The preparations in Podgorica have been completed, the Montenegrin basketball team arrived in Latvia yesterday, and today in the "Riga Arena" they did their last training before tomorrow's (14:30 p.m.) match against Brazil in the Olympic Games (OI) qualifiers.
For years, Montenegro has been a regular participant in the biggest basketball competitions. The crown of good work came last September at the Mundobasket in Manila, when our national team took a historic 11th place and qualified for the Olympic qualification tournament for the first time.
And the draw decided that Boško Radović's team will play the qualifying matches at the tournament in Riga - it has been known for a long time that the rivals in the group are Brazil and Cameroon, while the hosts in the second group are Latvia, Georgia and the Philippines. Two selections from each group will qualify for the semi-finals, and the winner of the tournament will go to the Games.
"We are now finishing an Olympic cycle of four years. After a good European Championship and a great Mundobasket, we are at the Olympic qualifying tournament for the first time, which is a reward for us. It is clear that the best of the best are here, Riga is one of the four tournaments, and out of the six teams, only one gets a visa for Paris, so it's clear what kind of tournament is coming up. Every group is demanding, and I think ours is quite difficult, so we have to be careful with expectations," said the coach of the basketball team the day before the match with Brazil Montenegro, Boško Radović.
Montenegro arrived in Riga with a changed and rejuvenated team. It is known that Bojan Dubljević, Nikola Ivanović, Vladimir Mihailović, Nemanja Radović, Marko Todorović and Zoran Nikolić are missing, as well as Fedor Žugić and Jovan Kljajić.
"I think that Brazil and Latvia are the favorites from these two groups, while we have a rather changed composition compared to the World Cup. But, I think that we have prepared well, that we will look the best possible at this moment, that we will be accurate and precise in both directions, because that's the only way we can get into a position to possibly win tomorrow against the great Brazilian national team," said Radović.
The Olympic Games are the dream of every athlete, and Montenegro has its dreams as well. Going to the Games would be the crown of many years of work, a success for all time.
"It is a privilege to be here. All the national teams have arrived in the strongest squads, because despite all the successes in the clubs, everyone has the desire to be part of the OI with their national teams. Therefore, we have a hard job ahead of us, and I would not go back to the fact who is missing, because here are currently the 12 best players we have and with them we will try to do a good job in Riga," the selector is clear.
The first obstacle in the tournament is the strong selection of Brazil, led by the coach Aleksandar Petrović, who also led the "carioca" five years ago, when Montenegro played against Brazil at the Mundobasket in China.
"What we need to do is to reduce the game in attack and defense to five on five. To stop their transition. Brazil is a talented national team, with young and experienced players, and therefore quite complete. We have to be very precise both in attack and in defense, in order to be in the game," concluded Radović.
After Brazil, Montenegro will play the second game in the group against Cameroon on Wednesday (14:30). The eventual semi-finals are scheduled for Saturday, and the final on Sunday.
The winner of this tournament will be at the Games in a group with Japan, the host France and the current world champion - Germany.
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