A joy for the performance cadet team
Last Saturday, our performance cadet team won a friendly triangular tournament held in La Florida. The team won the tournament with victories over La Florida (23–22) and Castellón (43–28). The team travelled without...
2012-04-16
These excellent results in the tournament show that the team coached by Francisco Chicharro, assisted by Jose Maria Sanchez Gabaldón, has potential beyond the results achieved in domestic competition. It has undoubtedly been a difficult year for players and coaches, with their daily work unrewarded by a place in the provincial semi-finals, leaving them out of the race for the higher positions early on—positions achieved by both the youth and performance infant teams, and even by the cadet and development infant teams.
We believe this group deserved a joy such as beating the best cadet team in Valencia province, La Florida, and one of the regular contenders for the top places, Castellón, and doing so so decisively. This is undoubtedly the path to follow for the remainder of the competition, and a lesson for everyone that next year this generation has the drive and quality to fight for the highest honours.
Congratulations to all the members of the coaching staff and the players of this team, whose future is in their hands.
This is the personal account of one of the parents who travelled with the team, José Maria Piro“Defensive intensity was the key to the victories, which is highly meritorious, as the two matches were played consecutively, without a break between them. We arrived with only eight outfield players and two goalkeepers. Everyone’s contribution was spectacular: intense and effective in defence, all of them effective in attack, and the goalkeepers were simply outstanding. We ran more counter-attacks than in the entire season combined. The comments on the La Florida match remind me that it has already been four years since we met in the provincial semi-finals, between El Pilar, Pablo Neruda, Algemesi and Puerto Sagunto. That day we regretted not having to play the semi-final against Pablo Neruda. The development of the two teams has been completely different, and every time we have faced them, they have thrashed us one time after another. Well, today we finally took to the court without complexes, without thinking about whether they were superior or not—simply to defend like Spartans and attack as best we know how. This, together with the opponent’s usual relaxation when facing a rival they have always dominated, led us to win the match. This should make us reflect on the concept of ‘performance’, which, in my view, has not been understood as such throughout this time. Working with a smaller group helps the coach get the maximum performance out of the players, and physical work is vital for a player’s development. For those who do not know, these two teams were at a similar level four years ago. Today, our greatest success has been beating them in a friendly, while they play in Spanish Championships. The match against Castellón suggested that tiredness would take its toll, but it did not. Someone had changed the mentality of this fantastic team, and there was no turning back: they were going to win, come what may. The goalkeepers recalled that pair who were regulars in the national team squads. Every opposition attack was defended as if we were level, with margins approaching 20 goals, and in attack it is simply enough to say that everyone contributed 110% of what they could. In short, the youngsters enjoyed themselves immensely, and all the dads were beaming with pride. Congratulations to the Gabaldón–Soriano duo, who knew how to motivate the youngsters.”
Translation produced using artificial intelligence.