Beijing - The United States' basketball team will have the chance Friday - in the semifinals of Beijing 2008 - to take revenge on its most dangerous rival of recent years: Argentina. The two teams played a similar semifinal four years ago in Athens 2004, when Argentina obtained a historic 89-81 win en route to the gold medal.
That was a very tough blow for the Dream Team, which had consecutively won the Olympics in Barcelona 1992, Atlanta 1996 and Sydney 2000.
US superstar Kobe Bryant stressed Wednesday that he is looking forward to reversing the process by beating the champions on the way to the 2008 gold medal.
However, the win in Athens was not the only one that Emanuel Ginobili and his team-mates have obtained over the United States in recent years.
At the World Championships in Indianapolis 2002, Argentina made history by beating the host team 87-80 to hand the United States its first defeat in 10 years. The Dream Team had at the time won 58 consecutive matches in a streak that had started in 1992, when the United States convinced its NBA players to compete in FIBA tournaments.
"We put an end to the myth around the Dream team," said Ginobili, who had not yet made his NBA debut at the time.
Six years later, with three NBA champion rings obtained with the San Antonio Spurs, the Argentine remained cautious as to the chances of getting through the semifinals in Beijing.
"We have a 5 to 10 per cent chance of beating the United States," he noted.
The United States has won its six games in the Chinese capital so far by an average of 32 points, and it is considered the main favourite to reach the final and to beat the winner of Lithuania-Spain to reclaim the gold medal.
Names like Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony, Dwyane Howard and Jason Kidd appear to lay a serious claim on any trophy. But they should not get overconfident, because Argentina has shown it knows how to bring down the giant.
