Luanda - Petro de Luanda and 1º de Agosto face each other Wednesday in the 5-match play-offs of the senior men's basketball championship three years after their last encounter, in a fight that opposes the country’s two traditional heavy weights.
Petro de Luanda won the national basketball championship in the last three seasons, namely 2019, 2021, 2022, however the competition was halted in 2020 due to the covid19 pandemic.
1º de Agosto and Petro de Luanda are the two most crowned basketball teams of Angola, with the first leading with 19 titles won, while the latter have fifteen.
Contrary to previous years, the management of the Angolan Basketball Federation (FAB) decided that the play offs should be played entirely at Luanda’s Cidadela pavilion, given the lack of space at 1º de Agosto’s home.
Insight into the teams
Petro de Luanda coach, the 52-year old Brazilian José Neto won the last two national championships, two Super Cups, the same number of Angola Cups, as well as an ordinary presence in the African Basketball League (BAL), obtaining a third position in the first edition in 2021 and finishing runners up in 2022.
The Brazilian coach has never lost to this opponent since he took up the helm of the team in 2020.
This season alone, he beat 1º de Agosto in the Super Cup with a 99-92 victory, double triumph in the regular phase of the National Championship, by 99-94 and 108-77. The last victory was in March in the semi-final of the Angola Cup by 85-79.
Speaking in a pre-match press conference, Jose Neto said he acknowledges that it is always difficult to face an opponent and expects his players to present themselves with the same good competitive level of the regular phase.
"We haven't won anything yet. It will be a difficult final because the opponent is strong and deserves our respect", he stressed, adding, however, that the goal is to win the game.
1ºAgosto on the other hand, re-emerged in the midst of a financial crisis, as demonstrated by the modest fourth place in the team finished in the previous edition.
Inconsistent even at the level of coaches, 1º de Agosto sacked the last three coaches for bad results achieved.
The re-emergence of the team was possible after the hiring of a coach who knows well the opponent, the Cameronian Lazare Adingono, former Petro de Luanda coach.
Besides Adingono's arrival, the team have been strengthened with some team B players promoted to the main team and two foreign players.
Jordan Aboudou, 32 years old and 2.01 meters tall, comes from AS Monaco of the French League first division and US player Nico Clareth, 25 years old, 1.91 tall and 91kg.
These two athletes have revealed themselves to be important in the manoeuvre of the team, fundamentally in this final stage of the national championship.
