The gaucho spirit of Guaguas

The Argentine center back Martín Ramos rejoins the Guaguas discipline, completing the gaucho triad along with his compatriots Nico Bruno and Maxi Cavanna. If he performs in tomorrow’s Canary Islands derby against Cisneros de Tenerife at the CID (12:00 p.m.), it will be his debut in yellow in his second campaign at the club.

Martín Ramos disembarks on the Island to reinforce the Buses. The Argentine central defender, fresh from the pre-Olympic dispute in China with his country, supports the center of the network of the current Super League champion. It lands right in the week of the derby. This Saturday at the Insular Sports Center (12:00 p.m.) the yellows face Cisneros de Tenerife, who has his compatriot Lucas Conde in their ranks.

Despite having missed what would have been his second preseason under Sergio Miguel Camarero, the player is in top form after playing the tournament with the albiceleste in Xi’an. The Argentines finished third in group C, surpassed by Poland and Canada, which sealed their qualification for the Paris 2024 Games. For their part, the South American team will try to qualify by ranking by winning the greatest number of games in the Nations League.

“We came third in the group and could not secure our place for the Games, although we are in a good position that we will try to maintain next year to qualify,” Ramos acknowledges.

For the Guaguas center, representing Argentina “is something very nice.” «We players make many sacrifices to defend our country, and even more so in the case of an Olympic year, to have the possibility of representing our flag there. The Games multiply that desire by a thousand, because it is the competition in which any player wants to be, at least those who are outside the soccer», he says.

Although the fever for soccer is not comparable to that for volleyball in his country, he recognizes that “there is a lot of passion for volleyball.” «Many fans follow our games, they are very passionate; Now that we have been playing in China at three in the morning during the week, people got up to see us and sent us their love,” says Martín Ramos.

«As whether or not you are in Paris depends on the ranking, any result counts, so if you beat a team that surpasses you in the ranking you get more points, if we beat a team that is below us we don’t win as many, and if you lose With them, we lose a lot of points, so there can be many variations for those five positions that remain to be filled for Paris by ranking, although one of them will go to an African team because at the moment they do not have any qualified team,” explains the central Guaguas.

The Argentine team comes out of a period of reconstruction that began at the conclusion of the Tokyo Games: «We are in a process of establishing ourselves, because the change occurred after the last Games. It was the moment in which several players stopped going to the national team and several young people came, so now we are in a process of growth without so many changes of players,” points out the Albiceleste international center back.

For Martín Ramos, it is special to have two compatriots in Guaguas this year: Maxi Cavanna and Nico Bruno. “It is always very nice to be able to have a teammate from the same country, but it is even more important that they are players who are going to contribute to the team and are going to give us that leap in quality that perhaps was needed to have a chance to play in the Champions League.” , says the Argentine international.

The competition to play

The center back does not see the competitiveness that exists in the Guaguas squad as a problem in earning minutes on the court this season. “For us it is a motivation, because on a day-to-day basis the training becomes very good,” declares the player.

Despite having arrived on the island a couple of days ago, “knowing the players and the intensity that Sergio (Camarero) brings to training, having a long team with so many quality players helps you maintain the level throughout.” year”.

From a distance, he acknowledges that “I was able to follow some sets from the Iberian Cup and the Super Cup.” «The truth is that I really liked the team’s play and the internal competition; It’s going to be hard, but beautiful too,” he reflects.

Ramos believes that any of the four centre-backs – Manu Furtado, Jean Pascal and Graham Vigrass – “can play and will do well.” “Graham and I perhaps have more international experience, Jean is a tower that takes up the entire court and Manu physically is an animal,” he concludes.