All-round Athlete

Chapter 499 The Croatian Men's Basketball Team Can't Run Fast

The fact that Zhang Guan broke the 1,500-meter world record became the focus of discussion for a while, and the fact that Liu Feiren retired due to injury the day before was also forgotten by people. Everyone began to look forward to Zhang Guan's next Olympic champion , the next world record.

On August 20th, the Olympic Games entered the penultimate competition day. On this day, Zhang Guan had to face three games. The men's basketball team played against Croatia in the afternoon, and the 800-meter middle-distance race preliminaries and the 200-meter sprint final in the evening.

The match between the men's basketball team and Croatia was held at 2:30 in the afternoon. Since they had already entered the knockout stage, the match must be even more brutal.

The Croatian men's basketball team is a team with a glorious history. The strongest period of the Croatian team was in the 1990s. At that time, the Croatian team had reached the final in the Barcelona Olympics, and finally lost to the strongest in history. The American Dream Team, and the then Croatian star Podrovich even surpassed the legendary superstar Michael Jordan in scoring. It can be said that in that era, the Croatian team was the only team capable of competing with the Dream Team.

But in recent years, the strength of the Croatian team has long been inferior. Even in Europe, it can only be regarded as a mid-range team. In this Olympic Games, the Croatian team finally entered the Olympic Games by virtue of losing the qualifying match.

According to the competition rules of Olympic basketball, there will be three places in the Olympic Games, and all the teams participating in the losing games are mixed together. European teams, African teams, and Asian teams are in the same group, which is very important for European teams. Definitely has an advantage. The three qualifying places in the Olympic Games are Greece, Croatia and Germany, and all three teams are European teams. It is worth mentioning that the Croatian team once defeated the German team in the semi-finals.

The national team faced the Croatian team in the first round of the knockout round, and it can be said that it has drawn a lottery. In terms of strength, the Croatian team is similar to the Chinese team, but in terms of style of play and staffing, the Chinese team is obviously more restrained than the Croatian team.

Croatia has always been rich in tall point guards and tall insiders. Croatian point guards are all traditional point guards, mainly based on organization; and the insiders of the Croatian team are also the traditional tall and large insiders in Europe. They don’t run fast. , delicate technique, flexible movement, average level of confrontation. In general, the Croatian team is a traditional European team that can no longer be traditional.

Croatia's main attack point is the inside line. As we all know, Dayao is best at dealing with this traditional type of inside line, and the other two centers of the Chinese team are also very experienced in fighting against traditional inside lines. Advantageous.

Another point is that the Croatian team is not fast. This is not because of the drag of the big center, but because the Croatian team really does not have fast players. The players of the Croatian team are generally tall, and they don't have the high-density muscles of the blacks. It is normal for them to not run fast.

The speed of the national team is also not fast, especially when retreating, there will often be defensive loopholes. Facing a Croatian team that is not running fast, the two sides will attack honestly. Hope to see things.

For the players of the national team, they had conducted special research on every player of the Croatian team yesterday, and Zhang Guan did not make too much preparation for this game because he had to prepare for the track and field competition. Coach Yunus had to give Zhang Guan a special treatment.

At this time, in the video classroom of the men's basketball training ground, coach Jonas was explaining the situation of the Croatian team to Zhang Guan.

"This is Vukic. He is the only player on the Croatian team who will play in the NBA next season. The 24-year-old Vukic was drafted by the Toronto Raptors in 2005, but he has been playing on the Spanish face until the last season. In the middle of this month, the Raptors announced that they signed a three-year contract with Vukic, probably to fill the vacancy after sending away TJ-Ford!"

Coach Jonas pointed to Vukic's photo, and continued: "Vukic is 1.96 meters tall and is a very tall point guard. He is very good at cutting layups like a skilled guard. His length and lateral speed on defense will also put a lot of pressure on opponents."

"Like Papa Lucas?" Zhang Guan asked.

Coach Jonas thought for a while, then shook his head: "Vukic's overall view and passing awareness are far worse than Papalukas's, and his shooting level is relatively poor. In addition, his dribbling speed Not very fast, I think with your defense, you should have no problem dealing with him."

Zhang Guan nodded, and coach Jonas pointed to another person's photo and continued: "This is Planinic, who is also a point guard. He is 1.99 meters tall and taller than Vukic. He once He was selected by the Nets in the first round of 22 in 2003 and has played in the NBA for many years. His ball-handling ability and passing vision are great, but his speed is relatively slow, and his body is not considered strong. A speed-type point guard can easily Break through him. I think with your speed, you can completely beat him on the offensive end. By the way, I have to remind you that Planinic has a good shooting ability, so you should pay attention to it during the game."

Coach You'an Temple pointed to another player's photo and continued: "This is Davor Kuss, with a height of 1.92 meters. He is a combo guard with good shooting ability, but his athletic talent is relatively average. He should Will be a substitute for Croatia."

"This player is Popovich, the shortest player in the Croatian team, with a height of 1.85 meters, but he does not have amazing speed like the average small point guard. The coach of the Croatian team probably will not send him. .”

"Croatia's back line is probably like this. There is another person you should pay attention to. His name is Thomas." Coach Jonas pointed to Thomas' photo, and then said: "He is 2.03 meters tall and plays as a small forward. , but he has very comprehensive skills and a good overall view, and has a strong organizational ability, so sometimes he even runs to the point guard position. But he is the same as other players in the Croatian team, that is The speed is average."

Zhang Guan nodded: "In general, the Croatian team is a team that can't run fast."

"You can understand it like this, but the Croatian team occasionally has a fast break, but the speed of the fast break is really not satisfactory. This is very beneficial to us." Coach Jonas said with a smile.

...

At this time, in the Croatian team, Croatian coach Repesa is also encouraging his players.

"Boys, our opponent is the Chinese team. This is good news for us, because it means that we have the hope of entering the semi-finals. Look at the four teams in Group A, the United States Team, we definitely can’t beat them; Spain team, we are also not their opponent; Greece team, we lost to them without any suspense a month ago! Only the Chinese team is the one we can beat! We want to beat The Chinese team advances to the semi-finals!"

The first chapter has been delivered, my network has finally recovered, let's celebrate, add more updates today!