Fertiberia Puerto Sagunto schedule five friendlies for January

Our Asobal team have planned five matches during the winter pre-season traditionally held in January because of the European Handball Championship. The red-and-white side, who will return to action on 7 January, will play several matches to ensure they do not lose their match rhythm ahead of the demanding second half of the Asobal League.

With virtually no time to train, their first opponents will be the Saudi Arabia senior national team. The national side have chosen the Valencian Community for their winter training camp and are managed by a familiar face to the red-and-white supporters, Goran Dzokic. The Serbian’s team will play two matches against Fertiberia: the aforementioned fixture on 8 January in Llíria, in a further commitment by the Puerto Sagunto team to promote elite handball in other towns across the Valencian Community. Later in January, specifically on the 18th, Saudi Arabia will visit the Ovni, which will once again host a match involving a senior national team, following the recent visits of Qatar, Chile and Argentina.

Another two-legged meeting is scheduled against an extremely familiar opponent this season. The proximity to Cuenca and budgetary constraints, in addition to the league and cup competitions, mean that the Fertiberia–Ciudad Encantada fixture can once again be enjoyed both in Cuenca, on the 17th, and at the Ovni on 25 January.

A special event will also take place this January. The aforementioned visit by the Saudi Arabia national team has made possible the return, after several years away, of the Valencian Community senior national team, in a match to be played in Picassent on 11 January at 20:00. The team, managed by the trio of Jose Francisco Nolasco, Fernando Latorre and Vicent Rosaleny, have called up five of our players for the match: Carlos Grau, David Bruixola, Javier Tarraso, Nacho Nebot and Rubén Ruiz. They will share the squad with players such as Nolasco, Cuartero and Sifre from Asobal, David Jiménez of Benidorm, and representatives of all the Valencian teams in Primera Nacional.

Taking advantage of this match, the rest of the Fertiberia squad will play Alcasser of Segunda Nacional at 18:00 on that same Saturday, the 11th, at the same venue in Picassent, as a curtain-raiser to the national-team match.

As can be seen, Pachi Martí has scheduled an intense programme of friendly matches to get his players up to speed during January and ensure they arrive in peak condition for the match against Ademar León on the first weekend of February.

Translation produced using artificial intelligence.