The Lebanese men’s team failed to live up to its promise at the U19 Basketball World Cup. On Friday, the Cedars U19s were beaten by the Brazilians (49-72), their fifth straight defeat in the competition. They are now 16th and at the bottom of the standings, dropping two places in the table.
Five defeats in as many games played: The Lebanese U19 men’s basketball team has failed to live up to its promise at the Under-19 Basketball World Cup, currently taking place in Debrecen, Hungary.
On Friday, at Debrecen’s Olah Gabor Arena, the Cedars U19s were once again badly outplayed, this time by the Brazilians (49-72; Quarter 1: 12-17; Quarter 2: 7-15; Quarter 3: 12-10; Quarter 4: 18-30), in a ranking match that puts Lebanon in the 16th and last place in the tournament. The Lebanese thus drop two places, pending the results of the other classification matches. It will be hard to see Lebanon moving up the table given their disastrous performances. However, in defense of the Cedars U19s, they had to face nations that ranked much higher and were certainly much stronger than them.
Placed in Group B in the group stage, the men led by Serbian coach Vinko Bakić, who replaced Lebanese coach Charbel el-Bach on short notice after the latter’s resignation following Wednesday’s 20-102 Spanish humiliation in the quarter-final tie-breaker, played in a “group of death” that included at least two basketball powers. In the first round, Slovenia defeated Lebanon in the opening game (74-58), then Madagascar (the only nation within the reach of the Lebanese U19s) in the second game (83-66), and finally the United States (122-70). They all defeated Lebanon in the first round, and then came the slap to the face inflicted by Spain in the play-off round of the 2023 U19 World Championship, which cost Charbel el-Bach his job as head coach.
“Mission Impossible”
In Friday’s match against Brazil, Vinko Bakić, Charbel el-Bach’s former first assistant, on whom all hopes rested for the ranking matches, also failed to improve. He couldn’t find the solution to motivate his men and lead them to victory. As for the Lebanese players, defender Karim Rtail was his team’s top scorer (12 points), forward Mostafa Assaf grabbed 8 rebounds, and defender Joseph Abou Samra distilled 4 assists.
It should be noted, however, that the Lebanese U19 team’s qualification for the World Cup was an achievement in itself, given the crisis that Lebanon has been experiencing for several years now, both politically and above all economically. Indeed, with the limited resources available to the players, coaches, and the Lebanese Basketball Federation, reaching this stage (the first round of the finals) of the World Cup was basically a “Mission Impossible.”
Mission accomplished, even if the hopes of the fans were later dashed…
