Angola names team for Beijing - Cuts Bonifacio and Muzadi

[by Kris SANTIAGO] - National-team coach Alberto Carvalho trimmed the roster down to the final twelve players by leaving out Domingos Bonifacio and Victor Muzadi.

Muzadi, a 30-year old forward, played for Angola in two Olympic Games and was a regular fixture on the team.
Guard Domingos Bonifacio made his way to the national-team by running through all junior teams of the federation but never played in bigger competition then the All-Africa Games so far.

The roster for Beijing looks as follow:

Guards:
Carlos Morais (Petro)
Armando Costa (1.Agosto)
Milton Barros (Petro)
Luis Costa (Petro)
Carlos Almeida (1. Agosto)

Forwards:
Olimpio Cipriano (1. Agosto)
Vladimir Geronimo (1. Agosto)
Joaquim Gomes (1. Agosto)
Felizardo Ambrosio (1. Agosto)
Paulo Leonel (Petro)
Eduardo Mingas (Petro)

Center:
Abdel Aziz Boukar (Petro)

Notes:

-Players like Cipriano, Gomes, Mingas and Barros are set to play many minutes for Angola and have the experience of playing in international competition whether it is the Olympic Games, World Championships or U.S. college basketball as well as the European leagues.

-The team always played an unorthodox but successful small-ball without any true centers. The experienced problems guarding teams with tall centers (Which all opponents in their group are going to field) but have being quite effective regarding putting pressure on the opponent's guards to force turnovers and the team displayed some athletic ability to absorb the physical shortcomings. It is still a tough schedule for the African champions as they are facing Germany and Team USA in the first two games which could really affect the reminder of their outcome in this Olympic tournament due to possible blow-out losses to the first two teams.



-According to a source close to the players that stayed in the US (Divaldo Mbunga and Emmanuel Neto), both players were prepared to travel to Europe to unite with the rest of the team, but due to politics within the Angolan basketball federation, they were told not to travel as the national-team were not in the need for having them there. This stands in contrary to an earlier report made by the national press agency (ANGOP) that both players refused to travel to Spain for the camp. Both players would have given Angola some height in the paint as Mbunga and Neto stand 2,06 meters and both had good seasons with their respective college-teams.

-All players are playing for the two top teams (Primeiro went first, Petro second last year) in Africa which are Primeiro Agosto de Luanda and Petro Atletico de Luanda. Both teams enjoying huge a sponsorship which is rare in Africa.