After the leg kick with the right to World Cup and the 92-71 over Jordan on Saturday, the National basketball team enters the… depths of the organization. Today at noon (15:40, ERT and Novasports, sport-fm.gr) faces the mighty team of the USA having him in the depth of her plan qualifying “final” against New Zealand on Wednesday.
Christos Robolis writes from Manila
The two teams meet again after 108-86 in Abu Dhabi friendly exactly ten days ago (8/18). The Greek team will march until the end of the tournament with eleven players after the loss of Dinos Mitoglouwho yesterday said goodbye to the team members and took the long way back to Athens.
THE Dimitris Itoudis he will have eleven players at his disposal and he expects from them an even better performance compared to that of the premier against Jordan. The technical team was quite satisfied with the offensive function of the team and figures such as 24 assists (for only 11 mistakes) and 12/32 three-pointers (although the National team started with 8/15). The key is improvement on defense, where there were gaps, although there was no lack of passion, as evidenced by indicators such as 17 offensive rebounds, 9 steals and 5 blocks.
The opponents are certainly favorites and will be looking beyond 2/2 for an even better performance than that of the opener against New Zealand, where despite 99-72 they did not satisfy for long periods of the match and especially their start was sluggish. Steve Kerr’s team will appear complete and determined to match the victories over the Greek team.
Bad lies, this game is the last non-decisive game for the National team in the World Cup. A loss is on schedule and won’t “hurt”, but then there are only… knockouts, starting with Wednesday’s “final” against New Zealand (which faces Jordan at 11:30). A win in Wednesday’s match implies qualification to the second group stage, where – logically – two more “finals” with Lithuania and Montenegro will follow, where, barring a major contingency, 2/2 will be required to qualify for the quarter-finals.
History with USA at the Men’s level
Greece and USA have met 14 times at the Men’s level with the only victory of the “official favorite” in an official match in the 2006 World Cup semi-final with 101-95 in Saitama. The most recent official matchup was for the 2019 World Cup in Shenzhen, China, where the USA took home a 69-53 victory in the second group stage. In detail, the pre-history of the Greece-USA matches:
26/07/1975 (Intercontinental Cup / Athens) Greece – USA 69-94
12/08/1975 (Intercontinental Cup / Ohio) USA – Greece 104-56
05/24/1977 (Friendly match / Athens) Greece – USA 83-81
03/25/1978 (Friendly match / Zaragoza) Greece-USA 75-95
08/08/1990 (Mundobasket / Buenos Aires) Greece – USA 95-103
13/08/1994 (Mundobasket / Toronto) USA – Greece 97-58
13/07/1996 (Friendly match / Indianapolis) USA – Greece 128-62
09/08/1998 (Mundobasket / Marousi) Greece – USA 61-84
08/17/2004 (Olympic Games / Greek) Greece – USA 71-77
01/09/2006 (Mundobasket / Saitama) Greece – USA 101-95
14/08/2008 (Olympic Games / Beijing) Greece – USA 69-92
25/08/2010 (Friendly match / Maroussi) Greece – USA 59-87
07/09/2019 (World Cup / Shenzhen) Greece – USA 53-69
19/08/2023 (Friendly match / Abu Dhabi): Greece – USA 86-108
Source: Sport Fm
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