Spain played much better today. Slovenia forced overtime on a buzzer beater but fell just short. It is tough to play against Spain since you have to beat the refs too...Overall it was a good game, very intense but the arrogance of Spanish players is just unbearable...After this game I absolutely despise Rudy Fernandez. I have never seen a more cocky player...
The whole "to beat Spain you have to beat the referees, too" and referee type of comments in general are very boring and dull . There's always someone outraged about no matter what, be it the Champions League, the European Championship, etc. At some point we should just forget the referees and assume that sometimes you get the calls and other times it will be your rival who benefits from bad refereeing.
Many people too often blame tournament winners for benefitting from referee protection but aren't just these teams, at the same time, the ones everyone considered to be the best ones anyway? Don't we consider Kobe and Lebron to be amongst the TOP5 best players in the league but at the same time we cannot stand that they get what we believe is EVERY call? To get the calls you have to earn some respect and only winners do earn it.
Anyway, concerning the Euro, I agree that Spain has been playing like @#*¤it, given the standards they had set in the last years. Problem for me is the loss of Calderon affects their play more than they would have known. Now there are 3 different point guards running plays, none of whom has played 30 minutes consistently and the situation is a bit of a mess. Things looked better against Slovenia but it is sort of scary how the Spanish team does not seem able to close out games.
Someone asked about Rubio. Too many turnovers so far. Not playing consistently enough in my opinion.
The competition looks strong this year except for Russia and Lithuania who have their B Teams playing. I would put my money on Turkey as of now, they have been solid and have executed games perfectly. Other than that, Spain will turn things around (I hope) and France and Croatia are the other teams I see with a chance. France because they have a deep team and are in a good rythm after having to qualify for the tournament last minute (this August) and Croatia because they seem to have put together somewhat of a competitive squad after a long time.
Further, I don't think the Greek team is deep enough and the Serbians - although they completely killed Spain when we played them - are too young (22 years of age average)and I would be surprised if the Polish team, despite having looked great up until now was to make it past quarter finals. Same goes for Slovenia.
