World Cup: Down Goes North America, as US and Canada Fail to Reach Final

North America has fallen, with Serbia and Germany defeating Team USA and Canada in the semifinals of the World Cup, the highly anticipated matchup between the two front-runner teams will result in the winner getting a bronze medal instead of gold.

The Serbian national basketball team didn’t even need to utilize their greatest weapon, superstar Nikola Jokic, to defeat the Canadians, as they went onto win 95-86, being led by Bogdan Bogdanovic’s 23 points (66.7% FG).

Together with, the team out muscled the Canadians, as the team’s center, Nikola Milutinov, scored 16 points without missing a field goal and added 10 rebounds.

To point out, Canada’s head coach, Jordi Fernandez, elected to play small ball throughout the tournament. In this loss, the team’s 7-foot-4 center, Zach Edey, played only two minutes at the very end of the game, in which the Purdue player recorded five points in minimal playing time. To mention, Edey played only 21 minutes during the entire world cup, and scored 19 points, going 9/9 from the field throughout the tournament.

Even though Canada has the self-proclaimed, “best perimeter defender in the world,” Dillon Brooks and his team let Serbia shoot 62.1% from the field and 45% from the three-point line. With all five of the starters having two fouls by halftime, Canada saw the deficit rise to 15 points late in the first half. Despite coming back to defeat Latvia and Spain, who each held a 12+ point lead on them, Canada was unable to rally in this semi-finals matchup. 

Not to mention, the Serbian team was playing with injury, as forward Borisa Simanic is in the hospital because he needed a kidney removed after getting elbowed in a game against South Sudan.

“I want to dedicate this win to him,” shooting guard Marko Guduric said about missing his teammate. “It doesn’t matter who’s not here. It’s all about this group of guys, whoever is here, whoever is wearing this Serbian jersey. We never give up. We fight until the end. It’s in our blood.”

Serbia will move onto the championship game, in which they will challenge Germany for gold. 

Team USA will not be receiving a gold medal in this year’s World Cup, as they lost 113-111 to Germany.

“This team is very worthy of winning a championship,” U.S. coach Steve Kerr expressed. “And we just didn’t get it done.” With a roster full of NBA talent, Team USA will face scrutiny over their inability to be world champs for the second straight World Cup, as many haven’t forgotten their seventh place finish four years ago. On the other hand, as the underdog team, Germany remains unbeaten 7-0, and they move onto the championship in only their sixth Basketball World Cup appearance. This victory will go down in history, as it marks the biggest one since the Germans defeated Russia to win the 1993 European title. 

Team USA had no answer on how to stop the Germans’ offense, as Dennis Schröder dished out nine assists to teammates who collectively shot 57.7% from the field and 43.3% from 3. “If you give up 113 points in a 40-minute game, you’re not going to win many of those,” LA Lakers’ guard Austin Reaves said after the game. Germany had three players score 20+ points: Andreas Obst (24 points), Franz Wagner (22 points), and Daniel Theis (21 points). The small ball lineup for the U.S. proved to not be strong enough to handle the size down low, as they were unable to keep up on the boards. To note, Germany had 25 second chance points, off of 12 offensive rebounds. “We got outrebounded all night,” Minnesota Timberwolves’ guard Anthony Edwards remarked. “They were more physical than us.” That is to say, Kerr didn’t play their only true center, Walker Kessler, in this semi-finals matchup, as the Utah Jazz big man only averaged 6.7 minutes of playing time throughout the tournament. 

Unfortunately, Brandon Ingram also did not see the court, as he was dealing with an illness. USA’s offense was led by Edwards (23 points), Reaves (21 points), and Mikal Bridges (17 points), who were the three leading scorers for Team USA both in this contest and throughout the World Cup. Despite a great offensive performance, in this shootout loss, the team’s 58.5 FG%, 48 3P%, and 95.8 FT% was not enough for the Americans to advance to the championship.

The bronze medal game between USA and Canada will be played on Sunday September 10 at 4:30 am ET, in Manila at Mall of Asia Arena. Then the World Cup championship game between Serbia and Germany will be played afterwards at 8:30 am ET. 

The North American matchup will feature 19 current NBA players, as Team USA is led by Edwards, who throughout the tournament has averaged 18.1 points (48% FG), 4.6 rebounds, 2.7 assists, and 1.1 steals. On the other side, Canada is led by Shai-Gilgeous Alexander, who has averaged 23.6 points (54.3% FG), 6.4 rebounds, 5.6 assists, and 1.9 steals. 

The gold medal game will only include six NBA players. There will be two NBA players from the Serbian side: Bogdanovic (Atlanta Hawks) and Nikola Jovic (Miami Heat). And four NBA players from the German side: Schröder (Toronto Raptors), F. Wagner (Orlando Magic), Moritz Wagner (Orlando Magic), and Theis (Indiana Pacers). When looking at the head-to-head matchup, the 6th ranked team Serbia is led by Bogdanovic, who has averaged 19.4 points (51.7% FG), 3.3 rebounds, 4.6 assists, and 2.3 steals. In addition, the coach of Team Serbia is Svetislav Pesic, who led the team formerly known as Yugoslavia to a FIBA World Cup Championship in 2002. In addition, Serbia also won a gold medal at the World Cup in 1998 and a silver medal in 2014. While the 11th ranked team Germany is led by Schröder, who has averaged 17.9 points (42.1% FG), 2 rebounds, 6.7 assists, and 1.4 steals throughout the tournament. The Germans had their best World Cup result in 2002, when the team won bronze. For those wanting to tune-in to see who will be crowned world champions, the FIBA Basketball World Cup third place and championship games will be broadcasted on ESPN 2.