Tough task staring Gilas in the eyes entering second round of Qualifiers

Dwight Ramos (with ball) knows how tough it will be moving forward. —FIBA.COM

The path towards a fourth consecutive trip to the Fiba World Cup could be a narrow one for Gilas Pilipinas as it now enters the second round of qualification where it will need to stand tall against three Middle East opponents.

Gilas will need to play with a sense of urgency for the rest of the Asian Qualifiers after ending the first round with a 2-4 record after Monday’s 92-49 road loss to unbeaten Australia in Perth where the Filipinos played without Justin Brownlee.

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“If we move on, there’s going to be a lot of teams that are just as good as Australia,” Gilas fan favorite Dwight Ramos said, referring to how playing in the main draw of the World Cup will be if Gilas does advance to the 2027 edition in Doha.

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Australia topped Group A carrying an unbeaten 6-0 record, while New Zealand was second at 4-2, followed by the Philippines and Guam, which was eliminated from World Cup qualifying after losing all six matches.

Must-win games

Gilas joins the Boomers and Tall Blacks in the newly-formed Group E where they’ll be accompanied by Group C teams Iran, Jordan and Syria. Iran and Jordan each went 5-1 while Syria posted a 2-4 slate in the first round.

That has put Gilas in a difficult situation going into the next three windows where all games are now considered must-wins with the records from the initial phase of the Qualifiers carried over into the second round.

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The top three teams after the second round will qualify for next year’s World Cup, while the fourth-placer may advance if it has a better record or a tiebreaker advantage over its counterpart in Group F.

Group F is composed of Lebanon (5-1), Japan (4-2), Qatar (3-3), South Korea (3-3), China (3-3) and Saudi Arabia (3-3).

Qatar is already assured of a World Cup berth by virtue of being the host nation.

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Gilas returns to action in late-August when the second round rolls on. Tentative schedules for the fourth window has Gilas facing Jordan on Aug. 27 and Iran on Aug. 30.

The fifth window will have Gilas against Syria on Nov. 27 and Iran on Nov. 30 while the final window will be in Feb 2027 against Syria and Jordan.

Gilas had a promising start to the first round, when it blew past Guam on both occasions in the first window that also saw the debut of Quentin Millora-Brown. But the February window brought some blues for Gilas when it lost a close one to New Zealand before being blown out by Australia in both games played at home.

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The recent window began with Gilas almost pulling one out over New Zealand in Auckland, but fell short in double overtime, 106-102. INQ