By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Serbian national team coach Sasha Djordjevic threw the gauntlet at Team USA ahead of the 2019 World Cup regarding a potential matchup between the two sides.
“Let’s let them [Team USA] play their basketball and we will play ours and if we meet, may God help them,” Djordjevic said in a semi-serious tone, during an interview for the Serbian national television (RTS), per Mozzart Sport.
Djordjevic’s Serbia has faced Team USA a couple of times in major summer tournaments. Most recently, USA beat Serbia in the 2016 Olympic Games Final and also in the 2014 World Cup title game.
Serbia (as the Yugoslavian national team) had eliminated USA in the 2002 World Cup quarterfinals en route to winning the gold medal.
This summer Team USA is coping with numerous withdrawals from the training camp. Serbia will feature all of its major stars in the World Cup, in contrast with the many absences Djordjevic had to manage in the EuroBasket 2017.
His “message” to Gregg Popovich? “Welcome to the club.”
“That’s what has happened to us,” Djordjevic added. “Just thinking of us and some other national teams that are not mentioned that much. For example, Germany, in recent years. We have played against them twice in qualifying rounds and lost both times. There’s Greece, Russia, France, Argentina, Canada, Brazil, Spain… I don’t think about the Americans at all.”