It’s a surprise in world basketball. Argentina, silver medalist at the last World Cup after notably eliminating the French team in the semi-finals, will not participate in the next edition of the World Cup, in August, in Indonesia, Japan and the Philippines. . The Argentinians lost to the Dominican Republic as they fought for their qualifying spot.
The Dominicans erased a 17-point deficit 12 minutes from the end against the Argentines, who were nevertheless playing at home (Mar del Plata) and could count on their best elements: Gabriel Deck (Real Madrid), Facundo Campazzo (Red Star Belgrade ) or even Nicolas Laprovittola (Barcelona). They finish fourth in their group, behind Canada, Venezuela and the Dominican Republic.
“Imprecise in attack”
“We didn’t play well. We were imprecise in attack, had a lot of oversights in defense and didn’t muzzle their key players well. We completely screwed up,” said Campazzo, the captain.
In Europe, Georgia from Tornike Shengelia (Bologna) qualified for its first World Cup despite losing at home to Iceland (80-77), which it leads on overall points difference in third place. of group L (-19 against -56).
In Africa, Real Madrid giant Walter Tavares’ Cape Verde (2.20m) and its 572,000 inhabitants will also discover the competition after beating Côte d’Ivoire (79-64). 31 of the 32 participants in the World Cup (August 25-September 10 in the Philippines, Indonesia and Japan) are known: the last ticket will be played between Belgium and Serbia, the latter being on a very favorable waiver.
All they need is a home victory against weak Great Britain (Group I) on Monday, while Belgium need to beat Turkey at the same time and a defeat for the Serbs. Host country Indonesia failed to qualify because Fiba demanded that they reach the quarter-finals of the Asian Cup, but they were eliminated at home in the round of 16 by China (108-58).