Africa-Press – Angola. The national senior men’s basketball team dislodged the similar one from Cape Verde, from the second place in the Group E classification table, after having managed to start competently, three important victories, during the dispute of the fourth and penultimate qualifying window of the African zone to the 2023 World Cup, which ended on Sunday in Abidjan.
With the three victories achieved in the aforementioned competition, the African champions now occupy the second place in Group E, with twelve (12) points, against fourteen (14), from Côte d’Ivoire, in the first position.
Cape Verde is now in third position, with eleven points, against ten from Nigeria, which remains in fourth place. Guinea and Uganda occupy the last two places in the league table, both with eight points each.
The Angolan team, which at the beginning of the fourth and penultimate FIBA window occupied the modest third place, with six points, behind Cape Verde, re-entered the race for the 2023 World Cup, a competition scheduled for Japan, Philippines and Indonesia, respectively.
After having carried out a pre-competitive stage at the Centro de Alto Rendimento de Sangalhos, in the North region of Portugal, for approximately one month, the national team arrived, saw and won in the city of Abidjan, stage where in 2013, it lifted its last title. African football, under the baton of the Angolan coach, Paulo Macedo.
In fact, given the uncomfortable situation in which they found themselves in the league table, the hendeca champions Africans were prohibited from failing, under penalty of being completely mortgaged, to the passage to the final phase of the 2023 World Cup, proof that will have the participation of thirty-two (32) nations.
Without having played any control game, the National Team, which is looking for its sixth consecutive presence in a final stage of a World Cup, ninth in general, presented itself at the highest level, providing good performances.
The three victories achieved against the likes of Uganda, Cape Verde and the powerful Nigeria, by 84-62, 65-58 and 70-67, respectively, perfectly attest to the competitive capacity displayed by Josep Clarós “Pep”‘s pupils.
Despite the numerous problems that marked the preparation of the national team, with late arrivals of players who work in the diaspora, Angola managed to overcome its opponents with some naturalness.
In the three games they played at the old Sports Palace Pavilion in Treichville in Abidjan, an infrastructure built in 1978, the team scored two hundred and nineteen (219) points, thus obtaining an average of 73 points scored for each match, having suffered one hundred and eighty-seven (187) points, which represents an average of 62.3 points suffered in each challenge.
However, the numbers mentioned above perfectly attest to the quality of play presented by the African champions, with particular emphasis on defensive cohesion, which turned out to be the great matrix of the National Team.
The National Team took advantage of the collective. Even so, the return of the Houston Rockets’ NBA pole, Bruno Fernando, six years later, ended up adding another asset to the group. The same can be said of newcomers Bamba Cissé and José Dimitri Maconda.
Overall, the twelve Angolan ambassadors did well during the dispute of the fourth and penultimate qualifying window of the African zone for the 2023 World Cup. Angola, Senegal and Côte d’Ivoire were the only nations that made the full, that is, three games disputed, equal number of triumphs.
The following players were in Abidjan: José Dimitri Maconda, Childe Dundão, Gerson Domingos, Gerson Gonçalves “Lukeny”, Gerónimo Luís, Bamba Cissé, António Monteiro, João Fernandes, Bruno Fernando, Jilson Bango, Leonel Paulo, captain, and Teotónio Dó.
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