Argentina to be toughest foe yet for Redeem Team

There has been one team that has stood out in USA Basketball history.

One team that ended a dynasty.

One team that ended what seemed to be the inevitable result in each Olympic games.

That team plays against the U.S. tomorrow morning at 10:15 AM ET.

That team is Argentina.

The Argentines pose another type of challenge for Team USA because they have a roster filled with experienced veterans in high major basketball leagues across the world. “They have five or six guys we play against on a daily basis in the NBA. It’s going to be a tough game.”.

Argentina has the “Been there before” attitude that the USA team simply does not have.

Manu Ginobili, Luis Scola, Fabricio Oberto, Andres Nocioni, and Carlos Delfino all play in the NBA and were apart of the team that shocked Team USA and the rest of the world by knocking off Goliath in the 2002 World Championships and none seemed surprised about it.

When asked if Argentina could be the best team in the tournament, Kobe Bryant responded by saying “They easily could be. All of their players from Manu to Nocioni to Scola to Oberto and Quinteras, Prigioni, all of those guys are just extremely skilled and high basketball IQ, play hard, play tough.”

But the obvious key to the game for the U.S. is to stop Manu Ginobili, the seasoned star for Argentina. Ginobili is 100% recovered from a badly injured ankle and is in the best shape of his life.

“He’s the heart and soul of that team. He’s the guy who makes them go.” Said Deron Williams. Ginobili is the most important factor in this game, he leads the field in scoring, with just over 20 ppg, including 24 in the huge quarterfinal win over defending World Champion Greece.

Ginboili is never one to back down from a challenge, and this situation is no different.

And Kobe is more than ready himself. “I think he’s [Ginobili] incredibly dangerous, incredibly skilled and I enjoy matching up with him.”

One USA teammate went a little bit further. “I think he’s [Kobe] going to take this kind of personally. That’s just him. We’re expecting the best out of Kobe and we’re expecting the best out of all of them.” Said Carmelo Anthony, of the Bryant-Ginobili showdown.

All accounts point to another epic matchup between the Argentines and the Americans, but the key from the U.S. will be their defense, a part of their identity from the early stages of this tournament.

“You look at every position. Defensive-minded. This might be the best defensive team that’s ever been assembled in the sense that being able to do it for 40 minutes,” Claimed the leader of the U.S. National Team, Jason Kidd. “At the end of the time, hopefully we’ll be regarded as one of the best ever put together.

At the end of the day one team will move onto the Gold Medal round and one team will yet again be left disappointed. But as Carmelo Anthony put it “They still have the gold medal, no matter who won the World Championship in ‘06. We have to go out there and take that from them.”

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