Germany’s basketball players can qualify for the Olympic Games for the first time at the qualification tournament in Brazil. How the DBB selection comes to Paris – all the important information at a glance.
Germany’s basketball players celebrated sixth place at last year’s European Championships like winning a medal. Not only was it the best result since bronze at the European Championships in 1997, but it also meant participation in an Olympic qualifying tournament.
National coach Lisa Thomaidis’ team will play in Belem, Brazil, from February 8th to February 11th for a ticket to Paris – it would be the first Olympic participation for Germany’s basketball players.
Four tournaments for ten Olympic tickets – the mode
A total of four qualifying tournaments are scheduled, each with four teams competing against each other. The tournament hosts are Belgium, Brazil, China and Hungary. There are a total of ten free tickets for the Olympics – the hosts France and the USA, as the reigning Olympic champions, have secured their starting place. Nevertheless, they play in the qualifying tournaments – a peculiarity of the world association FIBA, which also does the same thing when qualifying for the European Championships and World Cups and thus also accepts possible distortions of competition.
Australia as the toughest task – Germany’s opponents
The German basketball players have to reach at least third place in their qualifying tournament in Belem or leave one team behind in order to qualify for the Olympics. This sounds feasible on paper, but the DBB team has faced anything but easy opponents: the first game is against Australia, one of the best teams in the world and the clear favorite in the qualifying tournament, despite a few failures.
The second game against Serbia could be a key game. At the last European Championships, the German team had to admit defeat in the game for fifth place, the Serbians then won bronze – a real test for the German team. At the end, the hosts from Brazil are waiting with a lot of athleticism, led by the 2.01 meter high flyer Kamilla Soares. The DBB team is certainly not the favorite in the away game against the Brazilians either.
National coach Lisa Thomaidis spoke about the group of death several times in the run-up to the tournament. By the way, her compatriot Gordon Herbert, coach of the German men, used exactly the same wording before the last World Cup – as is well known, the outcome was very successful.
Germany’s games in the Olympic qualification February 8th, 9 p.m. Germany – Serbia -:- February 10th, 9 p.m. Australia – Germany -:- February 11th, 12 midnight Brazil – Germany -:-
The games of the German basketball players are broadcast on MagentaSport as a free live stream.
WNBA star Sabally and Spain MVP Fiebich as leaders
Young WNBA star Satou Sabally is the focus of the DBB team. The 25-year-old, the great hope of German basketball, was missing from the European Championships last year, but has now “committed” to the national team, as Dennis Schröder would say. Together with her sister Nyara, also active in the WNBA. With the Sabally sisters, the German team nominally has even more quality than at the European Championships, but now they have to pass their first joint test.
The established greats in the team are Leonie Fiebich, MVP of the Spanish league last season, and Marie Gülich. The center player, who already has plenty of WNBA experience, has developed into one of the best center players in Europe in Valencia. The only thing missing from the core of the successful European Championship team around captain Svenja Brunckhorst is the injured Emily Bessoir (UCLA) – a painful loss, however. To do this, the national coach took the 19-year-old mega-talent Frieda Bühner, who recently caused a sensation in the Bundesliga, to Brazil.
In the current power ranking, which the world association published before the start of the Olympic qualification, the German team is in position 9 – and therefore better than two of their opponents: Serbia (position 10) and Brazil (14). Only Australia (position 5) is ranked higher.
Heat and latecomers – difficult preparation in Brazil
The preparation didn’t go well. Training took place in Belem on a covered open-air pitch in warm and humid temperatures, initially not with the full squad. The Euroleague players Leonie Fiebich, Marie Gülich, Nyara Sabally and Luisa Gelselsöder only landed in Brazil at the weekend. Satou Sabally and Lina Sontag were only able to train to a limited extent due to a cold. National coach Thomaidis only joined the team in Brazil on Sunday due to commitments in her home country of Canada, where she works for a college team.