USA – Canada
World Cup 3rd Place Game
Pasay, September 10, 10:30 CET
Both the American and Canadian teams, gatherings of numerous NBA stars and favorites for the world title, disappointed in the World Cup defeats in the semi-finals. They still have a match for third place, and winning a medal would at least prevent a debacle for both of them.
What kind of match can be expected, the best evidence is the match that Team USA played in the semi-finals against Germany (defeat 113:111 on Friday). As a rule, the Americans, the team of the famous coach and NBA legend Steve Kerr, insisted almost exclusively on attacks that were solved in the first seven or eight seconds. Their mistakes or missed shots also, as a rule, opened opportunities for the opponents to realize in a quick counterattack. The epilogue is by far the most effective match in the tournament.
It is to be expected that Canada will accept such a pace of play and try to respond, because they have the individual quality to do so. In the quarter-finals, the Canadians beat Slovenia 100:89, a team with one of the best basketball players today, Luka Doncic. In the semifinals, Canada "bumped against the wall" of the powerful defense of the Serbian national team, losing 95:86 on Friday... That match showed that the Canadians have problems in defense - they conceded 52 points in the first half. The Americans will know how to exploit all the opponent's weaknesses in individual defense, better than any other team.
It will be extremely interesting to watch the duel between the famous NBA guards, Edwards (USA) and Gilgeous-Alexander (Canada). Canada's advantage may be that they have an extremely competent defensive center, especially in defense (Olynyk). Americans, on the other hand, have a big advantage when it comes to the number of quality guards in the team. One gets the impression that in the minutes when Gilgeous-Alexander is not on the field, Canada suffers both in attack and defense.
Simply, the width of quality in the rotation is a great advantage of the Americans, but one gets the impression that, due to the one-dimensional game system in the attack (exclusively transition oriented to individual solutions in first five to eight seconds), they did not manage to use that advantage in the right way in this championship.
Given that this is a match for third place, we should expect a match without a large number of fouls or sharp duels. Both of them will have the opportunity for quick realizations with penetrations under the basket. There is a good chance that we will again see around 200 points in a match. For years in the NBA, Coach Steve Kerr hasn't given up on the game system he believes in, and he won't either now, in the first match after a big surprise and defeat against Germany in the semi-finals of the World Cup.
If they win a medal, Canada will position itself as one of the best national teams today - but still, the Americans remain favorites. Potential top offensive performances would be a great announcement for next year's Olympic performance, for both teams.