Lithuania 79 vs Argentina 75

I never thought I'd be doing this, but here I am blogging about sport, of all things! Well this is not a secret but not many people know how big supporter of the national basketball team of Lithuania I am, however this only happens during the Olympic games. I do not watch basketball any other time these days but every four years.

I am pleased to say that Lithuanian team have started on the right footing their performance this time around. They were playing the last Olympic games gold winner Argentina, and even though the game was tough and at some points I really was worried, they won.

Lithuania is certainly not a newbie in the Olympic basketball arena, in fact they have been pretty good all the time. As the official Olympic website puts it:

Lithuania won three consecutive Olympic bronze medals in men's basketball [1992, 1996 and 2000] and the team almost pulled off the biggest upset in basketball history in Sydney when they came within a single basket of defeating the USA in the semifinal. At the 2004 Games they again came up against the USA, this time in the bronze medal match, but again the Americans were able to defeat them. The loss relegated Lithuania to fourth position which nonetheless is still a great achievement for a nation of just 3.6 million people.

So I think Lithuanian team is pretty good and they had a great start, and the ex-Dream Team are no longer a threat, as they managed to win against them before (unfortunately they lost against them in the game for Bronze...), so they are doing alright. The next game is on Tuesday, 4AM Lithuania time, it's a battle against Iran, and not to be unkind to Iranians, I don't think they will give a great struggle to the Lithuanian team.

Knowing how unpatriotic of Lithuania I am this may look amazing, but it's the national sport, we all can play basketball, we all know the rules and we all belonged to a team at one point or another. I don't love basketball but this is the only time I truly support Lithuanian sportsmen.

Go Lithuania! And go for GOLD!