Expectations will be high once again for Rio-bound Spain

MADRID (2016 Rio Olympics) - What will it take to beat the United States at an Olympic Games, something that has not happened since 2004 when Puerto Rico, Lithuania and Argentina pulled off the feat in Athens, Greece?

It's going to take extraordinary effort, concentration, a confident approach. A team will have to be make a lot of shots, perhaps control tempo. It will have to defend for 40 minutes. No team can turn the ball over against the USA and survive their transition game.

On the evidence of the USA performances since the 2007 FIBA Americas Championship, it's going to take a perfect game by an opponent to beat them. And even then, that may not be enough to knock off the undisputed kings of the world. Remember what the USA did the last time they played in a tournament?

The Americans steamrolled every team in their path at the 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup in Spain. They looked unbeatable.

At the 2006 FIBA Basketball World Cup, Greece defeated the United States in the Semi-Finals with a pick-and-roll attack run by Theo Papaloukas and Sofoklis Schortsanitis that the Americans did not stop. No team has managed to beat the USA in the years that have followed, although Spain gave them hard games in the last two Olympic Finals and Brazil threw a scare into them in the Preliminary Round of the 2010 FIBA Basketball World Cup.

The coach of the Spanish team at the second of those Olympics, in London three years ago, Sergio Scariolo, knows that many fans see his team as being best equipped to upset the Americans. But can they, or will they?

Marc Gasol (ESP) faced the USA at the 2012 Olympics

The Italian tactician, who presided over Spain's title run at EuroBasket 2015 in September, said to Europa Press: "To beat the USA is utopian but there is nothing that's impossible. We need to be very coherent and realistic and think that winning a medal at the Olympic Games is already extraordinary."

To drive home that point, that it's a tremendous accomplishment just to reach the podium at a Summer Games, consider what happened to Spain in 2004 when the USA had their last defeats at an Olympics.

Spain went unbeaten in the Preliminary Round and looked like a team that was capable of going all the way to the title but then in the Quarter-Finals against the USA, Stephon Marbury got hot. "Starbury" buried six of nine shots from the arc and had a game-high 31 points in a 102-94 American win.

Pau Gasol finished as the tournament's leading scorer at 22.4ppg and Spain had six wins, including one over China in the Classification Round, and just that one defeat by the USA. Yet they came up well short of the medals.

Scariolo has cause for optimism. He is still on a high from September, when Spain beat the odds and won a EuroBasket title due in large part to tournament MVP Gasol's performance.

The play-caller has time to now analyze his options and consider the potential make-up of his squad. Ricky Rubio, Juan Carlos Navarro, Jose Calderon and Marc Gasol did not play at the EuroBasket and are in line for returns although there are no guarantees for any of them.

What happens to the team's chemistry if stars return to the squad? What happens to Spain's chances against other powerhouse teams, and specifically against the USA, if those players do not return?

For now, Scariolo is thinking in broad terms. All he knows is that plenty of games with their club sides are in front of all of his players, and that once the season is over, Spain will need to have solid preparations before traveling to Brazil for the Rio Games. A lot will be expected of the players, and much will be expected of him as well.

"I head into 2016 with a lot of enthusiasm and with responsibility, too, because having done so well in the last Olympics, our expectations are to return to the podium," he said. "It would be a dream, but dreams are grown through work and we are working on planning for the Rio Olympics."

FIBA