WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP ATHENS 1998
Of all the results from the first stage only the USA's defeat by Lithuania could be considered a real
surprise although on the court it wasn't much of one. Lacking talent the North Americans applied
themselves to defence but that was not always enough and Jonas Kazlaukas's team managed to
find a way through via Karnisovas, who scored 29 points in the match. This would become on of
the weak points of the US team in the following matches; not knowing the tactics of ther rivals
which ended up causing them difficulties during the games. One point of interest was that of the
top 13 individual match scoring performances, seven were achieved against the USA. Checking
out the opposition was not one of the priorities of Tomajanovich's technical team.
However, the match that gave Lithuania the leadership of Group C apart, the rest of the
qualifications went as expected. Therefore Spain, who were in Group D along with teams from
three different continents, Argentina, Australia and Nigeria, beat all three, although with the
exception of the Africans, they were very close matches. Lolo Sainz's team showed their fortitude
in winning by a single point against both Australia and Argentina, needing overtime against the
South Americans. Knowing exactly what to do at critical moments was a vital strength of a team
that had Alberto Herreros as the reference in attack from the very beginning. The forward, well
complemented by Alberto Angulo, De La Fuente, Jimenez and Paraiso, was enjoying the sweetest
moments of his career. His wrist was always well greased no matter how often the opposition
prepared a special defence on him. Lolo could count on a very hard-working inside line, with
Alfonso Reyes as forward and Dueñas, De Miguel and Orgena as interchangeable elements
without excessively overloading the rebound tasks; the playmakers were as different as they were
inconsistent, although finally it was Nacho Rodriguez who took the helm with more assiduousness
than Rodilla or Azofra. Spain went through to the second phase unbeaten as did the
aforementioned Lithuania and were accompanied by the USA and Brazil, Greece, who led Group A
followed by Italy and Canada; Yugoslavia who finished top of Group B, Russia and Puerto Rico
were the other qualifiers. However, Zeljko Obradovic's team were given a serious warning of what
lay ahead in their match with Russia: they were taken into overtime before they could assert their
superiority.
ITALY GIVE YUGOSLAVIA SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT
IF Obradovic still had any doubts that he had to strengthen his defence to the maximum if he
wanted to achieve anything in the competition, taking into account that one of his stars, Sasha
Djordjevic was carrying an injury at the start of the competition, it was made perfectly clear by
Italy in the second match of the second round. In a low scoring game (61-40) Italy, the team
coached by Bodgan Tanjevic ( a Yugoslav to make things worse) relied on the talent of Fucka and
Myers to defeat a team in which Bodiroga only managed to score 10 points and the struggling
Djordjevic only scored with a free throw.
This would be the only surprise in this second phase in which the USA regained their composure,
easily beating Argentina and Australia. They did, however, have serious difficulties against Spain,
who suffered their first defeat in the competition to date by undeservedly losing a tight match 73-
75 featuring an exceptional performance from Alberto Herreros who scored 27 points. In the end
this match would prove to be of vital importance with respect to the final pairings as it allowed the
USA to head the group ahead of Spain. This meant that the USA would face Italy in the quarter-
finals whereas Spain would have to play the hosts, Greece, who had been held to a miserly 48
points by Russia.
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FUNDACIÓN PEDRO FERRÁNDIZ