November 14 Ukraine will play against Iceland in the selection for the 2023 World Cup
Ukrainian basketball team forward Vyacheslav Bobrov commented on the victory over the team Netherlands in qualifying for the 2023 World Cup and shared his expectations from the meeting with Iceland.
“Very happy with our result. I can say that the Netherlands is not an easy team. They play well and know how to fight on the shields. We played well in defense against their leader Yannick Franke, closed it. In general, we defended aggressively, controlled rebounding in the second half. All the players who were in the application went to the court, the younger guys got important experience. I want to note the very strong individual game of Ilya Sidorov. But the victory is a collective result, which we should already forget and transfer all thoughts to the match against Iceland.”
“The composition of the national team has changed significantly compared to the EuroBasket, but mutual understanding has not gone away. We had time to prepare for the match, besides, all the guys used to be in the national team. Everyone knows how to work with Ainars Bagatskis, so there were no big tangible changes in the work process. Young players should come to the national team, play and gain experience.”
“We are not thinking about entering the World Cup now. First, we play in honor of our country. Our war continues and we are very grateful to our soldiers defending Ukraine. We play for our people. As for the results, we need to win every match, and only then, if we’re lucky, we will have a chance to play in the World Cup. We aggravated our situation by losing away to Iceland. But even at EuroBasket we were written off even before the tournament, so we need to confirm the status of the dark horse, which had previously reached the playoffs of the European Championship.”
“They hit a lot of open threes in the first game, they were aggressive, they played well pick-n-roll, and their leader Elvar Fridriksson scored 27 points for us. We need to close this player, for this we have Vanya Tkachenko, Pavel Krutous, who can personally play against him. Plus, the Icelanders have big men who also need to be stopped. It is important for us to control the selection, to run forward. If we run and find free throws, I think we have a chance to beat Iceland. The Icelanders, of course, are not candy: they will impose their game, they will also try to escape.”
“We have experienced Slava Kravtsov and Sasha Lipovoy back in the squad, junior players who are not the first time in the national team. I think the coach, if possible, will flirt with everyone. We need a result – we need to win more than 4 points and I think that we can do it. We will focus on training, dismantling their networks and dismantling the defense against pick and roll. So all thoughts about the game we need a victory, because we have no other chances to continue the fight for access to the World Cup.
The Ukrainian national team confidently defeated the Netherlands in the qualifying match for the 2023 World Cup – 96:77. Ukraine is fourth in Group L. Three teams will advance to the next round of qualification for the 2023 World Cup.
The next opponents of the Bagatskis team will be the national team of Iceland. The match will take place on November 14th.
Source: Sportarena
