Basketball
Fight from Africa and favorite from Asia. Who will win tickets to the Olympics?
On Saturday, the world championship will conclude with a consolation tournament with 17-32 places. According to the results to be obtained, the lower part of the final classification of the planetary forum will take its final shape and more importantly, two participants will be determined to participate in the 2024 Olympic Games to be held in Paris, France.
The fact is that initially it was written in the competition regulations that the best representatives of their continent will take part in the Olympics. September 2 will be an important day for the representatives of these continents, as not a single team from Africa and Asia has made it to the Top 16. Let’s take a closer look at which teams can stay away from medals and fulfill their Olympic dream.
Africa
The current tournament was relatively successful for representatives of the African continent. Each of the five teams managed to score at least one win, and while no one made it to the second stage, none of them were absolutely disappointing at the 2023 World Cup.
Therefore, it makes sense for all five teams to have at least a theoretical chance for an Olympic license. Egypt and South Sudan have the best prospects. Both teams currently have two wins and two losses in the tournament. Since the national teams compete in absentia, many things can and will depend on the goal difference here. +3 for the Egyptians and +2 for the South Sudanese representatives before the final matchday matches. The distance is minimal, which promises an even hotter fight. Egypt has a slight advantage, they will start the meeting in forty-five minutes and will know by what margin they should win if the Sudanese win.
If both of the above teams stumble, then there are chances of the other three African representatives approaching the final matchday with one win in asset and three defeats in responsibility. These teams are Angola (goal difference -19), Ivory Coast (-50) and Cape Verde (-57). It’s worth saying right away that the Ivory Coasts will be playing against the French, so their chances of even winning are very low, not to mention they make a good difference in the score. There are also phantom hopes for the Cape Verdean national team. Walter Tavares and company can quite realistically count on winning the duel with Japan, but it’s hard to believe that the samurai was defeated by a large score.
However, it is the Angola team that has a real opportunity to catch up among these three. Firstly, the difference of -19 is not pleasant but certainly not critical, and secondly, the Angolans will have to play with the South Sudan team. Accordingly, they can directly take out an opponent with their own hands, increase the goal difference and worsen the opponent’s similar indicator.
Sport.ua forecast: Entry to the South Sudan Olympic team. Making his debut at the world championship, he soon has the opportunity to make his debut at the Olympic Games. Luol Deng and head coach Royal Ivey have made a great team, hit the mark with a naturalized player (Curlick Jones tops the list of tournament’s top scorers and best assistants), and they’ve already performed very well. And going to Paris will be a new chapter in South Sudan’s basketball tale. Let me remind you that the team became a member of FIBA less than a decade ago, in December 2013. It is very valuable to go from a player who has just started world basketball to an Olympic participant in such a short time.
Decisive matches (indicated in Kiev time):
11.00 Angola – South Sudan
11.45 New Zealand – Egypt
12.45 Ivory Coast – France
14.10 Japan – Cape Verde Islands
Asia
Everything is much simpler with the Asian ticket. There are many contenders for it, but there is a clear favorite among them, and there are many teams that have already lost their chance to compete for the Olympics. Losers include the Philippines, Iran and Jordan.
Japan is leading. He has a record of two wins and two losses before the final matchday, and Paris holds the fate of the pass. In the event of a victory against Cape Verde in the final round by any score, the samurai will guarantee their participation in the Olympics.
If the Japanese lose, in theory options are possible. The game indicators of the two teams will be equal to one win and three losses, and they will be able to compete for the ticket if the samurai misfire. We are talking about China (Goal Spread -73) and Lebanon (Goal Spread -90). They remain in the fight purely hypothetically, but their chances are mostly on paper given that the Land of the Rising Sun has a difference of -19.
Sport.ua forecast: Olympics entry for the Japanese team. The odds of the Japanese team before the final match day are quite impressive. For their followers, it would be gratifying to win their matches, and it is unbelievable that China and Lebanon have lost by an incredible margin. But the samurai are extremely skilled at beating the Cape Verde Islands, and if they lose, then certainly not by a forty or fifty point margin. In other words, the Japanese are already slowly looking for a place in Paris hotels.
Decisive matches (indicated in Kiev time):
14.10 Japan – Cape Verde Islands
15.00 Philippines – China
16.30 Iran – Lebanon
Source: Sport UA
Ralph Bean is a writer for Sportish. Ralph has written about sports news for the last two years, and is currently an author on the site. He enjoys writing about sports, and hopes to cover more stories in the future.
