The wolf gang secures Venezuela’s qualification spot for next year’s Paris Olympics by knocking them down. Head coach Lassi Tuovi would see more value in Saturday’s victory than an Olympic qualification spot.
On the app and on the website, you can see live highlights of Susijeng’s matches and Lauri Markkanen’s matches at the World Championships. Finland will play its last match of the Games on Saturday, September 2. at 10:30 a.m. against Venezuela. ‘s online World Championships are followed in this article.
OKINAWA. The Finnish men’s national basketball team is looking for a place at the Olympics in its last World Cup match. Veneuzela is standing opposite.
Finland is the best group runner-up before the last round of the extension groups and would then be going from the lower extension series as the first through the ranking to the Olympic qualification.
So, a win against Venezuela should be enough for the Wolf Gang, unless some big miracles happen. A total of 24 teams can qualify for the Olympic qualifiers, of which 4 will go to the Games.
Susijeng’s appearance was far from usual in the first group, when the medal favorites Germany and Australia knocked out the team with a crushing count. Finland, on the other hand, lost an 18-point lead against host Japan and lost.
However, the opening of the next group saw the traditional Susijeng, when Finland aggressively defended the Cape Verdean superstar Edy Tavares and ran numerous easy baskets from the opponent’s turnovers and misses.
Finland’s head coach Lassi Tuovi reminded that the players did the most work in changing the direction, but highlighted one thing in particular: the fan event organized in Okinawa on Tuesday, based on which it could be described that around a thousand Finns were present at the World Cup.
Susijeng’s players distributed numbers and took group photos with everyone willing for an hour and a half.
– We used the fan event as a resource and got energy from it. (We talked about that), here’s a pretty sweet thing at hand, even though there have been a couple of losses. We also started to do more things together on the field. From then on, things opened up like a bottle of ketchup, says Tuovi.
Venezuela, a surprisingly experienced success team
Sunday’s opposition, Venezuela, won the 2015 America’s Championship and played in the Rio Olympics in 2016.
Eight years later, four players from America’s champion team are still participating, such as the big winger who clocked the most minutes in the team and scored the second most points Nestor Colmenares.
– Venezuela is a surprisingly experienced team. They have a good background. They know what to do together. On the other hand, our style of play will be difficult for them if we implement the same move as against Cape Verde, Tuovi states.
Tuovi would like to see a continuation of the game appearance seen against Cape Verde. The Finnish coaching staff tried to emphasize to the players with the help of videos why Susijengi played Cape Verde so well.
– The intensity was better. That’s how we won the struggles. We overcame the pressure under the basket and were able to run the field. The attack didn’t have to show anything other than to give the guy the ball and he also puts it forward. On Friday, the last person who gets the ball puts the ball in the basket. Before then, let’s just work a lot to get the opponent to move, Tuovi estimates.
The Olympic qualification place is not the main thing in mind
Tuovi hasn’t started calculating what it takes to get an Olympic qualifying spot during the World Cup extension. And Susijeng’s head coach hasn’t done it on the eve of the last World Cup either.
– We’ve been thinking a bit boringly that we’ll just take care of our own business. Let’s crown the tournament with that. Then let’s see our ranking in our own group. I would like to see Susijeng’s best performance just one more time. After that, we can think about what it will bring to the future, Tuovi states.
However, the head coach can be so excited that he sees tomorrow’s victory as having greater significance than an Olympic qualification spot.
– We have all the conditions to crown this tournament after a difficult start. That is also important when looking to the future. If and when a good game is played to the end, it tells about the growth of the team in ten days. It may be more valuable than what we currently think.