Tokyo, October 12, 2007: Finishing second to Bernardinho’s all-conquering Brazil is nothing to be ashamed of - and regional rivals Argentina have more experience of this than probably any other team.
It happened again at the recent South American Men’s Championship in Chile, where Giba and Co. collected another continental crown at the expense of Argentina, 3-0 in the final.
Still, Argentina’s head coach, Jon Uriarte, found plenty of reasons to feel optimistic after pushing the Brazilians to the limit ina titanic third set which ended 39-37 in Brazil’s favour.
“I am very proud of my players,” Uriarte said.
“We were able to produce our best play at the end of the last match.”
Scoring 37 points in one set against Brazil is no mean feat, and proved that Argentina can mix it with the best in the world on their day.
By then, Argentina had already achieved their goal by reaching the final to book a place in the World Cup, defying all predictions to beat a strong Venezuela team in the semi-finals. Win the final and they would qualify as South American champions; lose and theywould qualify as one of the four highest ranked runners-up in the five continental championships.
The “light blue and whites” will come to Japan with an emerging team, as the average age of the 12 players on duty in the South American championship was just 23.5.
Preparations for the World Cup started immediately on their return to Argentina, and Uriarte promptly named his provisional list of19 players.
Like last year’s World Championship, Argentina will start their campaign at Saitama Super Arena, and will hope to catch Russia coldin their opening game on November 18 - just like Puerto Rico did to Argentina on the first day of the 2006 Worlds.
After dropping that opening game 3-2, the Argentines never really found their groove and spluttered to a 13th-place finish, so Uriarte and his players will feel they have a point to prove on their return to Japan.
One special occasion for Uriarte will be Argentina’s match against Australia on November 23 at Hiroshima. Uriarte coached Australiafrom 2001 to 2004, steering them to the Olympic Games in Athens. His former assistant, Russell Borgeaud, is now head coach of Australia, the new Asian champions.

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