Miguel Méndez, national coach, has a key day before him: the quarterfinal match against Germany, the prelude to the fight for the medals and qualifying for the Pre-Olympic. The Galician spoke to the media present in Ljubljana (Slovenia), including AS, about this momentous duel, which will take place this Thursday (8:45 p.m., Tdp).
The quarterfinals arrive, another key match.
From now on it is normal that they are all final. We are looking forward to the game. We come from a long trip, we haven’t touched the pitch yet and we are prepared for a Germany that will make it difficult for us. Germany has a lot of physical power, it’s a very big team that puts on four 1.90m players at the same time, which makes you wonder to what extent you have to adapt to that. Whether to follow yours or adapt. And it is a team that is a roller because it works on the advantages, they want to attack from the first moment of possession, with a wide variety of resources and it is a team that has not broken down at any time. They have had difficult matches: France, Slovenia… But they have not broken down in any. There have been games that have been -13 and -14 and recovered. They are a tough team to kill.
How does the team arrive?
We got there, I think. We have been preparing for 30 days, there are some positions where we have fewer players and where the ones that exist are more physically demanding, but I think that the same thing happens with all the teams. We trust that the mental and physical level makes us reach physical strength with all swords held high.
How is Maria Conde?
We have doubts. He has already had this injury once and the muscle irritation typical of when your shoulder goes away. But he is doing everything on his part to be there and we will see tomorrow if he can be available.
What can against us about Germany?
There are well-known players and others who come from the United States. There are players who, due to Covid, have not participated in European training sessions, but there are two players from UCLA (United States) who are doing well and are playing a lot of minutes. That makes the game longer. Their coach is new, half of the team are young… In general, German basketball seems very powerful to me, imagine if there were the Sabally sisters who play in the WNBA.
What do you say to the players to face a game like this?
Many secrets. I can’t tell you all the secrets (laughs). I think they know very well what they have to do. We have tried to mix experience and youth, but they have a lot of experience in this type of match in the League, European competitions and the national team. They know how to play them and in inside-out matches, the team that improvises the least comes up with the most chances of victory.
When you improvise you run the risk of situations that you cannot handle. We will try to get the game as close as possible to what we want. It is true that if there is a team capable of getting you out of what you want, it is this one because there are situations that cannot be fixed: the physical difference is there, the difference in kilos and centimeters is there. And the tactic does not help you correct only that. We need to fight, we need grit, not to leave the game, to get through the bad times without going crazy and compete until the end of the game. With some weapons or others, but compete the game until the end.