What is your assessment of the seven preparation matches for the World Cup? Vincent Collet: For a short preparation, thanks to the concentration and the involvement of the players, we have made a lot of progress, we have assets to start this competition. Now we have to keep moving forward because three weeks of preparation is not enough, we have to use what will come (in the first round of the World Cup, editor’s note). Overall the preparation is in line with what we wanted, it bodes well but nothing more. We know the difficulty we are going to encounter, which is not the case for all the teams in the first and second rounds. The draw sent us into a real lion’s den, so we’re going to try to get out of it, that’s already our first objective.
How do you view the three opponents of the Blues in the first round? Canada is unknown, but in terms of numbers, with Australia it is perhaps the team with the most NBA players after the States -United (…). We know that against this team, we will have to be really together, that we cause them problems with our collective defense. We have to move the match to a field that is as favorable to us as possible, and not help them play their game. It will be a difficult start to the competition, we will have to play a great match right away. Then Latvia is a dangerous team, a style of play quite close to Lithuania, with shooters who shoot everywhere, a little rough in defense, but who can also cause problems if you are patient. Lebanon is the little Thumb of the group, but we will have to be vigilant.
Mathias Lessort is coming back to the team, what can he bring?Mathias is joining us in Jakarta on Tuesday, he’s leaving France tomorrow (Monday, editor’s note), we got the green light from his club, he trained all the week already. It’s a great satisfaction, because we saw that it’s a contribution that will be important, with his versatility we will have a player who can really play in both positions (internal, editor’s note) at international level, because he has the speed to defend (…). It will be easier for him than it could be for others. And then he will also bring explosiveness, another specificity compared to Rudy (Gobert) and Moustapha (Fall), which will give us an additional advantage.
