The German national team won the FIBA World Championship for the first time in its history.
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The German national basketball team became the world champion for the first time in its history. On Sunday, in the decisive match of the world championship, which took place in three countries at once – in the Philippines, Indonesia and Japan, the German team beat the noticeably more highly ranked Serbian team with a score of 83:77. For the Germans, Dennis Schröder scored 28 points and was recognized as the MVP of the entire championship.
The path taken by the German national team at the last World Cup can, without much of a stretch, be attributed to what is called a Cinderella story. Before the start of the championship, bookmakers were skeptical about the chances of Gordon Herbert’s team (Russian fans might remember the Canadian specialist for his work without much brilliance at Avtodor Saratov in 2020–2021), accepting bets on it with odds of 15.0. The favorites were, of course, the Americans, the French, the Spaniards, and the Serbs.
And the weak quotes of the Germans were not surprising, since the German national team, even if it is staffed with strong players, such as Los Angeles Lakers defender Dennis Schroeder, Orlando Magic forward Franz Wagner, well known to CSKA fans Johannes Voigtmann (now the center plays for “Milan”), there was practically no history to suggest that she would climb to the very top. The German team has competed at the World Championships six times before, with its best result being bronze in 2002, when Dirk Nowitzki was in his prime.
By the way, at that championship Nowitzki was recognized MVP of the tournament and since then it has never happened again that the prestigious prize went to a player representing a team that did not become the champion.
The Germans, however, performed at the championship clearly better than even the wildest expectations of both their fans and coaches. And, obviously, they surprised themselves.
The German team went through the entire tournament without a single defeat (eight wins in eight matches). And the same Serbs, on the way to the final, stumbled once at the preliminary stage. The Germans in the semi-finals became the authors of the loudest sensation of the championship, beating the Americans (the US team was ultimately content with only 4th place, losing to the Canadians in the bronze medal match).
What was most surprising about the semi-final success of the German basketball players was that they defeated the Americans while playing “their” attacking basketball. Herbert’s team responded blow for blow, and the Americans, who often simply ignored the need to work in their own half of the court, were not ready for this.
But the Serbian national team, which became the opponents of the German national team in the final, seemed no less dangerous as an opponent. Moreover, they love and know how to play defensively. A number of experts even feared that the final would turn into a banal beating of the German team.
In fact, there was not a single segment in the final where the Serbian team dominated. The first half of the match ended with a score of 47:47, and in the third quarter the Germans struck a blow that predetermined the outcome of the entire match. Schröder, who again played a great match, confirmed by his 28 points (after the final he was declared MVP of the tournament), Wagner (recognized as the best player in the decisive match), Voigtmann set the pace, which provided their team with a ten-point lead.
At the same time, the Germans actually excluded Nikola Milutinov, the most important figure in the Serbian formations, from the game – the center, who played for CSKA last season and then moved to Olympiacos, scored only two points and made four rebounds during the match. This is not even close to the indicators for which he is released onto the site. Aleksa Avramovic and Bogdan Bogdanovich tried to do something, and not without local success, but the moment was missed. In the final quarter, the Serbs made a lot of effort to catch up with the enemy, but the Germans very competently brought the game to victory with a score of 83:77 and became world champions for the first time in their history.
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