Home » In Tokyo, Italy in basketball starts with a victory: Germany defeated 17 years after the last match at the Olympics

In Tokyo, Italy in basketball starts with a victory: Germany defeated 17 years after the last match at the Olympics

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FROM THE ENCOUNTER IN TOKYO. What a suffering. Meo Sacchetti’s national basketball team returns to the Olympics and to success after 17 years, finding the strangest way to reach the goal: to keep Germany going and then take it back and lay it down in the last five minutes of the game. That’s exactly how it went at the Saitama Super Arena, where the public is replaced by the Italian bench who cheers for his teammates from the first to the last.

The start seems to be promising, Italy immediately breaks the ice with a 5-0 run by Fontecchio. Immediately after, the mistakes in defense that will characterize the entire first quarter, and a good part of the game, played by the Azzurri, begin. Too free are the snipers in white who gain dream percentages from the three-point line. In the exact half of the first fraction the treasure of Italy has already vanished and we are traveling in perfect equality (14-14). It is the long distance shots that make the difference at this stage and allow Germany to advance by just three points. Sacchetti understands that the air is changing and calls for a timeout. Germany, however, stretches, reaching 11 points clear of 2’14 “from the end of the initial quarter. However, Danilo Gallinari enters, looks for the foul and sets up two free throws that seem to restart the abacus. he closes with a real collapse that brings the Germans ahead by ten (32-22) on the siren.The gap is all in the statistics of the shots from 3: 8 out of 13 for the Germans, 3 out of 9 for us.

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A difficulty that continues even in the second quarter, Germany instead galvanizes itself every time the three-point bombs hit the target. Isaac Bonga, the winger of Congolese origin who plays in the Washington Wizards, begins to grow, who will also have the number 0 on his shirt but is worth a hundred. He tries to get out of the quicksand Moraschini with a 4-point action (more free basket), immediately after Captain Melli asks for the change and goes out. Luckily there is Gallinari who keeps the race open even if with the Germans always ahead of ten and as you put it they always manage to keep the advantage that however from the ten points that was it becomes 3 (43-46) with Niccolò Mannion who misses the shot from distance that is worth the draw right on the edge of the siren.

In the third time the script does not change, it goes on in tears with the Germans who stretch in a flash up to plus 9 with yet another three-point bomb. Gallinari remains on the bench at the beginning then enters after three and a half minutes to try to sparigliare. It is actually Melli who brings the Azzurri to high altitude with two baskets in a row without letting the Germans touch the ball, who are the spectators: Italy at -3. Erroraccio di Mannion who first does a good thing by stealing the ball in the middle of the field then makes a mistake from below and wastes the basket that would lead to equal. Everything repeats itself, especially the mistakes, until the coveted overtaking that bears the signature of Simone Montecchio arrives: a three-man bomb and Italy advantage (63-62) after two and a half times spent in apnea. Bonga unleashed but it is also true that no one stops him almost on principle and so the third quarter also goes away with the Germans ahead 72-68.

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Everything is decided in the last time. Gallinari with a couple of free attempts to put the Azzurri back on track but they continue on alternating current, a circumstance that contrasts with the more regular pace of the Germans. Germany is back above six and it takes a Tonut with a warm hand to stem the gap. Sacchetti calls the timeout with us behind 80-82. It seems like the right time to try to overturn it. And so it is because first Fontecchio and then Melli hit two three-pointers that bring the Azzurri ahead of 4 (82-86). The Germans try to put it on the dribble in an attempt to find the one on one and some foul in favor. The plan fails, Italy steals the ball and starts again. Again Melli, in solitude this time, puts in the safety basket (82-88) just over a minute from the end. Timeout Germany, final rush that is played on the nerves, as indeed a good part of this messed up match. To keep them steady this time, however, it is Italy that definitively extends with Gallinari and Melli. It ends 92-82 for the Azzurri, a ten-point advantage that seems to have emerged from another match. Crazy Italy that of Sacchetti but winning. Which is what matters.

“This team has an important character – says Sacchetti after the match -. We could lose some matches, but if we have to lose them, we want to play them until the end”. These are the words of Italbasket coach Meo Sacchetti after Italy’s 92-82 victory over Germany. “It was a bit of a strange game, we didn’t defend the first quarter well and they did well at scoring. We recovered in the second half, they ran away in the third quarter and we recovered them again. lesson the match against Puerto Rico in which we were under 17 and we had to recover “, concluded the Italian coach. On Wednesday 28th July there is Italy-Australia.

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