The victory that will bring them even closer to the final phase of the 2023 World Cup will aim to achieve tonight (28/8, 20:00, Novasports 4) the Men’s National Team at the packed OAKA (announced sold out), across from Belgiumas part of the 2nd matchday of the 2nd qualifying round (9th group).
The representative band will line up with four absences, as the injury problems do not allow Giorgos Papagiannis, Ioannis Papapetrou, Kostas Sloukas and Kostas Antetokounmpo to strengthen the team of Dimitris Itoudis.
The two teams are tied with a 3-2 record in Group 9.
The National Team 12: Kostas Papanikolaou, Nick Kalathis, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Thanasis Antetokounmpo, Dimitris Agravanis, Giannoulis Larentzakis, Tyler Dorsey, Lefteris Bohorides, Leonidas Kaselakis, Michalis Lountzis, Panagiotis Kalaitzakis, Giannis Kouseloglou.
Today’s game can also be watched by those who are not Nova subscribers, through the eon.tv platform, which is provided free of charge for the two matches of the national team against Serbia and Belgium.
Beware of the… unpredictable
The Belgians are not a superpower but a very dangerous team when you give them…rights! Dimitris Karydas writes about the next opponent of the national team
It is not long ago that the Serbs in the previous part of the “windows” underestimated the Belgians and the sky fell on their heads. Belgian basketball cannot be considered a superpower in the European arena by any comparison. Not even a national team that….we hear very often! The last time they… caught our eye was in the Eurobasket finals nine whole years ago.
And yet, without particularly well-known players in their ranks, they are currently in a privileged position to qualify for the group of our national team, which desperately needs victory in the packed OAKA! So what is Belgium?
The recipe for recent success is simple. Four years ago, the Belgian federation assigned the command of the team to the Croatian Dario Djerja. With a heavy basketball surname since he is the nephew of the legend of the former unified Yugoslavia Pino or Giuseppe Gerzia, the junior of the family feels more Belgian than Croatian! He has been living and working in the country for the last 15 years, he has obtained citizenship and for the last decade he is the permanent and stable coach of the best Belgian team in Ostend. For the record, he is the one who discovered and took to Belgium our very famous Mat Lojeski!
Georgia based the national team job on a stable set of players, created chemistry and homogeneity even though most Belgian internationals play abroad! Ismael Bako, now a player of Bologna thanks to his athletic qualities, currently dominates the Belgian roster. From there on, all the rest are roller skaters with a lot of experience from second and third speed events such as the Eurocup and the BCL. But rollers who do their job well.
Like guard Retin Obasohan with previous experience in an American college or forward Jean McEbuema. Belgium is just….unpredictable. In theory it is a team without particularly strong elements or something that stands out in its game.
As oxymoronic as it sounds, the Belgians base their existence on hard pressing defense. So far in the world qualifiers they have conceded more than 70 points once but even that night they managed to beat Serbia on the road 74-73! And as we mentioned above, it is a team whose base has been playing together for 4-5 years and continuously, they have homogeneity and this makes them doubly dangerous for anyone who says “okay now they are Belgians, what kind of basketball should they play?”.
Source: novasports.gr
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