Lebanon’s first basketball team completed the “third window” of the World Cup final qualifiers in the best possible way by beating Jordan 89-70 and then Saudi Arabia (90-60) at the top of Group C and qualifying for in the “Fourth Window” scheduled for August next year. However, the immediate target for the Lebanese team is the Asian Championship scheduled for July 12-24 in the Indonesian capital Jakarta, a special weekend for the Lebanese basketball team and big fans who love this game. . Lebanon performed well against Jordan and Saudi Arabia and sent a clear signal to its competitors in the Asian Championship that it was ready to challenge for the Asian title, which it did not win in 2017 in their homeland and to its fans. The Lebanese national team rested yesterday, Tuesday, and now they have started training in preparation for the Asian Championship. Next Saturday, the delegation will go to the first Group D match on Wednesday, July 13, against the Philippines, and then on Friday they will. will meet in New Zealand. , July 15, followed by India on July 17. in the same month.

(Talal Salman)

Lebanon, under young coach Jad El Hadj, are looking for first place in their fourth group, especially as the tournament system sees the leader in each of the four groups advancing directly to the quarter-finals. , where the second and third of each group advance. in the quarter-finals of the qualifying tournament that will begin on the eighteenth of July.
On paper, the matches between India and the Philippines seem to be within the reach of the Ricemen, where New Zealand is the hardest due to the long experience and skills of New Zealand’s professional players, most of whom play Australian basketball. League.
Lebanon’s preparations will begin today, in the presence of all the players, led by commander Ali Haidar, as well as Wael Arakji, Youssef Hayat, Sergio Darwish and Hayek Geokchian… Al-Riyadi club and Lebanese national team star Amir Saud is absent. for special reasons, he confirmed in a press interview on Monday.

The national team will travel to Indonesia on Saturday and will play their first match next Wednesday.

The last two games have shown a lot of strength, the most important of which is the great speed of the team, which gives them an advantage over teams with top players. Team players quickly move from defense to attack and back, and this helps to get the highest possible number of points and take advantage of any missed opponent’s defense. On the other hand, coach Jad Al-Haj was very good at the high-pressure method he used in the second quarter of the matches between Jordan and Saudi Arabia, which gave him a huge advantage and allowed him to widen the margin. , especially against Jordan. . , when Lebanon scored 31 points against 7 from the Jordanians alone in the second quarter. Undoubtedly, Al-Hajj will use the rotation method in matches between the Philippines and India to get as many players as possible, as long as he is more tactically disciplined against New Zealand. The players are ready and they have all confirmed that they are in charge of the World Cup window, provided that the Asia station is very important to confirm that Lebanon is back in the ranks of the elite teams of the yellow continent.