Argentina is once again among the top eight Olympic Games for the fifth consecutive year, but the challenge for Facundo Campazzo, Luis Scola and their cohorts this Tuesday will be Australia, first in Group B unbeaten, a team whose good indoor game and point guard Patty Mills stand out.

Nick Kay (6.3 rebounds per game), Aaron Baines (6) and Jock Landall (4.3) ensured good rebound production for the Australian “Boomers” among the three, plus they are all above 10 points average per game in these Olympics. . But The Toronto Raptors suffered a neck injury during the win over Italy and will miss the remainder of the Olympics.

This is exactly the area in which this Argentine national team is rare, despite the fact that Luis Scola stars in an impressive tournament at the age of 41 (19.7 points and 5.3 rebounds on average) Marcos Delia (7.7 points and 6.3 rebounds on average) raised his numbers in the last game of the group stage defending Japanese star Rui Hatchimura, but he did not provide the consistency required. “They told us we weren’t big and we’re looking at the game Delia played,” Luca Vildosa confirmed after the victory over Japan.

That’s why the team led by Sergio “Ovega” Hernandez will have to get extra help from Gabriel Dick and Nicolas Brussino to bounce back. And if necessary, good minutes from Juan Pablo Follet to update the interiors, and perhaps the presence of the young Francisco Cavaro or Taavik Galizzi, two interiors hitherto unnoticed.

Australia dominated the rebound with its three victories: against Nigeria (84-67, 44 sacks to 38 for Nigerians) and Italy (83-86, 30-44 in rebounds for Australians). Against Germany he lost on the rebound (28-45) but had a great success (63% on field shots) and scored 42 points in the paint.

DUEL OF ARTISTS

If the game has incentives in the internal game, even more in the ocean, where He will face two ball-handling and open-playing artists: Facundo Campazzo and Patty Mills.

The pace of the game will depend on his hands: if it were for Campazzo, it would be amazing, trying to run with a transition whenever possible. Mills is also comfortable at high speed, but his team can play well in the off attack.

The Australian goalkeeper is the third top scorer so far this tournament with 21.7 points per game. Only phenomenal Luka Doncic (28.3) and local superstar Rui Hashimura (22.3) beat him.

For his part, the Argentine is the third best ball “thief”, having scored 6 burglaries so far in this tournament. Australian goalkeeper Matisse Thiebol, who stole 10 people, improves his skills.

Fighting habits for medals

Both Argentines and Australians have become key players in the struggle for international championship medals in recent tournaments. not in a vein, Argentina is the current world runner-up in China 2019, with Australia taking third place. Both fell to Spain at the defining moment of the tournament.

At the Games, Argentina were champions in Athens 2004 and bronze in Beijing 2008; While Australia has yet to win a medal, they have been close on several occasions: they were semi-finalists in Seoul 1988, Atlanta 1996, Sydney 2000 and Rio 2016.

These two select teams met before traveling to Tokyo, in a friendly match in Las Vegas where the Australians were victorious 87-84 with a hat-trick of Mills on the trumpet. The last official duel in the 2010 World Cup group stage was in Turkey, where Argentina won by 74-72. Two years before their meeting in Beijing 2008, also in the preliminary stage and with the Argentine team winning 85-68. In both cases, the coach of the Albiceleste national team was the same as the current coach of the national team: Sergio Hernandez.