The United States therefore fell to Germany in the semi-final of the World Cup. A logical final defeat, Team USA no longer having the margin to win FIBA competitions without sending its best team.
“The game has become globalized over the last thirty years” recalls Steve Kerr, as reported by BasketNews. “These matches are difficult. It’s not 1992 anymore. Players are better all over the world. The teams are better. It is not easy to win the World Cup or the Olympics. »
This version of Team USA, extremely young, fought with its strengths (pace, distance skill, etc.) but did not succeed in sufficiently limiting its weaknesses, with still too many points left on second chances. Germany thus scored 25 points following offensive rebounds, compared to 8 for the United States…
“Congratulations to Germany, they were fantastic and deserved their victory” continues the American coach. “Every time we started a series, they made a big shot or grabbed an offensive rebound to make a decisive play. They did what they had to do. I’m really proud of the guys, they were brave throughout the match. But we failed to achieve our goal. »
In particular because the outside defense did not hold up.
“That was our main goal. I give Schroder a lot of credit because he’s a tough player to contain. He’s fast, he has the ball and he constantly penetrates, which threatens and compromises the defense.”continues Steve Kerr, who understood from the first possession that the evening was going to be complicated. “We made some mistakes. It may sound crazy, but from the first offensive rebound of the game… From the start, we should have set the tone, and we didn’t. And this opened up opportunities for (Andreas) Obst (best scorer of the match with 24 points at 4/8 at 3-points). The whole match opened up to him. He made 8 of 9 free throws and scored several 3-pointers. I think he was one of the keys, and we couldn’t control him.”
