Thousands of Greeks danced in the streets, waved flags and honked car horns to celebrate yesterday's 101-95 upset victory over the US at the world basketball championships in Japan.
"This is the biggest thing we've ever done," former Greek star Panayiotis Fasoulas said. "The Americans are the most talented players but we have a better team. Right now we're the best in the world ... Beating the US is more important than the final."
Offices and services came to a standstill as Greeks watched the game and then left their workplace to celebrate. Workers at one downtown office threw hundreds of sheets of paper out of windows onto a celebrating crowd.
PHOTO: AP
Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis cut short scheduled meetings to watch the end of the game, played in Saitama, and expressed gratitude to the Greek team.
"I wonder if a `thank you' is enough, but I feel the need to say it twice over to [coach] Panagiotis Yannakis and his guys," Karamanlis said in a statement.
Chanting "Lift the cup," fans waved Greece's blue-and-white flags, blared car horns as midday parties sprang up in Athens and Thessaloniki, Greece's second largest city.
Traffic information screens flashed the final score, as motorists abandoned their cars to join celebrating crowds. Teenagers set off firecrackers and waved flags on mopeds as they headed to the center of Athens.
Thanassis Mallios, a kiosk owner in Athens' central Syntagma Square, sold Greek flags to passing fans. A few meters away, revelers wrapped a flag around the shoulders of a presidential guard on duty outside parliament.
The Greek team can add a world title to the European championships it won last year and in 1987 with a victory in tomorrow's gold medal game.
Taiwan’s Lee Hao-yu on Friday went 0-for-3 in his MLB debut for the Detroit Tigers against the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park, becoming the 19th Taiwan-born player to reach the big leagues. The Tigers ultimately lost 1-0 in 10 innings, ending their six-game winning streak. The 23-year-old started at third base and batted eighth for Detroit. He was promoted from Triple-A Toledo ahead of the four-game series against the Red Sox at the latter’s home stadium, replacing injured utility player Zach McKinstry. “Being right-handed, and given our schedule, I think six of the next 12 games are going to
Matheus Cunha on Saturday fired Manchester United toward the UEFA Champions League with a 1-0 win at Chelsea, while Tottenham Hotspur remain in the relegation zone after twice blowing the lead to draw with Brighton & Hove Albion. Chelsea failed to take advantage of a United defense ravaged by injury and suspension as a fourth straight league defeat for the Blues left their Champions League hopes in ruins. United have missed out on the riches of Europe’s elite competition for the past two seasons, but are closing in on a return thanks to an upturn in fortunes under interim manager
Denmark’s double Olympic badminton champion Viktor Axelsen, long a rival of Taiwan’s former world No. 2 Chou Tien-chen, yesterday announced his retirement at age 32, saying back problems meant he could no longer “compete and train at the highest level.” Axelsen, who won gold at the Tokyo Games in 2021 and again in Paris in 2024, had back surgery in April last year and said he had not overcome his physical issues. “Accepting this situation has been incredibly difficult,” he said in a statement. “But I have now reached a point where my body won’t allow me to continue.” Axelsen retires as one
Italian soccer is at its lowest ebb in nearly 40 years after a wholesale European exodus at club level followed the nation’s failure for the third successive time to qualify for the FIFA World Cup, and compounded a leadership and structural crisis. The exits suffered by Bologna and ACF Fiorentina on Thursday in the UEFA Europa League and UEFA Conference League respectively meant no Italian teams are left in European competition this season. Italy’s last remaining UEFA Champions League contenders, Atalanta BC, went out in the round of 16 last month. It is the first time since the 1986-1987 campaign that Italian clubs
RSS