Two specialists who spoke to “Sky News Arabia” attributed the great defeat to the Egyptian national team in its first match in the new edition of the 2023 Basketball World Cup, to the difficulty of the group that includes the Egyptian national team, and its lack of playmakers with sufficient experience.
On Friday evening, the Egyptian national team was defeated by Lithuania (93-67), in the match that brought them together in the Philippines, in the first round of the group stage of the FIBA World Cup.
The match witnessed a significant and remarkable superiority for the Lithuanian team, which maintained its lead by points, while the Egyptian team failed to reduce the difference despite its continuous attempts.
With this victory, Lithuania scored two points to be at the top of the group with the Montenegro national team, which also scored two points by defeating Mexico.
While Egypt and Mexico scored a point for each of them, the Egyptian team is scheduled to meet Montenegro next Sunday evening.
Very tough group
For his part, the expert in international basketball, former Egyptian national team player, Mohamed Youssef, said in a statement to “Sky News Arabia” that the reason for the defeat of the Egyptian team was caused by the fact that the draw dropped it into a very difficult group that includes almost the strongest teams in Europe and the world in basketball.
He added that Lithuania is one of the strongest European teams and is always a candidate to win the European Championship in basketball, and therefore it was difficult for Egypt to surpass it.
And he added that despite the great defeat, the Egyptian national team presented a strong match, and if it had an experienced playmaker, it would not have lost by 26 points, but the reason for this big difference in points is that the Egyptian national team does not have an experienced playmaker who can control the balance of the match, and its playmakers are young. age and lack of experience.
He explained that the Egyptian national team is also waiting for a difficult match against Montenegro, because the latter is a great basketball school and its team consists of 12 professional players abroad, and therefore this match will be as difficult as the Lithuania match or something less.
He pointed out that the confrontation that may be within the reach of the Egyptian national team is its match against Mexico next Tuesday, and “Egypt can win it and benefit it in qualifying the places from 17 to 32.”
He stressed that the Egyptian national team is keen to achieve the best position for an African team in the World Cup in order to qualify directly for the 2024 Paris Olympics, and this will be achieved if the Egyptian national team ranks 19th in the World Cup.
Starting from Africa
In turn, sports critic Hossam Zayed told Sky News Arabia that Egypt’s qualification for the group stage in the current basketball World Cup is an important matter, especially since it did not qualify for the last version.
And he added that in order for Egypt to achieve an advanced position or an important victory in the World Cup, it first needs to be happy with the throne of leadership for this game at the level of Africa, because this is what will make it among the world ranks.
Currently, there is more than one strong competitor for the Egyptian national team on the continent level, and then the situation is more difficult when competing at the world level.
Open the door to professionalism
He explained that the solutions for the Egyptian national team to enjoy its leadership in Africa and compete globally are to open the door to greater professionalism for players, such as what happened in handball, as almost all of the handball team is professional in Europe, which made the handball team a strong competitor in all world championships, and this is what the basketball team needs. .
He concluded that the Egyptian national team also needs, during the preparation for the international tournaments, especially the World Cup, to face strong teams in the game through a friendly match, but this did not happen, and then it found the competition difficult, especially since its group is strong, and therefore no one expects the Egyptian team in the current version of the World Cup Only to perform well.
It should be noted that the semi-finals of the current version of the Basketball World Cup are jointly organized by the Philippines, Indonesia and Japan, and the Egypt group plays in the Philippines.
2023-08-26 02:46:14
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