World Cup Qualification
Calculations or straight to Asia? – DBB team required
Only had a few days of preparation with the German national basketball team: national coach Gordon Herbert. Photo: Uwe Anspach/dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
First an unpleasant defeat against Estonia, then three victories in the direction of the 2023 World Cup. Now it is time for revenge for Germany’s basketball players.
Tricky calculations – or continue with victories towards the 2023 Basketball World Cup in Asia? This question is posed today (6 p.m. / Magentasport) for the national team by national coach Gordon Herbert.
«The window is very important for us. Many will already be thinking about the Eurobasket, but our focus is on the two qualifying games,” said Herbert before the game in Estonia, where the DBB team still has something to make up for. The 66:69 in the first leg in Nuremberg hurt, but has now been corrected after three subsequent victories.
“Difference player” Schröder there
“We have four or five days. We’ve had most of them together before. As a club you have four or five weeks of preparation, we have four or five days,” Herbert described the tricky situation. The 63-year-old not only has little time, but also constantly changing squads. Sometimes the Euroleague professionals are gone, the NBA stars are often missing – and this time Dennis Schröder is back for the first time in three years, whom Herbert respectfully calls “a difference player”.
If Germany gets the expected victory in Tallinn, first place in the relay with Poland and Israel would be consolidated. Another success against Poland on July 3 (6 p.m.) in Bremen would be half the battle in qualifying for the tournament, which takes place in Japan, Indonesia and the Philippines in 2023.
In a complicated construct, the second phase of the qualification begins at the end of August, in which the German team meets three other teams: One of them could be Slovenia with NBA superstar Luka Doncic. The European champion will also be the opponent of the German team at the home European Championships in Cologne and Berlin from September 1st to 18th.