MADRID, 25 Jun. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The national basketball coach, Miguel Méndez, wanted to give value to the silver he achieved in Eurobasket 2023 after losing in the final this Sunday against Belgium, although he acknowledged the frustration of seeing the gold escape due to “small details” against an opponent who showed to be the best in the tournament at the Stozice Arena in Ljubljana.
“Belgium played the best basketball in the tournament and they deserved to win in the final. It was a tough game, we competed for many minutes but my feeling is that we needed something more that we didn’t find. I’m proud of my players and I’ll try to be happy in the future.” next few days,” he said at a press conference.
The Galician coach, in his first tournament as coach, pointed to those “details” in a match that they dominated until the last four minutes. “They always came back during the game. We dominated the rhythm for many minutes, but at the end of the third quarter we needed something more to stop them. Our aid system didn’t work, we didn’t find solutions. They are small details, we missed unmarked shots,” he said.
“It is not consoling, we came to win, but looking from a business point of view, it is very important, just like getting a medal, to have the option of competing in February to be in the Olympic Games. We return with a team that is not new but there are different roles. We are missing some players in the inside position, but those who have played have shown that they are top, they have multiplied”, he added.
Despite this work on the inside, Emma Meesseman (24 points) and Kyara Linskens (18 and 15 rebounds) ended up making a difference. “We have suffered with Linskens, but it is difficult to hold a player of her weight. She appeared to Meesseman, we had her quite controlled, and we have continued to produce shots that have escaped us”, she pointed out, also lamenting the lost rebounds.
“We have the silver medal hanging here, no one has taken it away. For us this is a success, we are delighted and we value it enormously because we know what it has cost us,” he concluded.
2023-06-25 21:01:52
#money #hanging
