This Old Wild West wins in maturity: the head is already in Casale

Mantua’s success confirms the team’s qualities, but tomorrow’s match will be more demanding

UDINE. It was a thrilling restart to the Apu Old Wild West. The game in Mantua, like many away matches in the second round, hid pitfalls and the field confirmed this. It took a couple of minutes with the handbrake on to restore the Stings’ hopes, except to put the two points in the safe from the line.

GREAT APPROACH

A couple of minutes that are too soft cannot cancel a race dominated for very large stretches, with the exception of the opening bars. Udine was good at clearing its head from the waste of the Italian Cup Final Eight and immediately reconnecting on the championship frequencies.

It is a further sign of the maturity reached by the team, which by now has taken advantage of the lesson of Biella, when too much enough cost a sensational defeat.

DEEP BENCH

The exceptional expenditure of energy, physical and mental, in the three days in Abruzzo, added to the absences of Mussini and Ebeling, could put the Apu in difficulty. Boniciolli, on the other hand, managed the rotations well, relying on the usual super contribution of the second lines.

Provided that players like Giuri, Esposito, Pellegrino and Italiano can be considered reserves. The final calculation speaks of a clear 44-16 under the heading “points from the bench”: for the hosts scored only Mastellari, and the former on duty Cortese played a completely anonymous test.

TOWARDS CASALE

The Old Wild West is training in Bancole, 5 kilometers from Mantua, where yesterday the Squirrels of Basket Bancole visited the Juventus team for a souvenir photo. Today the Casale operation starts, with the transfer to Piedmont. Novipiù is a much more consistent opponent than Mantua, although she is without an American like the Stings: Pendarvis Williams is in the pits with a hamstring injury.

The rossoblù, however, are a real team and have hit the second consecutive victory in the league, putting fourth place in the sights. We will need another test as a mature team from the APU, aware of the fact that from now on there are traps waiting for it on every field. It will take 40 ‘of very high concentration, because Mantova has shown it takes just a few minutes of distraction to risk a painful slip.