Nothing to lose, everything to gain
for Cuba at Turkey 2014
ISTANBUL (FIBA World Championship for Women) -
Cuba fell to Belarus on Sunday
in what will surely go down as one of the biggest
games of the 2014 FIBA World Championship for Women,
but the mood in the Cuban camp was far from being
distraught.
 Alberto
Zabala (CUB). Belarus v Cuba, 2014 FIBA World
Championship for Women, Istanbul (Turkey), Group
Phase, 28 September 2014
The disappointment of losing the game was
written all over their faces, but coach Alberto
Zabala saw the positive side of the whole thing.
"Alright let's look at it like this. Whom did we
lose to," he pondered at the end of the game.
"We
lost on Saturday
to the
No 2 team in the world
(Australia) and today we almost won against a
Semi-Finalist (from
the 2010 FIBA World Championship for Women).
I can't ask for more from my team," he said.
"We
are disappointed at not achieved the win. I think it
was possible to win. But for us that belief is a big
gain going into the next game."
The
winners of the 2013 FIBA Americas
Championship
will
face Korea on Tuesday
in a must-win situation.
We
are ready to play, and win against Korea. -
Zabala
"Games like these (against Australia and Belarus)
have made us into a really tough unit," Zabala
added.
Shooting guard Leidys Oquendo returned the best game
of her career with 19 points and 10 rebounds and she
too felt the team had more to gain from the defeat.
For
us, qualifying to the World Championship was a big
achievement. - Oquendo
"Our
target was to finish in the top three in our Group
and go to the next round. As long as we are heading
in that direction, we are ok," she said.
"The
very fact that we were capable of raising our level
to play against a much better and much more
experienced team speaks for the character of our
team.
"Well to win a game is always very gratifying, but
then like our coach said that we have reached here
is a big achievement," she said.
"Korea will present a different kind of challenge.
They play a different style than we are used to, but
we ready for a fight."
(Taken from Cuba Si)
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