2024-07-09 05:17:05
Physically and mentally, the Latvian basketball players were not fully ready for the Olympic challenge. They managed to reach the final game in a difficult qualifying tournament in Riga, but suffered a defeat against the Brazilian team (69:94) and were left without the coveted ticket to Paris. “It is easy to be a good team when you are winning. The continuation will show who we are and what we are made of,” its captain Dairis Bertāns called to responsibly evaluate their own responsibility towards the team. In addition to Brazil, Greece, Spain and Puerto Rico also won the last tickets to the Olympic tournament.
The head coach of the Latvian national team, Luka Banki, after his first big failure in this position, once again emphasized the changes achieved in recent years: “Before, we were considered to be the last ones, we were creating a Cinderella story. After the World Cup, we are counted among the world’s elite teams and the opponents prepare for games against us in a completely different way.” Unfortunately, even in front of their own spectators, the Latvian team failed to catch the wave of confidence and performance that helped them rise to fifth place in the World Cup less than a year ago. There were objective reasons for this, because almost all players of that model had an emotionally and physically long season, including health problems. “I myself have a season of 82 games behind me, Rodions Kurucs and Rolands Šmits could play for the national team
Read the whole article in newspapers Day in the issue of Tuesday, July 9! If you want to continue reading the newspaper in printed form, you can subscribe to it
2024-07-09 05:17:05