ALVIN Pasaol is upbeat about Manila Chooks TM's chances in the 2020 Fiba 3x3 World Tour Doha Masters after tough competition among local teams in Calamba.
"Born-ready kami," he said ahead of the Qatar tilt set Nov. 20 and 21. "We’re confident naman dahil doon sa pinakita namin sa Calambubble. Sobrang laki ng inimprove ng team namin, lalo na sa tiyaga."
Pasaol, together with Joshua Munzon, Santi Santillan, and Troy Rike, ruled the President's Cup two weeks back, and are looking to continue their winning ways in their first international trip of the year.
Unlike last season, these quartet are no longer strangers in these tilts as they are coming in with high expectations as Manila Chooks TM aim to make a late run to the World Tour Final in Jeddah.
But doing so won't be easy, especially in a field which includes Serbian sides Liman and Ub, Riga of Latvia, NY Harlem and Princeton of the United States, Lausanne of Switzerland, Jeddah and Riyadh of Saudi Arabia, Kamakura and Yoyogi of Japan, Bielefeld of Germany, Utana of Lithuania, and home team Lusail.
Still, count on the Filipinos to rise to the occasion.
"Hindi kami naiinip or nasisiraan man ng kumpyansa dahil malakas ang kalaban. Yun yung pinakamaganda sa amin ngayon kasi yun nga parang kalmado lang, hindi masyadong nagpapanic, yun yung good side doon," said Pasaol.
Pasaol and Santillan should know.
With him leading the charge, Balanga made an improbable run to the quarterfinals in last year's Doha Masters which included a group stage win over eventual champion Riga Ghetto.
Munzon also made waves in that tourney, steering Pasig to the final eight before bowing to Piran.
Those campaigns serve as inspiration for this squad as they left the country on Sunday night and made it to Doha on Monday.
And they truly are looking to make the most of it as officials did all they could to secure their visas - which only arrived six hours before takeoff.
Spin fans unite at the Spin Viber Community! Join the growing community now and complete the experience by subscribing to the Spin Chatbot.
Get more of the latest sports news & updates on SPIN.ph
NOTICE ON UNAUTHORIZED AND UNLAWFUL USE, PUBLICATION, AND/OR DISSEMINATION OF SPIN.PH CONTENT: Please be notified that any unauthorized and unlawful use, publication, and/or dissemination of Spin.ph’s content and/or materials is a direct violation of its legal and exclusive rights to the same, and shall be subject to appropriate legal action/s.
