The Americans lost to the Germans in the semifinals of the FIBA World Cup.
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The main sensation of the World Basketball Championship happened at its semi-final stage. The Americans, who looked like the favorites of the tournament, stumbled in the semifinals against the German national team, losing to them with a score of 111:113. The US team was let down by the youth of the players on the roster and their short stature. In the final match, the Germans will meet the Serbian team, which defeated the Canadians.
The times when any misfire by the US basketball team seemed like an extraordinary event are long gone, but in any case, its current defeat is a rather noticeable event. The version of the American team that came to the World Cup, which was hosted by three Asian countries – the Philippines, Japan and Indonesia, was very specific – it was made entirely of young players without a rich background in the NBA, but, apparently, with excellent prospects. But it was impossible to imagine that he, like the one who managed to embarrass himself at the previous world championship in 2019, falling all the way to seventh place, would not even compete for gold – if only because the terrible personnel problems associated with the lack of leaders, They tormented all their main competitors without exception.
The US team, however, failed again, meeting in the semifinals with an opponent with a modest track record.
The only notable success in it came in 1993, when the Germans unexpectedly won the European Championship. At tournaments with the participation of teams from different continents, they never had any highs.
The reasons for the Americans’ breakdown, however, are easily discovered. In addition to their youth and lack of experience in international competitions, this is another detail regarding their application. She was surprisingly “light” and short. In fact, it featured the only full-fledged center – Walker Kessler, but his coach Steve Kerr preferred to keep him on the bench, focusing on speed and accuracy, and playing Jaren Jackson as a center with his height of 208 cm – not that gigantic even for a heavy forward The fact that there is plenty of risk in such a strategy was shown by the Americans’ match in the second group stage, in which they were beaten by the strong Lithuanians. History repeated itself with the Germans.
The salt of the match in the Manila suburb of Pasay is perfectly illustrated by statistics. In it, the Germans – primarily thanks to Franz Wagner and Daniel Theis, who played in the NBA and stood out for their size – managed to make as many as 16 rebounds on the opponent’s board (the opponents had exactly half as many) and score 25 points after them. This is a colossal number. The Americans could have been helped by the broken aim of the German snipers or the poor form of point guard Dennis Schröder, but everything was completely fine with them. For example, the Germans’ hit percentage came close to 60.
As a result, the German team really had a hard time only in the final quarter, when the Americans, 12 points behind, increased the pace to the limit and set off in pursuit. They gobbled up almost the entire gap, but the Germans still saved a small piece of it.
For the US team, the World Championship will end with Sunday’s bronze medal match with the Canadians, for the German team – with the final. In it she will meet with the Serbs, who beat the Canadian team with a score of 95:86.
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