CRO/BRA – Croatia concern after defeat to Brazil

ATHENS (FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament for Men) – “Not good enough” was the loud message coach Jasmin Repesa delivered to his Croatia players on Tuesday night after they slumped to an 89-77 defeat to Brazil in Athens.

Warming up for next week’s FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament, the Croatians are not clicking.

They’re running out of time with tougher games coming up at the qualifying event against Puerto Rico and Cameroon.

Only three places for the Beijing Games will be available at the qualifying event and so far, Repesa’s team is not playing at the Acropolis Tournament as if they will take one of them.

“The bottom line is that if we want to qualify for the Olympic Games, this level of performance is not enough,” Repesa said.

“We have to improve our game, our attitude and our concentration.”

Croatia are not a full strength, but that’s the case with most of the teams. One of the challenges of next week’s big tournament is to overcome the loss of players to injuries.

Sometimes, teams have to be able to grind out victories.

“I want to congratulate Brazil because they played much better tonight,” Repesa said. “We face a lot of problems with all the injured players and the truth is that the absence of Zoran Planinic was the main reason why we had no transition game tonight.

“However, the injuries should not be an excuse. Besides many players now have the chance to show me that they deserve to play for the national team.”

If Alex Garcia distracted the Croatians before tip-off by smashing the backboard in warm-ups to delay the start of the game, the architect of Croatia’s demise was Brazil’s flashy and lightning-quick playmaker Marcelo Huertas, who had 12 points and eight assists.

“The performance of Marcelo Huertas did not surprise me, as he had a great season with Bilbao,” Repesa said.

“He is one of the best point guards in Europe.”

While Repesa was setting alarm bells ringing back in places like Zagreb and Split, Brazil coach Moncho Monsalve was stressing to his players and the country’s fans not to read anything into the result.

His team will be taking on hosts Greece and Lebanon next week, with a quarter-final showdown expected to come against Germany or New Zealand.

“This win means nothing for us,” he said. “Yes, everyone likes to win, especially against a team like Croatia which, in my opinion, is among the best six to eight teams in the world.

“There is no question about it. Yet, the fact is that our competition starts on the 15th of July against Lebanon. Tonight the team played very well, especially on the offensive end and for some moments, the players were fantastic, but this game was just the second step for us.

“Tomorrow (Wednesday) we’ll face Australia and then we’ll concentrate on the game against Lebanon.”

FIBA