FCBARCELONA.CAT

27.09.2009 21:37

Another Catalan League, four years on

www.fcbarcelona.cat

After winning the Catalan League, the players were thrilled to start the season in such style, winning a title that has defied them for four years.

The Regal FC Barcelona squad has only just reassembled after the summer, so a win like this was just the tonic to raise spirits going into the crux of the preseason.

The following are some of the reactions from the players following the Regal Barça win over DKV Joventut in the Catalan league final by 38-62.

Xavi Pascual, coach of Regal FC Barcelona

"We are happy. The Catalan League has always been a title that for some reason or other has been difficult for us. The coaches were pleased with the defending. That’s the way to go about winning things, so I’m happy. Our defence gave us this win."

Ricky Rubio

"I was very motivated. It was the first final and that means extra motivation. I am really pleased with this experience, in both games. Now I have to keep training to get to 100%. But although we haven’t trained much yet, it’s so much easier with such quality team mates."

Roger Grimau

"We are very happy, these are titles you want to win. It’s some time since we won this one … it’s still the start of the season, but if you’ve already got a title, so much the better."

Juan Carlos Navarro

"It’s a big change from the national team to this and the truth is we’re all very happy because it had been a long time since we last won this title."

"We started the game badly. We weren’t getting the shooting right in this match, but the defending was very good."

Gianluca Basile

"It’s four years since we won this title. This year we did, and so we’re very happy. That’s the first of the season. We saw today that we’ve got problems in offence but we’ve got a great defence to help us.”

Boniface Ndong

"We worked hard and got our reward. We have a title-winning roster and it all started today. It’s important to win the Catalan League.”

Víctor Sada

"We got a good feeling out of that. It’s a title we take very seriously and we should enjoy it. It’s the first, and hope there will be more."

Jordi Trias

"We are very happy. This is a very important title for us and the club. I hope this is just the start of a great season."

"Both teams started sloppily but our defence was better in the end and that helped us to win.”

Erazem Lorbek

"This is the first step, but we still have a lot of work to do. La Penya have a good team but we concentrated hard. We’re getting a bit better game by game."