2014 FIBA World Cup: Spain And USA Dominate; Are They Destined To Meet In The Gold Medal Final? [POLL]

Team USA and Spain both soundly beat their opening round of group play opponents at the FIBA World Cup soundly over the weekend. The United States rallied down 6 in the third quarter to blow out Turkey by 21, and Spain easily man handled Brazil by 19, a team most thought would be able to compete with the Spaniards. Through the opening weekend of play, this much is clear: the United States and Spain are clearly the two best teams of this tournament.

The two teams met in the 2012 London Olympics in the gold medal game, which the United States went on to win 107 to 100. Led by Pau Gasol and Brother Marc Gasol, Spain looks significantly better this year. When you add Juan Carlos Navarro, Rudy Fernandez, Jose Calderon and Ricky Rubio, the Spanish team looks poised to make the leap to win the gold medal this year. The United States team, without Kobe Bryant, Kevin Durant, LeBron James, Chris Paul, and Blake Griffin, is arguably the least talented team since 2004.

Head coach of Team USA, Mike Kryzewski, is 64-1 as coach of the United States. That one blemish on his record came eight years ago during his first stint as coach in an upset loss to Greece. Spain went on to win the FIBA tournament that year, and since then, Coach K has kept a clean sheet against all his opponents. However, with injuries, notable absences off the roster as mentioned above, and the fact that Spain will be playing this tournament on home soil, the odds significantly against the United States this time around.

During the Labor Day weekend, Spain and the United States clearly showed their basketball superiority to the rest of the world, and provided neither team has any slip ups along the way, it appears the two basketball powerhouses are destined to meet again with another gold medal on the line. Group play ends on Thursday Sept.4, after which the teams go to the single elimination knockout rounds. Provided both countries win their groups as both currently stand, they will meet on Sunday, Sept. 14 for the FIBA World Championship of Basketball in Madrid.