Olympics Basketball Match - Prelims

Wow! Holi cow! It was absolutely spectacular to watch basketball LIVE at the competition venue, especially to watch good teams play.

We were lucky to manage get our hands on two last minute olympics basketball prelims tickets, which cost 2.5 times their original prices. To that, we (*&$*#&))(#_(*&!!. The Wukesong Indoor Stadium was surprisingly 80% filled with spectators for the two matches. *Yes. One ticket that entitles you to watch two matches. Yeah!* It was just the prelims, we can't imagine how it is gonna be like for the finals.

Croatia vs Lithuania. The Lithuanian audience cheerleaders became star of the show as well. Ha! They were very united and coordinated, but at the same time definitely a menace to the Croatia team, as they jeered whenever a Croatian laid its hands on the ball. But it was a fantastic game. Croatians led the score by as much as 10 points first, which was later over taken by the Lithuanians. The latter were charged with adrenalin after the 2nd quarter break, and crushed the Croatians like a monster. Both teams displayed great skills and perseverance.

Iran vs Argentina. When we first knew that Iran was playing, our first thought was: Eh? Iran? Then our second thought was Mr Ahmadinejad and his missile tests. But the players turned out to be quite good - absolutely skilled in 3 pointers, with very few misses. No.15 left a very strong impression on us, as he NEVER got changed out during the entire match. We understood that the Iranian team needed him - He was almost as tall as the goal post. He did not even need to jump in order to block or dunk any balls. However good they were, they were never good enough for Argentina. They swept the court like a hurricane. Swift, seamless teamwork, good physiques, the Argentines were unstoppable.

Of course the games aside, there were also the Beijing Dream Dancers and Olympics Mascots to amuse the spectators during breaks. Unimpressed with the dancers, we were rather entertained by the inproportionate big-headed mascots, which are called Fu Wa in Chinese.