‘Overwhelming underdogs’

Yeng Guiao coaches Gilas Pilipinas. Photo from Fiba.basketball

Team Philippines didn’t exactly land in a group where there’s no tomorrow as far as the World Cup in China is concerned, and Gilas coach Yeng Guiao vowed that the Filipinos will compete “to give a good account of ourselves.”

Bracketed with Angola, Italy and 2014 runner-up Serbia in Group D, Gilas Pilipinas will be up against some pretty tough competition in Foshan, but Guiao did not necessarily describe it as a group of death. However, he said: “We’re the overwhelming underdogs against any of those teams.”

Team Philippines will be making a second straight appearance in the World Cup slated Aug. 31 to Sept. 15, and Guiao said the team will go to China with the “mind-set that we can win some games.” And he has set his sights on one team in particular.

“Angola is the best chance that we have of winning a game,” he said of the African nation. The Philippines last World Cup victory was an 81-79 overtime decision over Senegal in the 2014 edition in Seville, Spain.

Team USA, the heavy favorite which is aiming to become the first country to win the World Cup three straight times, is in Group F together with Turkey, the Czech Republic and Japan.

Top Asian team Australia, which will make its 12th straight appearance in the World Cup, is in Group H in the company of Canada, Senegal and Lithuania.

“We will prepare as hard as we can and won’t go to China as tourists,” Guiao told the Inquirer.

Host China is in a relatively lighter group compared to the Filipinos, as the Chinese will play Ivory Coast, Venezuela and Poland in Group A in Beijing.

Argentina is in Group B with Russia, South Korea and Nigeria, even as 2006 winner Spain leads Group C featuring Iran, Puerto Rico and Tunisia.