Gilas faces great wall

MANILA, Philippines — An opponent plotting revenge is the most dangerous one.

And so Gilas Pilipinas braces for a hell of a showdown with China – a side it embarrassed on Chinese soil in 2023 on its way to gold in the previous Asian Games – as they wrap up the men’s basketball Group C preliminaries of the 20th Asiad in Nagoya today.

“We know we have an uphill climb but we’re undaunted by it, we’re not afraid of it. We’re going to meet it head on and see what we can do,” said Gilas coach Tim Cone of the great wall the Nationals face at 12 noon (Manila time) at the Aichi International Arena.

“We’re the underdogs but we’re going to give them a crack at it,” forward Zav Lucero told Cignal.

Gilas - running third in the group with three points on 1-1 and +27 points differential - can seal its quarterfinals entry with an upset of unbeaten China (four points on 2-0). A loss by close margin may also be enough to advance as one of two best third placers.

A similar payback-fueled opposition awaits the Philippines’ FIFA Women’s World Cup-bound team as it joins the action today over in Gifu City, 30 kilometers to the north, in the women’s football opener against Uzbekistan.

The Uzbeks have an axe to grind against the Filipinas, who, just last March, beat them to a coveted ticket to next year’s global meet in Brazil via a 2-0 verdict in their Play-In match at the AFC Women’s Asian Cup.

“We know they’re going to come out fighting,” said coach Mark Torcaso of their rivals in the 1 p.m. Group G fixture at the Gifu Nagaragawa Stadium.

 “They won’t like that we beat them recently when we qualified for the World Cup. They’re going to be tough. But our players will focus on us. Our main objective is to always focus on our team.”

More than the vengeance factor that stems from Gilas’ 77-76 comeback victory from 20 down in the semifinals of the previous Asiad in Hangzhou, China, with its stacked lineup, is already a handful.

Leading Team Dragon are 7-foot-3 Yu Jiaohao, 6-foot-11 Hu Jinqiu, 6-foot-10 Jiao Boqiao and 6-foot-9 Zhao Jiayi and captain Hu Mingxuan.

“We know they have great size and they have great guard play and they are going to pose a lot of defensive problems,” said Cone of China, which ripped Kazakhstan (99-61) and Bahrain (105-59) to shreds.

“But we feel we can get out there and make stops against them and try to control the rebounds and then go out and do what we do and hopefully our guys show up and make shots.”

Gilas showed a glimpse of this with its 16-triple binge in its 109-78 rout of Kazakhstan Saturday that put it back on track after a fumbling 65-69 opening loss to Bahrain Friday.