JABAR EKSPRES – Latvia basketball national team coach Luca Banchi said the hard work of his foster children was the key to his team being able to win the second game with a thin score of 88-86 against France in Group H of the FIBA Basketball World Cup or FIBA World Cup 2023 played at the Indonesia Arena Gelora Bung Karno, Jakarta, Sunday (8/27).
In that match, Latvia continued to lag behind until the third quarter with scores 33-26, 53-49, and 74-62. However, in the fourth quarter, in the last five minutes starting from a score of 74-77, the Northern European country continued to stalk France tightly until it turned things around to 88-86.
As coach, Luca Banchi said the key to his team’s victory was not a sudden miracle, but rather the hard work that has been built since he coached Latvia in 2021.
Read more: Latvian Debutants Shock France with Dramatic 88-86 Win
“We actually didn’t do anything. It’s a team that has been working hard together since two years. They know what to do,” Luca Banchi said in a press conference after the match.
This victory, Luca Banchi said, was a good start to building the identity of Latvian basketballers who he said were previously known for some bad stereotypes.
“Since the beginning of my arrival, there was a mission to destroy some stereotypes that defined Latvian players as not being able to play defense, not being able to play with effort, not being able to show personality in the paint. And I believe today is one more step towards building a good identity,” Luca Banchi said.
On the same occasion, as the coach who captains the debutant team at the FIBA World Cup which has so far surprised by eliminating the favorite team to win France, the 58-year-old coach revealed that the special thing in his team is the existence of a very strong personal relationship between individuals.
