Spain is not intimidated by Argentina in the padel World Cup: "There is no clear favorite"

With the absence of Ale Galán for the Padel World Cup, the Argentine team seems to have more options to win the tournament in a hypothetical final against Spain. However, both the national coach, Juanjo Gutiérrez, and Arturo Coello, one of the team's main figures, wanted to defend their options in the press conference after the quarterfinals against Brazil.

Juanjo assured that there is still a lot of equality: "I think there is no clear favorite. It depends a lot on how the matches fall and how the players are that day. Everyone knows each other a lot, it is a sport that greatly influences moods, and especially the timing with which they arrive. So I think it will be decided by details." The 'King', for his part, was more blunt: "We are favorites."

Specifically, the man from Valladolid spoke about his role in the call, being still young but the member with the highest ranking: "No, I don't feel like a leader. If I lead sometimes it is totally involuntary due to my personality. I don't try to lead the team, far from it, I am a person who stays quite apart from that. I try to contribute what I can, to help those who ask for my help, but I stay quite apart. I think there are personalities in this team with a greater influence, such as Paco or Juan, who are people who are more into leadership and those types of things; I am calmer in that aspect. My idea is not to lead, it is to be one more and contribute my grain of sand.

Everyone knows each other very much, it is a sport that greatly influences moods, and especially the timing with which they arrive.

Juanjo Gutierrez

Juanjo also praised the figure of Paquito Navarro with a laugh: "When he started playing, Javi didn't even know what paddle tennis was. It didn't exist. Therefore, Paco is like that person who is 2,000 years old and continues to compete. He creates a bit of a link between the generations and it is true because he has lived three generations. So luckily the base remains." An atmosphere that Javi Leal has also valued very positively: "It is a week in which we have the option of enjoying a lot of people and being able to talk to people that perhaps during the year you do not have as much opportunity to talk to and also get nourishment from seeing certain things, from seeing how certain players train and how they think. Furthermore, we all have the same objective and we all represent and defend the same values ​​and the same dreams, with which we are very happy."

No, I don't feel like a leader. If I lead sometimes it is totally involuntary due to my personality.

Arturo Coello

No clues about lineups

One of the big doubts of the week is the formation that Juanjo Gutiérrez will choose, who has not revealed any details about which players or the order he will put in the final match: "Yes, obviously I already have a more or less prepared idea and now details are missing. I can't give you more information. Unfortunately I can't give you more information." However, he acknowledged that it was precisely Javi Leal and Arturo Coello who have surprised the most together on the court.

Yes, obviously I already have a more or less armed idea and now details are missing.

Juanjo Gutierrez

Furthermore, despite the fact that Spain has overcome the rounds with the expected ease, Gutiérrez explained that his players already feel that emotion and pressure of being close to the decisive moment: "I think the team continues to maintain that line of good work, with a lot of chemistry, and today I talked about it with Nacho, my coach; when I got to the gym in the morning I saw other faces, I saw different faces, I saw totally changed looks."