Gilas expects tough challenge from Qataris

MANILA, Philippines – When Qatar faces the Philippines on February 22 at the Al-Gharafa Sports Club in Doha, the match — although more bearing for the latter than the former — will still carry a lot of weight.

With a 5-5 win-loss card, the Philippines needs to win its last two games of the second round for a chance to advance to the 2019 FIBA World Cup. Qatar, at 2-8, is already eliminated.

However, according to Philstar.com sources, the Qataris will not hand over an easy win to the Philippines.

“They are playing to build and grow for the future,” said our source from Qatar. “They will want to win especially at home.”

The roster expected to be paraded for the match against the Philippines will see a few familiar faces, including one that was out for a lengthy spell due to injury, as well as new ones.

Point guard Mansour El-Hadary and power forward Erfan Saaed are expected to be lined up for the match. El-Hadary is back after a supposed row with the local federation while Saaed is cleared to play after recuperating from a knee injury.

Six-foot-six Babocar Dieng, who also suits up for Qatar’s 3x3 team as well as Al Saad club, is also said to be lined up.

Nedim Muslic, who hails from Bosnia and Herzegovina, is a 6’6” forward. In 2015, he was hailed as the Best Under-18 player in the world. He is also expected to receive a senior national team call-up. Muslic suits up for Al Gharafa in the Qatari league.

The stars of Qatar’s Under-21 team will be available for the game. Six-foot-ten Nasser Al-Rayes, who went to college at Cal Tech (California Institute of Technology) where he took up Mechanical Engineering, is expected to play in this window for Qatar. He will fly back to the United States afterwards. Al-Rayes is putting up 4.5 points and 2.3 rebounds for Qatar.

Abdulrahman Saad, who is averaging 16.2 points and 5.5 rebounds for Qatar in these Asian Qualifiers, will play. He will be joined by 6’7” forward Faris Avdic.

One other change will be at the head coach position. Englishman Tim Lewis will not call the shots as he did for Qatar in their last four FIBA Asian qualifying matches. On the sidelines is their new Greek-Cypriot coach Panayiotis Yiannaras.

Although Yiannaras is a stickler for conditioning and tactics, it is not sure how quickly he can get his ideas and game plan across. However, he is the type of coach who builds programs.

“Qatar is building for their future. They are placing a lot of their talented young players in this window,” added our Qatar source. “They will do their best to win, but they will have a hard time against a veteran Philippine team with Andray Blatche. But rest assured, they will not hand a win over. They will do their best to win.”