It takes a miracle to secure promotion in the World Cup qualifiers against European champions Slovenia with NBA star Luka Doncic.
But Sweden has no plan to stop it.
They have three.
– I don’t know if there will be more difficult matches if I will be completely honest, says the captain of the national team Mikko Rybinin.
A qualifying loss to Croatia at home in February could prove expensive, as everything will now be decided on Sunday. Croatia won by seven points after double overtime, thus exchanging with Sweden by a meager point.
In order for the Swedish national basketball team not to hope that Finland beat Croatia away from home, a victory over Slovenia is required.
It is not an easy task.
Slovenia is basically lined up with the same player who won the European Championship 2017, only Klemen Prepelic is missing.
– It would be ridiculous to pretend that the ratio was 50-50. Not only do they have good players, they play well together and have done that for a long time. It must have been a good distance back in time when we met a team at this level, says national team captain Mikko Rebinin.
You don’t want to reveal the plan
Slovenia has two NBA players on the team in Goran Dragic and Luka Doncic. The latter is one of the world’s best all-time players and has averaged 28.4 points, 9.1 rebounds and 8.7 assists for the Dallas Mavericks this season.
– He’s among the top five in the world. There were good players who played on Swedish soil before after they were at their best, but he’s got many NBA Player of the Year votes now. He is a global player.
How will you prevent it?
A lot is about how effective it is. We want to be a part of those contexts in the future as well and meet good players, so we need to really start now with special plans for some players and manage them mentally. We made three different variants that we will test during the match.
Can you reveal anything?
– It’s better not. We need every advantage we can get. It’s not revolutionary, but it’s about doing different things at different times until he doesn’t find the rhythm. We have to make the match choppy for him.
“The shit they put in the field”
Victor Gadfors He is one of the players who will have to take on a huge responsibility.
– Quite frankly, I’m a bullshit where the others put on the field. In such matches you play basketball. He says it will just be fun.
Although it is an almost impossible task ahead for Sweden, the league leader believes a full court will lift the players.
We will do everything we can to win the match. There is not much that could have been greater and this is the feat we should focus on. If there’s anywhere we can do it, it’s at home in front of the full stands. You see in the eyes of the players how much they love playing in Stockholm and that will take them to a higher level.