After a about week of thrilling games across four groups in four cities, it is now time for the knockout rounds of the 2010 FIBA World Basketball Championship.
Four games this weekend will see the tension and thrill of the win-or-go-home matches kick off, as all remaining matches are to be played at Istanbul’s brand new Sinan Erdem Dome.
Turkey, one of only three teams that managed to remain unbeaten in the group stage of the tournament, beat China Thursday to win the first ranking in Group C. With victories over Ivory Coast, Russia, Greece and Puerto Rico, the host-team has proven to be one of the hottest teams of the tournament.
As Group C winner, Turkey will meet France, who lost to New Zealand 82-70 Thursday. Following a bright start of three wins in the tournament, France lost its pace and finally had to settle for the fourth spot.
Interestingly, New Zealand needed at least a 12-point win over France to take third spot in the group, and that deficit was provided with a three-pointer that came in the final 10 seconds of the match.
French coach Vincent Collet was not happy to be drawn against red hot Turkey.
"We wanted to avoid Turkey, so it's a very big disappointment," France coach Vincent Collet said. “We wanted to lose by 11 or less to avoid Turkey, but even that we couldn’t do, not doing the foul on the last possession. We got what we deserved. We played very, very bad, right from the beginning.”
“I don't know why we lost our spirit,” Collet said, adding that his youthful team lost momentum Wednesday in a 69-55 loss to Lithuania
“When you lose the first game you show what kind of team you are,” he said. “And unfortunately, what we showed today was not the face I was hoping to see from this team.”
Unlike France, Turkey actually improved with each win and following Wednesday’s victory over Greece, the “12 Giant Men” finally started to be numbered among the favorites of the tournament.
Center Oğuz Savaş, who was the top scorer in Turkey’s 87-40 demolition of China, said the team was happy with how the tournament had fared so far.
“We played well and executed a good level of tempo in our games, and eventually won the group,” said Savaş. “I hope we maintain the same level in our future games and continue our success.”
If Turkey manages to beat France on Sunday, it will take on the winner of the Slovenia-Australia match.
On Saturday, Serbia will meet Croatia. The former Yugoslav states share a bitter rivalry, with sporting events between the two nations historically marred by fan violence, meaning security will need to be on high alert.
But still, the more interesting match will be the other quarterfinal match-up between Spain and Greece.
On the final day of the groups, Russia beat Greece to take the second spot in Group C. However, the Greeks were accused of losing the match on purpose, trying to avoid a possible future match-up with the United States.
TalkBasket website quoted Russian team coach David Blatt as saying: “The Greeks should be ashamed. What we saw was comedy, not basketball. Greeks shot to miss, on the other hand my players played with passion.”
Turkey’s coach Bogdan Tanjevic was critical of the Greek side as well. Tanjevic was watching the game, which was played before the China match at the same arena, from the stands and after the match went to the Greek bench to protest the unsportsmanlike effort.
Tanjevic ironically clapped and told center Ioannis Bourousis, “Congratulations, you did the same thing for the second consecutive year,” referring to Greece’s dubious loss to France at last summer’s EuroBasket.
The harsh words resulted in Bourousis moving towards Tanjevic and saying something to him. As the exchange became more heated arena security guards had to come between the two.
After the Turkey vs. China match, Tanjevic was asked about the event.
“I congratulated the Greeks for their efforts – a joke,” he said. “Then Bourousis started kicking some bottles at the Greek bench. I was heading towards Blatt to greet him. He [Bourousis] is watching too much cinema. It's not the Berlin or Venice festival here, but the World Championship.”
Although Greece managed to avoid the United States challenge until the final, the alleged efforts can be deemed as having backfired, since they drew to play Spain, which finished second in Group D, Saturday anyway.
The winner of the Serbia-Croatia and Spain-Greece matches will meet in the quarterfinal.
The United States, who also completed its group matches unbeaten, will meet Angola Monday. The Russia-New Zealand match will be played the same day.
The final quarterfinalists will be decided Tuesday, with Lithuania, the third team with a perfect record, meeting China, and Argentina taking on Brazil.
