On Saturday and Sunday in Japan at the World Basketball Championship matches were played 1/8 finals. There were no sensations - the champion gold will go to either the European or the American team. Teams representing other continents have performed more than worthily, but they still cannot win against the leading basketball powers.
Of all the meetings of the 1/8 finals, the most predictable was the match between the US and Australia. Only the first and last quarter of the Americans allowed the Australians to spend with them on equal terms (27:23 and 25:24). And in the second quarter, basketball players of the Green Continent received such a hit (6:32), after which it was useless to resist. The final score of the meeting is interesting only to statistics lovers - 113: 73. Once again, Americans are gaining more than a hundred points per game in this championship, and again rivals, specialists and fans are looking for weaknesses in their game. While there are none, and anyone who can find them is likely to be able to beat the Americans. The first in line was the German team. It is with her that the Americans will meet in the quarter finals. In the 1/8 final match, Germany beat the Nigeria team with a score of 78:77. A little luck to the African team - 9 seconds before the end of the fourth quarter, the ball and the fate of the match were in the hands of the Nigerians, but Germany smiled for the second time in a row in meetings with African teams.
Argentina, confirming its status as a favorite of the championship, continues to move forward. In the 1/8 finals, the Olympic champions had to play with New Zealand. The most sensitive sports barometer - bookmakers - did not give New Zealanders a single chance. The Argentines did not give it. Zhinobili scored his 28 points, Oberto and Skola helped the leader as much as they could. As a result, 79:62, and the Argentinean rival in the quarterfinal will be the Turkish national team, which in its pair pretty easily outplayed the Slovenian team. 24 points of Erdogan against 18 Udrich, 90 points of the Turkish team against 84 national team of Slovenia. In truth, the Slovenes themselves organized their own defeat, having missed the penalty line 15 times per game. The ex-Yugoslavs, apparently, did not count on victory. At least after the match, the Slovenian team looked rather calm.
Spain without visible problems sent the team of Serbia and Montenegro to rest - 87:75. Gasol scored 19 points, once again providing an example of stability and reliability. Qualities that the Spaniards will need in a match with Lithuania.
Not without adventure, but the Lithuanian team reached the quarterfinals. In the match with Italians, Lithuanian basketball players won 71:68. You can, of course, say that they were lucky: if the Italians realized three penalties in the last seconds of the meeting, it is not known what would happen in overtime. However, the Lithuanian team shows a solid team basketball at the championship, now it has played out, felt the taste of victory, it will be extremely difficult to stop it. And if in the other quarterfinal pairs the favorites are determined, then in the game between Lithuania and Spain, both teams have equal chances.
France quite easily beat Angola - 68:62, and about two hours after their victory, they waited for the next opponent. He decided on a game between Greece and China. Chinese center Yao Ming was the last to stop the European-American gold rally. Without him, the Chinese team would hardly have gone so far in the final part of the World Cup: Yao Ming is one of the few active basketball players who are able to single-handedly decide the outcome of a meeting with any opponent. And yet, in the match with Greece, the strength and growth of Yao Ming was not enough. Only at the beginning of the meeting the Greeks played a little on the nerves of their fans, and then they clearly proved that Yao Ming alone was not a warrior against them - 95:64. Greece will play in the quarter finals with France, and she has much more chances to win.
Valery Wingurt