This will be a final review of the whole tournament. In this FIBA World Cup 2019, we had many surprises, entertaining matches and shocking defeats. To have more insights on this tournament, please read our FIBA World Cup 2019 Review below.
First Round
In the first round, there were not many surprises, most groups had 2 strongest teams, which easily advanced to round 2, maybe a bit unexpected was China‘s elimination since they were the hosts, everyone hoped for better results. Turkey also struggled very much, surely the most memorable was their match against the USA. However, for that loss, Turkey can only blame themselves. In the most important moments, they managed to miss four free throws in a row. In the end, Turkey lost to Czech Republic and was left in the 3rd place. Australia, Canada and Lithuania were in group H. 3 teams who were capable to advance, but Canada won only against Senegal and took only 3rd place in the group.
Second Round
Round 2 provided much more interesting duels. Group I had Argentina, Poland and Russia. Many believed that Argentina will advance, but Poland has shown excellent comeback against Russia, took a win and advanced in 2nd place leaving Russia behind. In Group J Spain, Italy and Serbia went head to head, surprisingly Serbia could not take 1st place after they lost against Spain. Italy lost to Spain and Serbia and finished their fight for a higher position. In Group K we had a shocking surprise, Greece could not win against Czech Republic by 12 points and also had to finish their fight for medals. It was a huge blow for them, as they had a very good roster with Giannis in front. But in the most important moments, he could not perform well, received 5th foul and ended his performance before time was up.
USA and Czech Republic advanced further. And Group L had most compete opponents-Lithuania, Australia, France. Any of those team could have advanced. But Lithuania failed in key moments against France in a very controversial match, where the most attention got referees. But there was nothing Lithuanians could change and they had to face a loss. Australia and France advanced further to quarter-finals.
Quarter-final
In the quarter-finals, we had very interesting matches. The first pair was Argentina against Serbia. Everyone believed that Serbia got an easy way to the finals, Argentina has shown an amazing performance and passion and won 97:87, it was a huge blow to Serbia, as they surely believed that they will play in the final. The second pair also provided a surprise. France managed to defeat the USA by totally dominating the whole match 79:89. De Colo and Gobert have led their team to a win. In the next pair Spain has escaped any surprises and quite easily defeated Poland 90:78, Poland managed to come back in 4th quarter, but then Rubio scored a couple of three-pointers and sent Poland to play for 5-8th places. And in the last pair, Australia also won against Czech Republic, that way ending their fairy tale 82:70.
Semi-final
Now Semi-finals gave us some amazing fights. Argentina once again proved that they are the black horse of this tournament when they managed to defeat France. Seemed that french could not stop legendary Luis Scola, who had 28 points and 13 rebounds. Argentina dominated the whole match and did not allow for France even to think about a comeback. Next pair provided us with the most intense game in the whole tournament. Spain defeated Australia only after 2 overtimes. Both teams had chances to win the match in regular time and in the first overtime, but could not use it, but in the second OT Rubio and Gasol scored 8 points in a row and Australia couldn’t get back in the game. It was a devastating loss to them, as they once again was not able to perform when it was most important. Mills and Kay led Australia scoring 50 points, while Rubio and Gasol scored 52.
Final
In final Argentina could not show anything they were showing before and Spain just crushed them 95:75. Scola has just turned off the game and scored only 8 points. Rubio scored 20 and was a true leader this whole tournament. In the match for the 3rd place Australia faced France and once again had the same problem, from the beginning of the match Australia dominated and led by 17 points, but in the second half stopped and France didn’t waste their chance and won 67:59.
FIBA World Cup 2019 Key player
As expected Ricky Rubio was selected as tournaments MVP. He averaged 16.4 points per game and 6 assists per game. In symbolic top5 of a tournament were also selected-Gasol, Bogdanovic, Fournier and Scola. It was a very unpredictable tournament, like USA, Serbia, Greece could not even reach semi-finals. Also, Poland and Czech Republic managed to reach quarter-finals. Now we are looking forward to the Olympic games and hope to see some more surprises.
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