Greece and Croatia Off To Beijing, Who Will Join Them?

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When you wake up from your weekend's adventures and head in to work Monday morning, the 12 teams competing at the Beijing Olympic Games will be finalized.

Yesterday, Greece defeated Puerto Rico 88-63 to advance to the final of the qualifying tournament, but more importantly the Greeks have punched their ticket to the Games.

Greece started the tournament as favourites so it is no surprise they coasted into the final of the FIBA tournament on home soil.

In the other semi final Croatia got the better of Germany despite Dallas Maverick Dirk Nowitzki having a monster game. Nowitzki's 30 points and 13 rebounds was not enough to combat Croatia's team effort.

The final score was 76-70.

Croatia makes their return to the Olympics after missing out in Athens in 2004, while Greece will try and secure a medal after missing out four years ago.

With Greece and Croatia on their way to Beijing, I would love to be in Athens to see the Germans and the Puerto Ricians go at it for that final spot.

To me, this is actually the championship game of the tournament. There is so much on this one game.

I'm sure Dirk will be looking to have a big game and help his country get to the Olympics. This might help erase some of his recent NBA playoff disappointments.

I cannot wait to wake up in the morning and find out the result of this game. One team will leave Athens very, very disappointed, the other over the moon.

Onto the final. There has been a little speculation around this game, especially the result.

You win this game and you join the bracket of Lithuania, Argentina, Australia, Iran and Russia.

You lose, you play host China, the USA, Angola, Spain and the winner of the third place game of the FIBA tournament in your pool games at the Olympics.

A lot of the philosophies centre around when do you want to match up against the USA. Some countries want to play them in pool action so you do not have to cross over against them to reach the medal games.

Others will take their chances and hope they do not have to meet them until a medal game. Then they roll the dice and hope they have a good one against them.

Personally I believe you have to play to win every game and let the chips fall where they do. If you start trying to map your path, you will stuff up somewhere along the way. Whether it is you dropping a game you thought you would win, or some other team causing and upset you did not see coming.

At the Olympics, if you are playing good enough to win a medal, you will beat whoever is in your way.

Argentina was a great example of this in Athens. I watched nearly all the basketball games played (yes enter your own joke at my expense) and I could see that Argentina had an edge about their game.

It did not matter if it was the USA or New Zealand, they played the same way.

In the end you can say that this attitude paid off, they won the gold.

Lets get back on track, Germany or Puerto Rico? I will say the combination of NBA stars Nowitzki and Los Angles Clippers centre Chris Kaman will be too much for the guys from the Americas.

And the final. I'll stick with the home team, Greece. I feel they could be a medal contender next month in Beijing.

Let the Games begin!

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