New city, new problems: Slovenia arrives in Berlin much later than expected / News - Basketnews.com

Slovenia arrived approximately 10 hours later in Berlin than expected. Then, a misunderstanding at the training facility caused the players to change outside.

Credit: FIBA Credit FIBA

The Slovenian national team famously had to take taxis to their first game in EuroBasket 2022 group stage in Cologne against Lithuania as the designated team bus did not arrive. With the playoffs teams situated in Berlin now, the issues are not leaving the reigning champions of Europe.

Slovenia / Schedule

Hungary Slovenia88-103 Slovenia Bosnia and Herzegovina93-97 Germany Slovenia80-88 France Slovenia82-88 Slovenia BelgiumSat12:45

First, the difficulties started before even arriving in Berlin. The organizers had scheduled a charter flight for Slovenia at 9 in the morning on Thursday. The national team decided that it was too early for the players in order to preserve their sleep and rest, and optioned not to take the flight.

Instead, Slovenia hoped to take a high-speed train to the capital of Germany at 3 in the afternoon. However, it was not that easy. The entire train management system of Cologne Central train station malfunctioned due to heavy rain the day before, meaning that no trains could arrive at the station.

As experienced by our BasketNews journalist team as well, many basketball fans and journalists alike had to scramble for additional options to travel to Berlin.

Eventually, Slovenia took a plane from Cologne to Berlin and arrived approximately at 8 in the evening.

Hilariously, the issues did not stop there. When the team had to hold a training session yesterday, there was an unfortunate misunderstanding at the training facility.

During the tournament, each team gets assigned anattaché who leads the team through various tournament facilities and helps the players and the coaching staff get around in the city. However, Slovenia's attaché did not know where the locker rooms in the training facility were or at least did not guide the team there, and the players had to change outside while watching France's practice at the same time.

Teams can watch other teams' practices through multiple windows outside, and there's nothing stopping them.

After all the issues, Slovenia faces Belgium today in the Round of 16. The game is scheduled at 14:45 CET.

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