, the tournament that will start in Singapore and Malaysia on 7 June 2009.
Spain is the current European champion after the title they lifted in San Sebastián in 2008 and current bronze medal in the Rotterdam2005 World Cup.
Nevertheless, Spanish Team will be very different as eleven players have changed after the 2008 success. “We have a strong team but I don’t want to fix great goals. It’s going to be a very hard competition. I want my team to get experience for the future as this is the real objective of Under 21. I would like to pass the first round as well, and later, we will see”, says Spain coach Salva Indurain.
Spain will face USA, Korea, England and Malaysia in the first round. Both England and Malaysia have been defeated by Spain in the Seville Tournament in April. “I think the strongest teams are Korea and Malaysia. Asian style is very different from European one. It’s very fast and we are not getting use to this high pace of playing. I really want to beat Korea as I’ve never been able to do it with my teams”, Indurain recognizes. “England is a big hockey nation so it shouldn’t be underestimate and USA is a very physical team”.
The big favorites for the gold medal are the usual ones for Indurain: “Argentina, Australia, Netherlands and Germany. I don’t really know Pakistan and India teams, but we should watch them carefully”.
Spain has decided to go to Malaysia two weeks before the start of the World Cup due to the Asian weather. “It’s very hot and humid, so we need to get acclimatized. It’s totally different from playing in Europe where there are big differences between the four seasons”.
Team Spain: Francesc Mata, Oscar Serra, Ramón Romeo, Oriol Peremiquel, Alex Casassayas, Marc García-Chicote, Gabriel Dabanch, José Manuel López, Roc Oliva, Diego Arana, Alejandro de Frutos, Javier Lainz, Salvador Piera, Xavier Lleonart, Alvaro Gómez, Vicens Ruiz, Borja Zumalacárregui.
Source: RFEH
