By REYNALD MAGALLON
The path to the fourth straight World Cup appearance has already been determined and Gilas Pilipinas is in for a perilous climb.
That, after the Nationals have been drawn with continental powerhouses New Zealand and Australia along with Guam in what many consider as the Group of Death in the 2027 FIBA World Cup Asian qualifiers that will fire off later this year.
Gilas, currently ranked world No.34 in the world, will have to finish in the top 3 of the group at the end of the first phase where six games will be played in a home-and-away format across six windows.
The three teams on top of the standings at the end of the first round will then move on to the second phase where they will be grouped with the Top 3 squads from the other groups with their records getting carried over.
With Qatar already qualified to the 2027 world meet by virtue of being the host, the rest of the countries will be fighting it out for the remaining seven slots with the top 3 teams from each of the two groups in the second phase as well as the best fourth placed team punching their tickets.
And that made the road a lot tougher for the Filipinos as they are bunched with the world No.7 Boomers and No.22 Tall Blacks.
Historically, both Australia and New Zealand are difficult matches for Gilas with the former dominating the Filipinos in all of its head-to-head matches while it took eight years for the Nationals to finally break through against the latter.
The last time Australia and Gilas shared the court was during the infamous brawl at the Philippine Arena during the 2023 FIBA World Cup qualfiers while the last time the Filipinos and the Tall Black’s faced each other was in the FIBA Asia Cup qualifiers with New Zealand winning 87-70 as a response to the National’s 93-89 first win over the Kiwis.
Being the underdogs against the two powerhouses put more importance to Gilas’ games against No.88 Guam. The two games could even determine Gilas fate especially if it fails to snatch victories against the other two teams.
Should the Filipinos manage to come out of the first phase, Iran, Syria, Iraq, and Jordan await as potential opponents in the second phase.
Group B, meanwhile, features Japan, Korea, China and Chinese Taipei while Group D has Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, India and Qatar.
