Women's Basketball: USA vs. Czech Republic

I had warned V that the exciting match was coming later (Latvia vs. Russia) and unfortunately I was right.


The Czechs started well being in advance 10-2 and the 13-4, but then the Americans woke up. Initially led by a low scoring, yet strong presence Lisa Leslie (2 points, 10 rebounds in the match) and a "Jordan like" Diana Taurasi (17 points, 54% field goals and 100% free throws), the US came back and took over the game.

The Czechs imploded in what V could only characterize as "Very bad! Very bad" and allowed fora massive 27 turn-overs. Not all can be explained by the strong American defense who got 13 steals. The Czechs simply weren't trying as hard to go for the ball and were considerably outplayed in the 2nd quarter and then dully "buried" in the 3rd and 4th.

Another thing to highlight was the male dream team was in the house and created quite the chaos during the break and at the end since the eager Chinese fans wanted to take photos of them ... or just get up. Some obliged.

Further strong performance on the American side by Sylvia Fowles with 16 points and 14 rebounds and an overall great ensemble. Still need to see them under more pressure, since this ended up being quite easy. Only mention on the Czech side goes to Eva Viteckova with 12 points and was actually playing half-decently.

The final score was a whopping 97-57.