The French women's basketball team is "
on a mission
" at the World Cup which it begins Thursday in Sydney against Australia and aims, despite a cascade of absences, to "
carry the colors of the country very high
", declared Wednesday his coach, Jean-Aimé Toupane.
“
From the start, we have said it: when you are in the France team, when you wear the blue jersey, you have a heavy responsibility, you want to wear the colors of the country very high.
We are on a mission.
I have no doubt that everyone will do their best to do their best
,” Jean-Aimé Toupane told the press.
The coach "
hopes
" that the numerous absences due to injury which have affected the team, including the withdrawal of Marine Johannès on Tuesday (after those of Miyem, Gruda, Duchet, Epoupa and Vukosavljevic), will lead the Bleues, bronze medalists to the Olympic Games -2021, to “
be much more united and perhaps surprise
” observers.
“
I think we have nothing to envy to other nations, physically, technically and + basketball + speaking
”, for her part estimated the pivot Ana Tadic.
“
We know what level we can be.
We will push to the maximum and we will see step by step where we are
, “she continued, aware however that this young French selection”
lacked collective experience
“.
"
This team has not yet lived long enough to find a symbiosis, an alchemy, which will be created, I think, during the championship
" she developed.
Jean-Aimé Toupane also hoped that his players will be "
up to the event
" Thursday against the host country, "
a big test
".
"
But I prefer (to the) limit to play them at the beginning, because often the settings are not (perfect).
We have things to show
,” said the coach, for whom the “
Opals
” are “
a relatively large team, inside and outside, and who play a lot on the move
”.
He also said he was wary of
the "experience
" of legend Lauren Jackson, who came out of retirement after nine years of absence in selection to compete, at 41, for a fifth World Cup.
"
She's not coming back just to please people.
She has a lot of experience, the ability to play far and close to the basket.
She is also a very good passer, so an important anchor point
”for the Australians, noted the coach.
Tadic, 8 years old when Jackson won the 2006 World Cup, was delighted to come up against Lauren Jackson in competition, whose performances she watched when she was younger.
“
There, we will play against her... I think she has kept all her qualities, even if she will perhaps play more on her experience.
We have to be careful.
»
