Chapter 1273: There Are No Underdogs in the World Cup
There are still more than ten days before the start of the World Cup, which does not mean that it will start at the beginning.
However, as the World Cup approaches, it is true that there are more and more warm-up matches around the world.
Even many national teams have come to China to play games in advance, and by the way adapt to China's game environment in advance.
After the Chinese team played two games with the Japanese team, they then moved to Wuhan, where they participated in the Four Nations Tournament.
The gold content of this four-nation competition is very high. In addition to the Chinese team, the remaining three teams are France, Brazil and Canada.
This is also a signal of the strength of the Chinese team.
As the Olympic defending champion, coupled with Tang Tian's existence, and Fiba's strength ranking.
Other countries are willing to play against a strong team like the Chinese team, especially if this strong team is still the host.
The grouping of the World Cup teams has already been determined, except for Group A, the grouping of other groups.
Group B: Greece, Venezuela, South Korea, Cameroon
Group C: Australia, Iran, Brazil, Tunisia
Group D: Angola, Philippines, Italy, Serbia
Group E: Canada, Slovenia, United States, Japan
Group F: Russia, New Zealand, Puerto Rico, Montenegro
Group G: Dominica, France, Germany, Jordan
Group H: Türkiye, Senegal, Lithuania, Spain
According to the rules of the World Cup, the top two in the group advance to the rematch, and the 16 teams are the top 16 of the World Cup.
Then groups AB, CD, EF, and GH are reorganized into new groups I, J, K, and L.
The top two teams in groups I, J, K, and L advance to the quarter-finals, which is the quarter-finals.
Brazil, France and Canada are in Groups C, E and G respectively.
According to this rule, the earliest encounter between them will be in the quarterfinals, so they are very good warm-up targets for each other.
The Four Nations Tournament will be divided into groups, preliminaries and finals.
In the preliminaries, the Chinese team and the French team were drawn into a group, and the Canadian team and Brazil were drawn into a group.
The winners of the two groups enter the finals to determine the champion and runner-up, while the losers enter the loser's group to determine the third and fourth places, and then distribute the prize money.
The bonus is not much, but more important than that money is the chance to play against each other.
For the four teams, this is a warm-up match with a very high gold content before the World Cup, and they all attach great importance to it.
Taking the Canadian team as an example, this year's unprecedented number of NBA players all chose to play for the country.
Wiggins, Jamal Murray, Tristan Thompson, Tang Tian Pelicans teammate Alexander, these are relatively well-known.
In addition, Corey Joseph, Dillon Brooks, and Dwight Powell are also on the team roster.
Including this year's Flower Show, Tang Tian's fan RJ Barrett is also on the list.
This is also the reason why fiba puts the Canadian team ahead of China, Serbia, Australia, France and other strong teams in the strength list.
In terms of overall strength alone, it is not too much to say that this Canadian team is the strongest outside of the US team.
Of course, the strength of the French team is not bad. Although Parker has already retired from the national team, Fournier is on the outside, Batum is on the front line, and Gobert is on the inside. They also rank sixth in the strength list.
Including the Brazilian team is also playing with all the main players. This time the Four Nations Tournament has also attracted considerable attention in China.
The venue for the Four Nations Tournament is the Wuhan Sports Center Gymnasium.
It is worth mentioning that the 2011 Wuhan Asian Championships was also held in this arena.
At that time, the enthusiasm of fans in Wuhan was well known throughout the country, and it could be called a beautiful landscape.
The same is true for this competition. Tickets for the Four Nations Tournament were sold out early, and the scalper market continued to be hot.
The game between Brazil and Canada will be played in the afternoon.
The Chinese team came to watch from the sidelines.
After the warm-up ended, the two teams started to play one after another.
For the Canadian team, Alexander and Murray on the outside, Wiggins and Dwight Powell on the front, and Tristan Thompson on the center.
All five are NBA starters and even star-level players. Canada is really star-studded.
Compared with Canada, the Brazilian team seems to be a bit weak.
Outside "Lightning" Barbosa and Marcelo Huertas, forward Garcia and Capocolo, center Varejao.
There are five starters and three veterans, and none of them are playing in the NBA. The only "Brazilian Durant" Capocolo who is playing in the NBA is not worthy of his name.
Compared with the other three teams, the Brazilian team is the weakest one.
However, there is a reason why it was invited to the Four Nations Tournament. Both Brazil and Argentina are strong South American teams with similar styles.
Moreover, the two teams are now also facing a situation where there is no pick-up.
It is of course very meaningful to play against the favorite teams of the World Cup champions such as France and Canada.
In case you don't play well, playing against the Brazilian team is also of great exercise value.
The game started quickly, and unexpectedly, the Brazilian team suppressed the Canadian team in the opening game.
Murray was taught by Barbossa to be a man, and he was suddenly a little suspicious of life.
On the other hand, in Canada, Kong has talent, but has not been able to display his strength.
After the first quarter, the Brazilian team led the Canadian team 21 to 15.
The process of the game was astonishing.
Even Li Chunjiang, the head coach of the Chinese team, frowned and thought deeply, obviously looking for the reason why all this happened.
But Tang Tian didn't seem surprised.
To say that many people call Canada a "dependent country" of the United States, there is a lot of oil in it.
If nothing else, let's just talk about the national team. Canada also has a very late training session like the Dream Team.
As a result, these players have no personal strength, but they have never fought for the country before, and the tacit understanding between them is very poor. It looks like a weakened version of the dream team.
On the other hand, the Brazilian team is familiar with each other and cannot be more familiar with each other, and there is a tacit understanding on both offensive and defensive ends.
And he also knows that in history, the Brazilian and Argentine teams, who have been watching the weak, have performed well in the World Cup.
In particular, the Argentine team eliminated the United States and France all the way to the World Cup finals.
The two teams have been deadlocked, and the Brazilian team leads 68 to 64 at the end of the third quarter.
In the last quarter, too many veterans on the Brazilian team had physical problems, and the Canadian team won the game under the leadership of Murray.
At the end of the game, the Canadian team finally defeated the Brazilian team 85 to 75.
But after the game, the head coach of Canada Nas looked dignified.
In terms of strength on paper alone, this Canadian team is stronger than the Raptors he led in the NBA, but it obviously did not meet his psychological expectations.
"There are no underdogs in the World Cup!"
In the stands, Li Chunjiang couldn't help expressing emotion after watching the whole game.
You must know that in the ranking given by Fiba before, the Brazilian team was only ranked 13th, and it really surprised him that the 13th beat the second.
In fact, it wasn't just Li Chunjiang, the men's basketball players also had surprised expressions on their faces.
Seeing their reactions, Tang Tian felt that tonight's match was not in vain.
The fans feel that the Chinese team is not afraid of being in a top-ranked group, but what is afraid is that the players feel the same way and take it lightly when playing games.