Translated material
Team from the past
World champion Serbia and Montenegro failed to cope with Nigeria
In the first two days of the World Championship among men's teams, there were sensations at the sports arenas of the cities of the Land of the Rising Sun. The main surprise was the defeat of the best team of the 2002 world championship, Serbia and Montenegro, from Nigeria in the opening round. Experts and fans were also surprised by Lebanon's victory over Venezuela.No matter how poorly the Serbs performed at the last European Championship and the Olympics, the provision of a wild card to the team, which has already represented two independent countries since May, was completely justified. After all, the “Yugas,” as the players of Serbia and Montenegro are still colloquially called, have been trendsetters in world basketball for many years. The decline in the team's results after the triumph at the previous World Cup is explained primarily by the discord that reigns among local sports officials. There is a real war going on here between the bureaucratic clans - people from Red Star, Partizan and the community from Novi Sad have formed an irreconcilable hostility among themselves, which is harmful to the development of many game species.
Indirectly, the defeat of the Serbian team by the Africans was also a blow to the Russian Super League. After all, the losers include three representatives of Dynamo clubs: Ognen Ashkrabic (St. Petersburg), Boyan Popovic and Miroslav Raicevic (both Moscow). Nigerians have only one good friend of ours, albeit a very old one. Ten years ago, center Julius Nwosu arrived in Moscow and, together with CSKA, took part in the Final Four of the 2006/07 European Champions Cup. The Serbs played the second match against the French, drained by the loss of injured NBA star Tony Parker, a little better, but still suffered defeat again. Exit to the playoffs is under threat for the reigning champion.
In the same group “A”, the inconspicuous Lebanese team beat Venezuela with a difference of 10 points, which has in its ranks the attacking defender Oscar Torres, the silver medalist of the last Russian championship from Khimki near Moscow. He brought the team 12 points; the winners' highest scorer was a certain Fadi El-Khatib (35).
In the six “B”, after two rounds, there has been some clarity, and it is already clear who is counting on a ticket to the 1/8 finals, and who needs to prepare to issue return tickets. An unplanned loss was suffered by the New Zealanders, who with their excellent performance at the 2002 World Cup (fourth place) guaranteed Oceania two trips to Japan. The International Basketball Federation has suspended Lokomotiv Rostov player Mark Dickel for three matches. A doping test taken from him in July after a control match with Australia recorded the presence of marijuana in his body. There is little benefit from it in terms of gaining supernatural physical conditions, but the use of this light drug has little to do with the status of an athlete, so marijuana is included in the list of “special substances.” The maximum penalty for smoking weed is one year, so Dickel got off lightly. But Loko General Director Andrey Vedishchev has reason to think.
The fashionable arguments in Russia today that FIBA should have given one of the European wild cards to Turkey rather than to our lackluster team will now certainly cease. The hosts of the 2010 World Cup, even without Andrei Kirilenko's Utah teammate Okur, Orlando's third-leading player Turkoglu and the Moscow crowd's favorite Turkana, won against such strong opponents as Lithuania and Australia. It is unlikely that the Russian national team in its current unsightly form would be capable of this.
The American Dream Team played the weekend's matches to the best of expectations. The Stars and Stripes spent two periods adjusting to overcoming the Puerto Ricans' zone defense. Dream team coach Mike Krzyzewski made many substitutions, maintaining a high pace of play; the Islanders did not have such a long bench. At the beginning of the third quarter, the US basketball players made a powerful breakthrough and increased their advantage to 15 points, although they lost the starting period. Yesterday, in a meeting with China, the NBA stars did not shelve the matter and after 10 minutes of the match, all questions about the winner were removed - 32:17. The newly crowned champion of the overseas league, Dwyane Wade, took his soul away - 26 points, although he spent less than half the net time of the match on the field.
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Results. World Championship. Group "A" (Sendai). Lebanon - Venezuela - 82:72, Nigeria - Serbia - 82:75, Argentina - France - 80:70, Venezuela - Nigeria - 84:77, Argentina - Lebanon - 107:72, France - Serbia - 65:61. Position: Argentina - 2 wins, Nigeria, Venezuela, France, Lebanon - 1 each, Serbia - 0. Group B (Hiroshima). Germany - Japan - 81:70, Angola - Panama - 83:70, Spain - New Zealand - 86:70, Angola - Japan - 87:62, Germany - New Zealand - 80:56, Spain - Panama - 101:57. Position: Spain, Angola, Germany -- 2, Japan, New Zealand, Panama -- 0. Group C (Hamamatsu). Australia - Brazil - 83:77, Greece - Qatar - 84:64, Turkey - Lithuania - 76:74, Brazil - Qatar - 97:66, Turkey - Australia - 76:68, Greece - Lithuania - 81:76. Position: Greece, Turkey - 2, Brazil, Australia - 1, Lithuania, Qatar - 0. Group D (Sapporo). USA - Puerto Rico - 111:100, Slovenia - Senegal - 96:79, Italy - China - 84:69, Puerto Rico - Senegal - 88:79, Italy - Slovenia - 80:76, USA - China - 121:90. Position: USA, Italy - 2, Slovenia, Puerto Rico - 1, Senegal - China - 0.