The Blues’ preparation phase for the 2023 World Cup is complete, with a rather satisfactory record of six wins in seven games. Now, the French team will fly to Indonesia and Jakarta, where it will play its group matches, starting with Canada on Friday. Medalists in their last three international competitions, the Blues are aiming for the top step of the podium this time, knowing full well, as Vincent Collet said again this morning during a videoconference from Japan, that it will not be a piece of cake .
We will have to draw, not like in 2019 where “We weren’t expected, we had to surprise, we had to steer! »
Vincent, you had your first defeat of the preparation for your seventh and last meeting, against Australia, before the start of the competition, isn’t that a bad thing before an already colossal first match, against Canada on Friday?
First of all, you are never happy to have lost but indeed, in a defeat, there is always reason to react and remain vigilant. So we can see it like that. But, basically, there was not much difference between the two teams. In this case, if it hadn’t been for this third unsportsmanlike foul called against Rudy, we would probably have won the match. It doesn’t change much in any case: losing a game with one possession or winning it with one possession, in preparation, that’s not the main thing. What we remember is that we did a lot of positive things but on the contrary, we were still weak in defensive rebound. And, in the second half, we were very weak in ball control, with fourteen stray balls. Beyond that, the fact of having played a high-level match like that, five days before the start of the competition, we could hardly do better! It was important to be forced to raise our level. We did it on different occasions, especially at the start of the match with a very good start. We had very good spells, but also moments when we completely lost our basketball, with a very weak end of the third quarter which put Australia back in the game.
Transform essay
You are still finishing the preparation phase with six victories in seven games, what assessment do you draw from this start-up, in France then in Japan, compared to the previous ones?
It was a very good preparation. The defeat against Australia does not call into question what we did before, because beyond the matches, there are the training sessions, the concentration of the group, the commitment. From this point of view, it is satisfactory but it is preparation. Serious things start on Friday, and for the adventure to be successful, we have to transform the test. It will consist of going up a notch once the competition has started. On the staff side, we are very satisfied because, given the short time we had, we really managed to sweep away everything we wanted in terms of game objectives, which was not necessarily obvious. . But the players, with their behavior, made it possible. Now, we will have to confirm and above all win the matches from Friday.
We know that the preparation was quite short and compact, are you satisfied with your development and your progress a few days before the start of the competition?
Some things may take a little time. We saw it yesterday, with the attack on the switches. We know that it always requires a little regulation, to develop the joints. It’s very much a matter of timing. We only trained on it once, but it’s limited, so we’ll do it again. We already did it this morning, and by Friday, we will probably do it again. We did about fifteen training sessions in all and for all, so it’s really very little to tackle a competition like this. But it’s the same for everyone. We must make do.
Comments collected by videoconference
