With a team that regains some of its core values and the goal of returning to a major competition after not participating in the tournament World Cup 2023 between Indonesia, Japan and the Philippines Nor in Paris 2024 Olympic Gameshe Argentine basketball team She will start on her way to Thursday World Cup Qatar 2027: The group he leads Pablo Prigioni will visit Cuba From 8:10pm at Ciudad Deportiva Coliseum Havana (TyC Sports and DSports) will be broadcast in a match that coincides with the first date of Americas Qualifiers.
The national team reaches this first qualifying window with a fairly auspicious recent history, as at the end of August it was runner-up in the America’s Cup held in Nicaragua and won Brazil. It did so without its main characters and with a very young cast (average age was 24.4 years) in which they stood out Juan Fernandez (It was included in the competition’s perfect quintet), Gonzalo Corbalan and Francisco Cafaro.
They and other young people, such as Juan Boca, me high And the beginner Matthew DiazThis time they will have the support of two men with many years and many decisive matches on their backs: Facundo Campazzo and Gabriel Dickwho was on loan from Real Madrid, traveled after the match he played meringue On Tuesday they played Hapoel Tel Aviv in Botevgrad (Bulgaria) in the Europa League and arrived in Havana on Wednesday afternoon. On the other hand, Nicolas Laprovittola, Juan Ignacio Marcos (both from Barcelona), Luca Veldoza (Virtus Bologna), and Leandro Bolmaro (Olympia Milano) were not allowed.
In Havana Coach Pablo Prigioni and his first assistant will also not be present.Hermann Mandol. As he explained Argentine Basketball FederationThe absence is for “personal reasons” and both will join the team in Buenos Aires for the second match of this window. For this reason, one of Prigioni’s collaborators, Nicholas CasalangidaHe will be the coach of the national team in the first match of the Argentine national team on its way to qualifying for the World Cup for the 15th time.
“In the (European) summer, when there was no competition, the team trained well before the America’s Cup, which allowed us to perform well in the tournament. We knew that the America’s Cup would allow us to reach the World Cup windows well. Now comes the stage of reality. We have to put on record everything we have done well in recent times,” Casalangida said on the eve of his debut.
Juan Fernandez had a very impressive performance for the Argentine national team in the 2025 America’s Cup. Photo: Argentine Basketball Federation.Assistant Pablo Prigioni added: “We must treat these 12 matches that we have to qualify for Qatar as finals. The team understands this, we have recovered from not qualifying for the last World Cup and we know that we cannot afford to lack focus or distraction. We have to do things very well in each match to build this ranking match after match.”
If Argentina faces this window with important absences, the Cuban team will also suffer from it, which is what it will suffer from He has not participated in any ecumenical event since the 1994 World Cup in Canada. He entered the Americas qualifiers after finishing second in one of the pre-qualifying groups held in Chile. The Antilles team will not have its main, central character Jasiel RiveroHe is recovering from a fracture in one of his feet that he suffered last October during a match for his team, Red Star Belgrade. The attacker will also be missing Howard St. Ross And power forward Yankee forgotten.
Without three of his best values, the coach Osmil Planas He will use a squad that includes several players with a past in Argentina, among whom the pivot stands out Pedro BombinoAccompaniment Reynaldo Garcia And power forward Karel GuzmanAnd three of those currently working in the country: point guard Marcos Chacon (Commodore Rivadavia Gymnastics), Axis Brian Cantero (Sportivo Suardi) and the goalkeeper Joan Gutierrez Conde (Gimnasia y Esgrima La Plata), which will only participate in the second match of this window.
The pivotal Pedro Bombino will have to assume additional responsibilities in the absence of some Cuban team figures. Photo: FIBA.The confrontation that will be held on Thursday will be the nineteenth between these two teams. The record favors Argentina 13-5Who won the last six matches. To find the last Cuban victory you have to go back to June 17, 1989When the Caribbean team won 88-81 at the Palacio de los Deportes in Mexico City in the match for seventh place in the FIBA Americas Championship. The last confrontation was on August 17, 2023, when Argentina won 109-66 in La Banda in the qualifiers for the Paris Olympics.
Once the duel in Havana is over, the Argentines and Cubans will fly approximately 7,000 kilometers to measure their strength again next Monday at 7 p.m. In the Rock Temple in Health business For the second date of Group D of the Americas Qualifiers, of which they are also a part Uruguay and Panama. Prigioni’s side will face these opponents in their next two international matches: at home against both on February 27 and March 2, 2026, and away on July 2 and 5.
Mateo Diaz has been called up to the senior national team for the first time and could make his debut on Thursday in Havana. Photo: Argentine Basketball Federation.The Americas qualifiers, in which 16 teams will compete, extend until February 2027 and will provide seven places for the World Cup in Qatar, which will be held in… Doha Between August 27 and September 12 of that year.
In the first round, the teams will be divided into four groups. The top three of each will advance to the second stage, where the 12 seeds will be divided into two regions. All teams will advance to that stage with the results obtained in the first stage and will only face each other in home and away duels with opponents they have not faced before. The top three teams in each group, along with the best teams in the two quarters, will qualify for the World Cup.
This is how the first qualifying window will be played
20.10 Cuba – Argentina (Group D)
20.10 Chile – Brazil (Group C)
22.40 Panama – Uruguay (Group D)
22.40 Colombia – Venezuela (Group C)
20.10 Jamaica – Puerto Rico (Group B)
22.10 Nicaragua – USA (Group A)
22.40 Bahamas – Canada (Group B)
23.40 Mexico – Dominican Republic (Group A)
19.10 Brazil – Chile (Group C)
19.10 Venezuela – Colombia (Group C)
21.40 Uruguay – Panama (Group D)
19.00 Argentina – Cuba (Group D)
21.10 USA – Nicaragua (Group A)
21.10 Dominican Republic – Mexico (Group A)
21.10 Puerto Rico – Jamaica (Group B)
21.10 Canada – Bahamas (Group B)