Venezuela gain strength in defeat
MADRID (Rio 2016 Olympic Games) - Nestor 'Che' Garcia has been in this position before. For the veteran coach of Venezuela's national team, results in warm-up games for a big tournament are not the most important thing.
Instead, practices and friendlies are about developing team chemistry and getting the players to understand strategy and to execute. The aim is to have the team at its peak when the actual event, in this case the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, gets underway.
So Garcia is right now putting his players through their paces in training and coaching them in friendly games with the objective of having them at their best for the Group A game against Serbia on 6 August.
On Saturday, Venezuela took on the No. 2 side in the FIBA World Ranking, Spain, in Madrid and lost 80-65. Garcia wasn't unhappy.
"Defensively, we have to play games of (opponents scoring) less than 75 points to have a chance against these powerful teams but what we're missing most right now is lucidity in attack." - Garcia
Venezuela were on the wrong end of some heavy scores last summer before the FIBA Americas Championship, yet they hit their stride at the right time and reached the Semi-Finals of the event in Mexico City to qualify for the Olympics and then beat Argentina to capture the title.
"I believe that we left a good image (against Spain)," Garcia said. "I'm happy with our display. Spain is a very complete team.
"Defensively, we were up to it. Offensively, we need to do more. In the first half, we had too many turnovers but okay, everything is helping us to keep getting better."
#SelNac Venezuela se fajó pero cedió ante España https://t.co/tHjEYDHgKx #JuntosSomosMas pic.twitter.com/jZ03DMhpEC
— FVB (@FVBaloncesto) July 23, 2016
Garcia liked his team's attitude after half-time. Instead of caving in against the star-studded EuroBasket 2015 winners, they fought and stayed within striking distance.
"We remained intense and in the second half, we got better," he said. "But our spacing on offense wasn't good enough.
"Defensively, we have to play games of (opponents scoring) less than 75 points to have a chance against these powerful teams but what we're missing most right now is lucidity in attack."
Spain, who bounced back from a defeat to Lithuania in Malaga with the win over Venezuela, will meet them again on Monday night in Valladolid.
FIBA
