Comments from coaches and players after the Brazil-Latvia match at the FIBA World Cup

Author: Monojit Mandal

With a victory by 104 to 84 over Brazil, Latvia has become a serious contender in the current FIBA series, securing its place in the quarter-finals as the best team in Group L. Latvia put on an impressive attack against their opponents that left fans on the edge of their seats.

Gustavo de Conti, Brazil’s coach, was quick to praise Latvia’s excellent performance, especially their attacking ability. “Congratulations to Latvia on a fantastic game!” Especially offensively. They performed admirably against our defense. Despite our efforts to make changes during the game, they managed to exploit the holes in our runs to score the ball. “They did an excellent job” he said.

Although Brazil also fought bravely, they fell behind in the first half, with Latvia leading for around 17 minutes. At one point, Latvia had a 10-point lead. Brazil, on the other hand, showed determination, narrowing the gap to three points before the break.

One of Brazil’s most important players, Tim Soares, reacted to the match by declaring: “It wasn’t the game we wanted to play, but our boys fought until the end.” We did our best. We have control over certain things, but not others. We didn’t react defensively, and they took some difficult shots. We were good there in the first half. Our defense wasn’t as strong in the second half as it could have been. They certainly took advantage of it.”

Let’s remember that Brazil, the two-time world champions, have played five matches in the current tournament, winning three. Iran – Brazil – 59:100, Brazil – Spain – 78:96, Ivory Coast – Brazil – 77:89, Canada – Brazil – 65:69, Brazil – Latvia – 84:104.

Luca Banchi, Latvia’s coach, praised his team’s ability to adapt and develop over the course of the game. “Brazil are a very different team. They had already shown against Canada how capable they are of delving into the subtleties of the game that can get them into trouble. It was simply a question of changing our defense during the break, like a boxer receiving a blow. The staff and players worked tirelessly to find the right way to behave on the court.”

Latvia’s best player, Andrejs Grazulis, praised the team’s determination, adding: “The game was very interesting. We started slowly. In the pick-and-roll, they discovered their baskets. We couldn’t stop the game in the first half. We made changes at half-time. The game then showed itself. We managed to dominate the game by playing solid defense and running forward.”

Latvia, a World Cup debutant, will play Germany in the quarter-finals. The winner will face the strongest Italy-USA pair in the semi-finals. The other two quarter-finals will be between Lithuania and Serbia and Canada and Slovenia.