Haka you, yuriya us!

It also happens in life… He who cannot assert himself with his worth tries to do so by shouting or beating people. This is how she will also try New Zealand to trap her National in Wednesday’s “final” for the World Cup: enlisting the war dance “Haka” before the jambol not only to honor its tradition, but also to prepare the Greek team for what is to come. To the “wood” of the Tall Blacks, the Greek team will have to respond similarly without forgetting the principles and quality, where it clearly excels. Yuria, that is!

Christos Robolis writes from Manila

We live one deja vu. Just as in 2019 after the disastrous (as it later turned out) defeat by Brazil the third match of the first group stage against New Zealand had acquired the character of a final qualification, so now, after the reasonable defeat by the USA and the National team is required to win the same opponent in order not to be out of the “16” of the World Cup and suffer it torture of ranking matches 17-32 for the next three days.

The game is not easy and not only because of the “must” that exists, perhaps for the last time to such an extent, in the organization for the National team. The opponent may not fill the eye, but it is about a set of warriors, with eight of the twelve players competing in the highly competitive Australian league and one (Yianni Wetzel) in Alba. Despite their lack of size, Pero Cameron’s players have the same identity that he had as a player: they weigh in the ball, dive for every ball, rush furiously for offensive rebounds and this makes them dangerous for any opponent who may delude themselves that they will beat them easily. Even… a lot of Team USA felt them in her body until she dropped 27 of them in the premiere.

To these virtues add that the Tall Blacks are the fifth team in three-point accuracy in the World with 41.5% making 26.5 per game (Greece is just 16th at 34.5% and shooting an average of 27.5 3-pointers in the tournament). The Liafa, Te Rangi and Ili they are short-bodied snipers (which, however, the Greek roster has the “tools” to limit), while the Delaney is a modern forward with a good repertoire as he showed with the surprise of the BCL, Ulm. On the contrary, not having points of reference near the basket beyond the honest but not even Euroleague level Fotou and Wetzel, have the penultimate percentage in two-pointers (41.8%). They do not have players with special talent in the individual phase, but with some movements away from the ball they try and often succeed in mixing up the defense and making “cuts” in the racket or free shots.

Despite all these virtues, New Zealand cannot scare the National team. She excels in quality, experience, performances, depth… in everything and if she does not lose in toughness, she will define the fate of the match with her own performance. Which, in addition to the many absences this summer, will be asked to prove that it can handle the pressure of the result. No one in Wellington or Auckland will care if their national team is disqualified, unlike in Greece where expectations and demands are always high, even with an incomplete squad.

So the game is in the hand of the National team to win it or lose it. For the first to happen, an eye for an eye on the wood of the New Zealanders, absolute concentration and finally some normal accuracy in the long shot (which will logically be sacrificed by the opponents) but also in the shots where Greece is by far the last in the competition with 52 .9%. Only if these things do not happen and the specter of defeat becomes an unbearable weight at the feet of the players can this match be distorted.

So time to end the joke and the Haka and book a place in the “16”. We deserve it, but we have to show it!