2024-07-09 01:54:35
Puerto Rico won the duel 79:68 and once again left the Lithuanian basketball team without the Olympic Games.
“Olympics! Puerto Rico ends 20-year drought and heads to Paris!” Trumpeted the Puerto Rico News Portal elvocero.com.
That’s exactly what many Puerto Rican news headlines looked like early Monday morning Lithuanian time.
“We are going to Paris!”, he announced primerahora.com.
Elnuevodia.com journalist Jorge Figueroa Loza described the “miracle” that happened last night in San Juan in a little more detail.
“Puerto Rico did not suffer a single defeat – it beat Italy and Lithuania, and Lithuania had won all the duels played against Puerto Rico up to that point,” emphasized the journalist.
He, like many other journalists of this country, emphasized the end of the Olympic Games drought.
“The Olympic dream has been achieved. The long drought is over,” he wrote.
“We’re going to the Olympics!” We survived the final battle against Lithuania”, it was written primerahora.com.
“The dream has become a reality,” El Nuevo Dia, one of Puerto Rico’s most important daily newspapers, described the victory of the basketball players on the cover on Monday. And a large photo of Puerto Rican basketball players took up more than half of El Nuevo Dia’s front page.
Although other dailies printed smaller pictures on the front page, they were no less happy.
“Wonderful Olympic passport”, “El Vocero” bowed to the basketball team. “Our basketball players – again in the Olympic Games!” – Primera Hora announced on the cover.
“The historic victory of the wonderful twelve. The national basketball team has won a ticket to the Paris Games,” the Telemundo television website assessed the basketball players’ trip.
“There was music and champagne. This is how national team manager Carlos Arroyo, basketball players and coach Nelson Colon celebrated their ticket to Paris,” El Nuevo Dia described the festive mood of not only the winning teams, but also every Puerto Rican on Sunday evening.
“Olympic Games! Puerto Rico breaks 20-year drought and earns ticket to Paris Games,” El Vocero said in one of its headlines.
Puerto Rico’s men’s basketball team will return to the Olympics after a 20-year hiatus. The last time the Puerto Ricans competed in the Olympic tournament was in 2004 and they left a clear mark in Athens – they were the first team to beat the USA team made up of NBA basketball players in the Olympic Games.
After that, Puerto Rico kept hoping that the national basketball team would repeat the memorable run, but four consecutive Olympic Games were held without the country’s men’s national team. The Olympic plan was only fulfilled in the qualifying tournament that ended last Sunday in San Juan.
“The Paris plan has been completed. On Sunday, the national team defeated the Lithuanian team 79:68 in the decisive match of the selection tournament and qualified for the Paris Olympic Games.
The breath of victory lingered in the Coliseum from the third quarter, when Tremont Waters hit two three-pointers and stopped the recovering Lithuanians. However, the Lithuanians did not give up and postponed the celebration. However, two minutes before the game, the fans started chanting: “We’re going to Paris!” and stood watching how the national team finished the match against the Lithuanians,” Primera Hora newspaper described the moments of Puerto Rican joy.
Puerto Rico won all four games in the qualifiers, but this victory was special. “Puerto Rico defeated two European teams in the same tournament for the first time since the 2002 World Cup,” noted El Vocero. Lithuania was the second European team beaten by Puerto Rican basketball players. A few days ago, the Puerto Ricans had a little more difficulty defeating the Italian national team.
Puerto Rico basketball enjoyed another historic event. For the first time, both men’s and women’s basketball teams of Puerto Rico will compete in the Olympic Games. The Puerto Rican women’s national team made its Olympic debut three years ago in Tokyo, and this year won the Olympic ticket for the second time.
The most important heroes of the day, of course, were the basketball players who won the victory. However, El Vocero newspaper praised not only the “magnificent twelve” (12 Magnificos, as Puerto Rico’s national basketball team is often called), but also the Puerto Rico Basketball Federation (FBPR) for a job well done.
“The Olympic ticket won by the Puerto Rico national team justified FBPR’s efforts to become the host of one of the four qualifying tournaments. The tournament was held in the “Colosseum”, the largest arena in the country, which attracted about 13 or 14 thousand spectators.
The Puerto Rican national team was happy with the victory they won with the support of their fans and sent a message to those who doubted the investment of the FBPR to host this qualifying tournament,” El Vocero wrote. According to the publication, FBPR spent about 5 million during the preparation of the Olympic selection tournament. US dollars.
“A lot of people said it would be difficult, criticized the federation leaders and called us crazy for holding a qualifying tournament. But look, we’re going to be at the Olympics.
We always believed in ourselves and we are grateful to FBPR president Yum Ramos and everyone who supported us,” the Puerto Rican media quoted national team coach Nelson Colon as saying after the victory.
“We are the world’s basketball power”, – these words have been uttered several times by the coach of the Puerto Rico national team, Nelson Colon. He called his team one of the world’s basketball powerhouses for the first time after the victory over the Italians, and then confirmed with his actions that these were not empty words. The decisive victories against the Mexicans and Lithuanians are proof.
“It’s one thing to say, another to do.” We played well against both Italy and Lithuania. We were able to analyze the opponents and defeat them”, N. Colonas was happy. Both the coach and sports commentators emphasized that the Puerto Rican five learned to defend against the Europeans, whose teams are played by NBA and Euroleague basketball players. Neither the Italians nor the Lithuanians scored even 70 points in the basket of the Puerto Ricans.
“Primera Hora” revealed the secret of how Puerto Ricans learned to play against Europeans: “N.Colon says that he no longer watches NBA games and only watches European league basketball. The coach of the national team carefully examines the game of the strongest European teams”.
N. Colon trains not only the national team, but also the Bajamon “Vaqueros” club. However, the term of the basketball season in Puerto Rico is different from that of the European leagues, so in autumn and winter N. Colon has time to rest and deepen his knowledge of basketball. A few months ago, the coach of the Puerto Rican national team spent ten days in Spanish clubs, then went to the G League teams, where a number of candidates for the Puerto Rican national team play.
“These internships are expensive, but FBPR president Yum Ramos says the dollars paid are not an expense, but an investment,” Primera Hora wrote.
You can read more about last night’s Olympic qualifying finals in San Juan here.
2024-07-09 01:54:35