Original title: World preliminaries face old rival Iran Chinese men’s basketball team prepares for a tough fight
China Sports News reporter Hu Jianhua
On November 11, the Chinese men’s basketball team will face Iran in the first match of the fifth window of the 2023 World Cup qualifiers. With many players suffering from injury problems, the Chinese team must be prepared to fight a tough battle in the face of this old opponent.
The Chinese men’s basketball team flew to Iran on the evening of the 7th. Before the departure, the team announced the list of 14 people for the visit. Due to factors such as injuries, this list has changed a lot compared with the personnel in the fourth window period. Among them, Guo Ailun and Zhao Jiwei were not selected for the guard line. Although Zhou Qi, Wang Zhelin and Shen Zijie were still the main players in the inside line, Zhou Qi and Shen Zijie were not selected. All have injuries of varying degrees.
As the best player in the fourth window, Zhou Qi’s importance to the Chinese men’s basketball team is self-evident. During training in the Australian League, Zhou Qi strained his calf muscle, and the team advised him to rest for 3 weeks. However, according to Du Feng, the head coach of the Chinese men’s basketball team, Zhou Qi has flown directly from Australia to Iran to join the team for the national team competition. But whether Zhou Qi can play the game depends on the leg injury and the assessment of the coaching staff. Even if he can play, I am afraid that his performance will be discounted.
Another inside player, Shen Zijie, suffered a waist injury in the last game of the first stage of the CBA regular season. At that time, he was pushed out of the field by a stretcher.
In the Iranian team’s interior lineup, veteran Haddadi is still an important member. He participated in a total of 3 World Preliminaries, averaging 15 points, 11.7 rebounds, 3.7 assists and 2.7 blocks per game, showing a comprehensive performance. Moreover, he has played in the CBA league for many years and is very familiar with Chinese players. Kazmi is another insider who needs the Chinese team’s attention. The 2.02-meter forward averaged 8.4 points, 12.3 rebounds and 4 assists per game in the World Preliminaries, ranking first in rebounds and in assists. Second, it is the most important player to revitalize the team.
In this head-to-head confrontation, most of the burden of the Chinese team’s inside line will fall on Wang Zhelin. In the 7 world preliminaries that the Chinese team participated in, he averaged 8.3 points and 5.4 rebounds per game, and Wang Zhelin’s height and weight can be formed with the Iranian team’s inside line. Confrontation, in addition to the forward line Zhou Peng, Ren Junfei, Zhu Junlong and others should also provide more support.
Wang Zhelin is very aware of the situation of the Chinese team. He said: “Iran is a strong old opponent. Haddadi and we are very familiar with each other. He has strong experience and strength. Although we are very difficult now, we have an age advantage. Will definitely give it my all.”
The Iranian team’s most reliant players on the perimeter are Jamsidi and Jacques Charlie. The former averaged 18.9 points and 4.1 assists per game, both of which were the highest in the team. Jacques Charlie averaged the second highest in the team. 17.2 points and 3.2 assists. Moreover, the Iranian team has maintained a consistent style of toughness and pursuit of confrontational style, which has put forward higher requirements for the outside players of the Chinese team, especially Zhao Rui, Hu Mingxuan, Wu Qian, Jiang Weize and others. What is more noteworthy is that Besilovic, who has coached in the CBA for many years, has served as the technical director of the Iranian team, and the opponent is still playing at home. In order to prepare for the World Preliminaries, the Iranian league was suspended in early October. The team has been training for 3 weeks and is fully prepared.
In Group F where the Chinese men’s basketball team is located, Australia ranks first with 8 wins, the Chinese men’s basketball team ranks second with 6 wins and 2 losses, and Kazakhstan and Iran both have 5 wins and 3 losses, ranking first respectively. The third and fourth place, they are also direct competitors of the Chinese men’s basketball team for World Cup qualification.
When talking about the goals of this window period, Du Feng said that he will strive to win both games and go all out to bring out the team’s mental outlook. In the face of the Iranian team, the Chinese men’s basketball team must be fully prepared to deal with difficulties and play at the due level.