2023-09-08 16:35:00
Beaten by Germany 113-111 in the semi-final of the World Cup this Friday followingnoon, the United States will return home without the gold medal. A new failure following that of the 2019 World Cup, which once once more calls into question the supremacy of Team USA.
While Germany celebrated as if it had already won the World Cup, the Americans left the field with their heads down, aware of not having lived up to the event. An image that we begin to know as the defeats accumulate for Team USA.
Between 2008 and 2016, Team USA was undefeated in a major international competition.
Here are the teams that have beaten the USA since:
– France (2X)
– Serbia
– Lithuania
– Germany
— Nico TrashTalk ???? (@nicolasmeichel) September 8, 2023
In 2019, following eight years of invincibility in major international competitions, the Americans fell in the quarter-finals ( once morest France) to finally finish seventh in the competition, their worst all-time result in the World Cup. Four years later, Team USA has not managed to erase this failure. On the contrary, the States have once once more shown their limits in the face of the international elite.
Steve Kerr, assistant coach in 2019 and now coach of Team USA, is undoubtedly better placed than anyone to know that the Americans can be shaken up by the competition. Some of the biggest superstars in world basketball come from Europe or Africa, and national teams around the world are getting stronger and stronger.
“These matches are difficult. It’s not 1992 anymore [en référence aux Jeux Olympiques, où la légendaire Dream Team avait explosé tout le monde sans forcer, ndlr.]. Players are better all over the world. The teams are better. It’s not easy to win a World Cup or an Olympic Games.”
– Steve Kerr, following the match
The MVP of the Finals is Serbian.
The number 1 in the Draft is French.
The season MVP is Cameroonian.
The progression of the year is Finnish.
The World Cup final is Germany – Serbia.
The All-NBA 1st Team is Greek, Slovenian, Canadian and Cameroonian with 1 Rican.
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— TrashTalk (@TrashTalk_fr) September 8, 2023
A few days ago, Team USA boss Grant Hill said that opponents were no longer afraid to face NBA players today. Same story with Kerr, who – like Mike Krzyzewski and Gregg Popovich before him – failed to take the United States to the top during his first major competition as head coach.
If we know some who will point the finger at certain choices of Steve Kerr once morest the Germans as well as the horrible defensive performance of the States in this defeat, the truth is that Team USA can no longer afford today to send anything other than its all best players to win gold. This year’s roster was nice, but when you don’t have FIBA experience, your automatisms are limited and you don’t have any experience together, there’s a chance that a team that has all its ingredients will end up by gaining the upper hand in a 40-minute match.
This is what we saw with Lithuania a few days ago. And that’s especially what we saw today once morest Germany, in the match not to be lost. Will the Americans be able to learn the lessons of this failure?
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