Asian Games Taiwan men's basketball team is hailed as a dark horse by Philippine media. Chen Yingjun leads the team to challenge Jordan

Taiwan's Asian Games men's basketball team, led by Chen Yingjun (right), will compete in Jordan, hoping to get a good start for the Taiwanese delegation. (File photo)

[Reporter Nian Miaoyun/Comprehensive Report] Men's 5-on-5 basketball at the Asian Games in Nagoya, Aoi, ignited the war today. The Taiwan team will face West Asia rival Jordan at 12 noon. The Philippine media "SPIN.ph" has an article analyzing all the teams participating this time. The article bluntly states that the Philippine team, which won the gold medal last time, will have a very difficult time defending the title this time without Justin Brownlee and a significantly smaller lineup. It also mentioned that the Taiwanese team will be a dark horse that cannot be underestimated this time.

In this Asian Games, a total of 12 teams are divided into 3 groups for the preliminaries. The top 2 teams in the group will directly advance to the top 8, and the 3rd place in the group will compete with the 3rd place in other groups for the last two tickets to the top 8. "SPIN.ph" has a special article analyzing the 12 teams this time. The article believes that Indonesia, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Kazakhstan have little chance of qualifying from the preliminaries, while Taiwan, Iran, Bahrain and China are all powerful opponents and cannot be ignored.

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The text pointed out that although the Taiwanese team is in a group surrounded by two strong rivals, Iran and Jordan, they have the opportunity to become a dark horse team. If they break through the group stage, there will be many variables when they encounter the Philippines. "For the Philippine team at this stage, the Taiwanese team is by no means an easy opponent to deal with, especially in the recent FIBA competition. The Taiwanese team has a lot of experience against the Philippines, including last February, when Brownlee scored 39 points but could not overcome the disadvantage. "Naiwen described this highly cohesive team led by Chen Yingjun, Lin Tingqian and naturalized player Gao Baikai as the Philippines' nemesis, a team with the ability to shock the same group.

However, "SPIN.ph" believes that Japan, South Korea and Jordan are better and will become the "knockout killers" this time. In order to end the 12-year gold medal drought, South Korea has made an all-out effort, led by Lee Hyun-joong and Yeo Jun-seok, and is quite strong. Although Japan does not have Rui Hachimura and Yuki Kawamura, it still has naturalized players Alex Kirk and others in the team, so it still has a chance to compete for medals. As for Jordan, which won the silver medal last time, it will be the biggest rival for the Philippines to defend its title this time.