AUCKLAND (FIBA U19 World Championship) - Apart from the home team, Croatia is receiving the most vocal support with a large band of supporters at all their games. Captain Mario Delas talks about their fans, their comeback against Argentina and the second round.

The game against Argentina was an important one, what were you thinking after that first quarter against where you scored just eight points?

After the first quarter I was afraid! But not really that afraid because I knew we couldn’t play like that for the whole game.

We had to come back and we did it in a great way, we hold them to 4 or 5 points in the second quarter (6 points) and keep it up for the rest of the game. We won, and this is an important game, not quite quarter final yet but important.

Your teamwork today was much better than in the games against Kazakhstan and New Zealand, do you feel like you are starting to click as a team? You are certainly getting lots of support in the stands!

Yeah we are. I think we are getting better and better and it is great. I think the fans did a great job too, it is great to have them singing the whole game. They came for us, it means to them a lot, so we thank them for everything.

With big guys like yourself, Tomislav Zubcic and Leon Radosevic your team plays very physical and is able to dominate the paint.

We are very tall, and most other teams are not so tall so it is easy for us to play that way. But these guys from Argentina they are tough, they play physical, so we must too.

In the second round you now face Australia, Canada and Spain, what are your thoughts about these opponents?

These are three very, very good teams, they are more dangerous teams (than Argentina) because they have quick guards. They play quick basketball, which is not the game we like. We like the more slower tempo, just like Argentina. But we will see, we can beat anybody but we must be at 100%.

And the fans will help too!

Paulo Kennedy
FIBA