AUCKLAND (FIBA U19 World Championship) - The official tournament press conference - 'The Captain's Call' - was held at the Maritime Museum at the beautiful Auckland waterfront, and here's what some of the team captains had to say about their team's chances at the FIBA U19 World Championship.

Shelvin Mack - USA

"Our team is expecting to try hard every day, compete, and see if we can win the gold medal. We will play a lot of up tempo, we're not used to playing with the 24 second shot clock, we're used to a 35 second clock, so we are going to have to keep it up tempo.

New Zealand are going to be tough, being the home team, also Australia, Argentina - there is a lot of great teams here. (Representing the USA at a world championship) is a very big honour, I never thought I'd get the opportunity to do it, so I feel blessed with the opportunity I have."


Raymond Cintron - Puerto Rico

"Our goal is to win the gold medal, by going hard every game, together as a team no matter what happens. We think we are ready for this, now it is game time we will see what happens."


Carlos Lopez - Puerto Rico

"Our goal as a team is to represent Puerto Rico right, to show that we have talent in Puerto Rico and try to get that gold medal. We are never going to change that (Puerto Rican style) it's real fast, we hussle a lot, we play hard and we trust each other."


Dion Prewster - New Zealand

"We are going to play an aggressive style of play, compete and see if we can get into the second round. We are going to be quick, we don't have the size of some of the other teams, so we have to rely on our foot speed to beat teams.

(Against Australia in the qualifying games) we learned we could compete, because we had games that were very close, but towards the end of games we couldn't finish, we would play three good quarters but the fourth quarter we would let ourselves down.

But in saying that, we didn't have very good preparation leading into that, now we've had an 18 month build up since then, so it's a whole different story now. We're more than ready."


Matas Sapiega - Lithuania

"I hope from the World Championship we can get to the first five teams, hopefully then we can beat our biggest rivals Greece.

We don't have many stars so we play with many passes so that we find someone that is open. We will also play very hard defence, because our offence hasn't run so well in the practice, so will hope for the best defence!"


Arsalan Kazemi - Iran

"Like all the teams we would like to win the championship. I know it's hard but the plans are to make it.

We play quick, we play fast, always fast breaks. We are shorter than all the teams here, so we have to play faster than all the teams. You should look for all our players, we really play as a team so it's not just one player.

Basketball is getting different in my country the last five years, we are getting better and better, in the last four years we have won two championships in Asia so it is very good for us."


Osama - Egypt

"We are very happy, because we knew before winning the African championship that if we win or take second place we would be here, and it's the dream of every player to play a world cup.

We are very happy to be here and I hope we reach the second round, then we will see what we can do. We rely on teamwork. We have some shooters and some post play, but mostly teamwork.


Mario Delas - Croatia

"We hope to do our best in every game, so then if we win, great, but if not we know we gave our best. But we are hoping for at least quarter finals.

(Most difficult opponent is) Argentina, we play them in round one and they are a tough team. We played against them last year, and it's an even better team, I heard for this FIBA tournament."


Kelly Olynk - Canada

"We have a very skilled team, we like to play a lot of inside-out basketball, and run as well. We can put up points on the board, so if we work hard on defence, play both ends of the floor I think we have a good shot at it.

We came third at the qualifying tournament in Argentina, we were just in France in the Douia Tournament and we came first there. At this tournament here we are hoping to come out strong, do our best and medal, for sure. I think that would be a great step for Canadians all over, because we have never medalled in the U19 division."


Matthew Dellavedova - Australia

"We are looking to win gold like every other team here, it's obviously going to be tough but we will give it our best shot. We play an up tempo defensive style, and just try to be aggressive.

There's a lot of great sides here, we haven't seen them all yet, but Greece, Spain and France, and obviously USA (are very good), but you can't really count out anyone at this level of tournament."


Juan Fernandez - Argentina

"We come here after we won the American tournament, so there's a lot of hope and expectation for us in our country. It's a motivation for us and a big responsibility as well, so we hope to do well. We don't have great individualities, so our style is to play more as a team. We play smart, being about what is good for us to win the game.

We have several objectives, the first is to beat New Zealand, which is going to be hard because they're the home team. In a world cup every team is tough to beat so we have to be ready for that."

FIBA