Basketball - Can anyone beat the USA???

The sport of Basketball originates from North America and is one of the most popular sports in the USA. Basketball was first introduced at the 1936 Berlin games becoming a permanent feature in the olympic programme, followed by the introduction of the Women's event at the 1976 Montreal games. The sport is played with two teams of five trying to throw a ball into the opponents net which hangs 3m above ground, the court is 28m long and 15m wide. Teams are allowed only 24 seconds of possession of the ball to score before the ball is turned over to the other team. This particular rule makes the game fast and exhillarating. Players can either score two points for a throwing the ball into the basket from withing a 6.75m radius from the basket or three points from shots outside this zone. There matches are made up of four 10 minute sessions of play with the clock stopping for every break in play.

In London the twelve team in oth competitions will be split into two groups of six where they play every team in the group. The best four teams in each group advance to the quarter-finals with their opponents being decided based on their placement in the group, win your group and you have an easier way to the final, place fourth and you will have the hardest way there. To be able to win a team needs to have both excellent individual players, but also amazing teamwork and tactics.

The favourites to take gold for both the Men and Women are without a doubt the USA, the real question for Olympic games is if anyone can beat them? Out of the 26 gold medals that have been handed out in Olympic history the USA have won 19 of them and if you subtract the two they had no chance of winning since the USA boicotted the 1980 Moscow Olympics they have won a staggering 19 out of 24 possible gold medals. In the years they didn't win they still took home a medal meaning they always medal in this event. In my opinion there isn't any chance that any of the US teams go home without a medal and my prediction is that two gold medals are the USAs to loose. Any other team has a chance to medal, it all just comes down to who they face in the final knock-out part of the tournament. Two teams to look out for are Argentina in the Men's competition, they actually beat the USA in the 2004 Athens games, and Australia in the Women's competition, these girls have taken home the silver three times in a row and are hungry for gold.

Do you think the US teams can live up to the expactations or will they crumble? leave a comment below.