The international basketball calendar is a puzzle that even insiders struggle to understand.
On September 1, the French team will begin in Germany against the Germans the European Championship which will lead the Blues - if all goes well - until the final, on September 18 in Berlin.
Only, the Euro is not the news of the moment.
This Wednesday, August 24, the Olympic vice-champions are playing (8:30 p.m. at the Accor Arena in Paris) against the Czech Republic, a qualifying match for the World Cup which will take place in September 2023 in Southeast Asia.
They will play another on Saturday in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Here's a funny warm-up before another major competition.
“We have to deal with it, no one has a choice”
"We play official and very important matches that serve as preparation for the Euro," cleverly sums up the pivot Vincent Poirier who, like everyone else, has trouble finding his way.
If it looks like this, it's because NBA or Euroleague players are rarely available the rest of the year.
So the Fiba (international federation) takes advantage of their presence and occupies the free days as much as possible.
France is not the only one in this case: all the teams of the Euro are concerned this week by this calendar without tail or head and for which "we have to deal with it, nobody has a choice" consoles the coach Vincent Collet.
Evan Fournier and the Blues will need your support tomorrow at the @Accor_Arena against the Czech Republic for the first of two qualifying matches at @FIBAWC 2023 👊#TeamFranceBasket x @EvanFourmizz |
#PassionatelyBlue
– French Basketball Teams (@FRABasketball) August 23, 2022
Without going into the technical details of the mode of qualification for this next World Cup, you just have to know that France has almost its ticket in its pocket for the World Cup: “After a good run so far, we will almost be qualified if we win the two games against the Czechs and in Bosnia, continues the coach.
Beyond the important results, these matches are essential because they must allow us to maintain our world ranking.
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Currently, the French team is fourth in the hierarchy behind the United States, Spain and Australia.
It's already (very) good: “We have to keep this place or even win one if we can, continues the coach of the Metropolitans of Boulogne-Levallois.
Each victory allows us to score points and each defeat inevitably deprives us of it.
Being the fourth nation in the world, and not beyond, remains essential because it will allow us in the World Cup draw to be seeded.
We will thus avoid the USA, Spain and the Australians in the first round and this could reserve a more affordable round of 16 for us.
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12,000 to 13,000 spectators expected at the Accor Arena
Ok, but all of that is in a year.
This August 24, the Blues are already taking up the Czech challenge, a nation which finished 6th in the previous World Cup in 2019 in China when France returned with the bronze.
The two teams had also fallen into the same group in the first round of the Tokyo Olympics a year ago and Rudy Gobert and his team had easily won 97-77: "Be careful, warns Vincent Collet, the Czechs have a good team, which play basketball well.
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It is therefore a beautiful poster that awaits the Blues and so much the better, because the setting deserves it: the Accor Arena and Paris, a hall and a capital where, ultimately, the French basketball team plays infrequently: “ It is however our house ”, slips the DTN Alain Contensoux.
For the occasion, 12,000 to 13,000 spectators are expected, a good figure for a weeknight in August.
It will be, for them, the opportunity to see the “real” French team, certainly deprived of Nicolas Batum and Nando de Colo (who rest their bodies tired by repeated campaigns) but with NBA stars like Evan Fournier and Rudy Gobert, who already promise an appointment: return to Bercy in two years for the final phase and why not the grand final of the Paris 2024 Olympic tournament, which will first take them to Lille for the first week of competition.