Finals: ESPANA vs HELLAS

[bobo81]

erainmania should win MVP for that avatar! LLOLL! He gets my vote!

[e330]

I see nobody is speaking about Spain, so I'll have to do it.

Unfortunately All Star Pau Gasol is not playing the final. This is very upsetting but the most important characteristic of the spaniard squad is the quality and the great performences of the players coming from the bench.

Against Argentina, and probably the key of the game, in the first minutes of the second quarter Spain neutralized an eleven points argentinian advantage with a great perfomance of Sergio Rodriguez (first round pick for Portland in the last draft) and Rudy Fernandez, substituting guards Calderon (Toronto Raptors) and Navarro.
Also we recovered Jorge Garbajosa (power forward, joining Raptors next season) a terrific long distance shooter who was not playing at his best level in the past games, and of course, if you don't know Juan Carlos "La Bomba" (The Bomb) Navarro there's a great opportunity for him to get his desired NBA contract playing his best electric basketball in the final.

Maybe the weakest position in this team is center and without Gasol this could be a problem, but this guys are very confident and if there's a high-score game with a quick game and not very interrupted with fouls and that kind of game Greece can play for decades, this could be their championship. Remember we haven't won any big titles yet.

Anyway this is going to be a very tight game with the two best teams of the competition. And this has been the victory of brain and motivation against muscle and arrogance.

Congratulations Greece, congratulations Spain.

[koroshiya1]

[QUOTE=EverGreen]It is a shame that Pau won't be playing for his team, country and himself. BUT!!! If this is the end of the world for Spanish hopes then sorry, you are not half the team Greece is. The Greek team does not have the superstar like Gasol because depending on the moment, any Greek player can step up and be the superstar. That is called balance and not having all your plans thrown out of the window because your main man got injured.


Yeah right, so it wouldn't matter to you if Papaloukas or Diamantidis were injured for the finals?

[ARIS WORLD FANS]

Once again.....come on Greece.......tomorow we can be the world champions......thanks

[ziv]

i didn't like hernandes' decision to call marc gasol in the first place but unfortunetly i feel it's gonna hit spain tommorrow.
vasquez is (was) injured - but de-miguel and trias (had much better season in barcelona than gasol) should have done better. you know what - even chuck kornegay who returns to play in spain next season might have been a better option. instead pepu got stuck with gasol (and i personally don't like felipe reyes and think he's undersize to handle top centers - tommorrow 2 great ones like papadopoulos and sofo). well i understand he took gasol thinking he needs "a body" to throw against the americans or argentinian while having the smaller (and more skilled) reyes able to play as 4. but damn that's a big problem now. at least with trias or de-miguel spain would have had another option.

[alejo11]

I´m so sorry Gasol won´t play.It´s gonna take some glory away from Greece´s win tommorrow.I can already see the posts here after the game...

[koroshiya1]

i didn't like hernandes' decision to call marc gasol from the first place but unfortunetly i feel it's gonna hit spain tommorrow.
vasquez is (was) injured - but de-miguel and trias (had much better season in barcelona than gasol) should have done better. you know what - even chuck kornegay who returns to play in spain next season might have been a better option. instead pepu got stuck with gasol (and i personally don't like felipe reyes and think he's undersize to handle top centers - tommorrow 2 great ones like papadopoulos and sofo). well i understand he took gasol thinking he needs "a body" to throw against the americans or argentinian while having the smaller (and more skilled) reyes able to play as 4. but damn that's a big problem now. at least with trias or de-miguel spain would have had another option.

What about Duenas? You think he'd kick Papadopoulos' ass?

[Stardusted]

I dont believe that if the game goes to a high score we are bound to loose it. I can see us adapting to that kind of game (again). It will be a close game anyway, may the best team win.

[ziv]

What about Duenas? You think he'd kick Papadopoulos' ass?

of course i think so - at least he's a better player atm (and imo) than marc gasol - but since he officaly(?) retired from the NT i didn't include him.

[Castillian]

We will win with or without Gasol, take it for granted!!
Vamos, españa, vamos!!

[PHILIPeurobasket]

I this that Spain can have problems without Gasol under basket

Gasol cannot play in final game - this is really drama for this player

[ncroc]

I am really sorry for offending you guys. I was really arrogant for posting it like that. Greece sure had good generations too like U20 at 2002, U18 at 2002 and U16 at 1999 but so the other countries but now Greece beats USA that is big. Anyways sorry again.

Here's data that I made my observations on and the source is www.fibaeurope.com

U20

Year Gold Silver Bronze Place
2006 Serbia & Montenegro Turkey Slovenia
2005 Russia Lithuania Serbia & Montenegro
2004 Slovenia Israel Lithuania Brno (CZE)
2002 Greece Spain France Kaunas, Alytus, Vilnius (LTU)
2000 Slovenia Israel Spain Ohrid (MKD)
1998 Yugoslavia Slovenia Turkey Trapani (ITA)


U18

Year Gold Silver Bronze Place
2006 France Lithuania Spain
2005 Serbia & Montenegro Turkey Italy
2004 Spain Turkey France Zaragoza (ESP)
2002 Croatia Slovenia Greece Ludwigsburg, Esslingen, Böblingen (GER)
2000 France Croatia Greece Zadar (CRO)
1998 Spain Croatia Greece Varna (BUL)

U16

Year Gold Silver Bronze Place
2006 Spain Russia Serbia & Montenegro
2005 Turkey France Spain
2004 France Russia Turkey
2003 Yugoslavia Turkey Russia Madrid (ESP)
2001 Yugoslavia Russia Spain Riga (LAT)
1999 Yugoslavia Greece Turkey Polzela, Celje, Lasko (SLO)

[GR8BBALL]

Some more data
2003-World Championship U21: Greece 3rd place
2005-World Championship U18: Greece 2nd place
Not bad at all

[GR8BBALL]

Greece defeated yesterday USA fair and square. They started slow but made a 25-8 run and never lost the lead since then... They outplayed US using pick 'n roll and some isolation plays which is their game. No doubt about the good performance of Greece.

One thing about this team is it can play many styles of game, its inside/outside game is balanced and has great bench players. Greece plays well halfcourt, transition, fullcourt game, transition game, isolation plays, zone--you name it. It adapts well to different situations as we've seen. It has many players that can be top scorers in each game: Fotsis, Spanoulis, Diamantidis, Papaloukas, Papadopoulos, Schortsianitis, Zisis, Dikoudis, Tsartsaris all can make the difference in any game. Noone stands out like Gasol in Spain but I take that as our advantage.

Some wrote Greece plays boring, that is not true--in any game you can see alley oops by Fotsis, thunderous dunks by almost anyone (ok Sofo makes a difference here ), blocks by Diamantidis on bigger players, no-look passes by Papaloukas, slasshes by Spanoulis and the list can go on and on and on...

Another point is that behind this squad there is another dozen of players who could play well for many other national squads like Vassileiadis, Papamakarios, Bouroussis, Mavrokefalidis, Sakota, Vouyoukas, Diamantopoulos, Komatos, Glyniadakis, Pelekanos, Perperoglou to name some... The only thing is that Greeks are bad at advertising their team and players that's why in the US noone knows them.

Finally I hope we win tommorrows game against a very strong and experienced opponent like Spain, but I will be happy with Greece in any case.
Don't forget that Greece had tough games right from the start against teams like Lithuania, Turkey, Australia and continued with China, France and the US.
So I dare to say that we deserve this one, the only thing that worries me a bit is the overhype and enthusiasm after our last win...

Anyway I wish for an amazing game for the finals to see the best team win...

[HABIBI]

We are the champions and today will be the world champions!!!Nothing can stop our team!you can see it in their eyes!I hope everything gonna be allright.Good luck to our team.

[qiangdade]

All prediction is crap! It is a final and it is 50-50 no matther who plays or not.

[rchos7]

i agree with qiangdade.there is no way we can know who will win!

[ajaxballer]

My vote is for spain. I like spain's athletic style of play, I hope Sergio and Rudy
get a lot of mins. I think spain has enough offensive fire power to score on Greece's amazing defense, well.... I hope they do lol. GO CANA....I MEAN SPAIN .

[Picek]

Spain up by 6 at the end of the first quarter

they are playing some great D...
vamos espana

[Picek]

Spain up by 11 and their ball...
so far they are killing Greece with their best weapon...
tough defence...