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Argentina, Greece, Spain, U.S. All Semifinalists

Posted by Manu Ginobili on August 30, 2006

The Argentina team fits together very well and that's a big key in all team sports. And we are talented, too. We've got a good bunch of players and we are unselfish. So, those are keys to every tournament we play. We are not characterized by being a young team. The youngest player we have is Carlos Delfino and he's 24 years old. So, now we get more from the experience than from young legs or anything else. But we have a nice mixture of youth and experience.

Now we're more respected than years ago. We were silver medalists in Indianapolis in 2002 and gold medalists in Athens in 2004, so everybody wants to beat us. But, that's normal. It happens everywhere. So, we have to be ready, knowing full well that we've got the potential to win the World Championship. It depends on us.

Spain is good. They are very good. They are a senior team like us with very good players and talents and they play together very well. But, I don't know, there is probably something about their matchups, how they guard us or it's hard for us to guard them. I don't know what is the key, but there's no doubt it's been very hard for us to beat them in the last couple years. So, we're going to try to change that in the next game.

The U.S. team is playing better than recent years, but you still won't notice until they play one of the other three best teams -- Spain, Argentina and Greece. They were in trouble in the first half with Germany, but they've been doing very well. Still, they have to face the best teams in the tournament.