January 6th, 2017. The venue is the Amway Center in Orlando, Florida. The game? Orlando Magic hosting the Houston Rockets in a 2016-17 NBA regular season game.
Let’s check tonight’s starters: Atletico’s Galo Doido and Marques, Wolfsburg’s Wolf, Estudiantes’ Lion, Bahia’s Marcelo Santana and Brian - representing Bayer Leverkusen.
That’s right. Friday night was a little unusual at one of the most famous NBA arenas. Serge Ibaka, Aaron Gordon, Elfrid Payton and even Nene Hilario were briefly relegated to a supporting role as soccer ‘invadad’ the Magic’s basketball court.
Ambassadors and mascots from this year’s Florida Cup participanting teams pumped up the Magic’s fans in a thrilling shootout contest. The highlight of the event was reserved for Atletico-MG’s well-known duo Marques, a club legend, and mascot Galo Doido.
“It’s always a great honor to represent Atletico here in the United States”, Marques told Goal. “My shooting performance wasn’t as good as last year’s, but it was worth participating.”
(Rodrigo Calvozzo/Goal)
The Florida Cup kicks off this Sunday in St. Petersburg, Florida, as Bayer Leverkusen faces Estudiantes de La Plata at 2:00 p.m. E.T. Later that day, the Tampa Bay Rowdies will face Wolfsburg (kick-off at 4:45 p.m.). Both matches are part of the 2017 Challenge, the first of two phases in this year’s tournament.
