SAITAMA, Japan, Aug 28 - The U.S. path to reclaiming the world championship is not so much blocked by a team as it is by a player as the Americans prepare for a quarter-final meeting with Germany and Dirk Nowitzki.

"Dirk is one of the best players on the planet, right now," U.S. forward Shane Battier told reporter. "Probably one of the top five players on planet Earth."

Certainly Germany enter Wednesday's quarter-final needing another out-of-this-world performance from their NBA All-Star if they hope to upset the U.S. but even coach Dirk Bauermann concedes Nowitzki cannot do it alone.

"One player cannot beat five," Bauermann said.

No country in the 24-team competition has been more dependent on the performance of one single player than Germany on Nowitzki, who has averaged more than 24 points through six games, second only to China's Yao Ming with 25.3.

After guiding the Dallas Mavericks to the NBA finals where they lost to the Miami Heat, the seven-foot (2.13) centre has shouldered the burden of leading Germany.

Most importantly Nowitzki has delivered when his country needed him most, pouring in 47 points in a triple overtime win over Angola and 23 in a 78-77 win over Nigeria that propelled them into the quarter-finals.

"They have one of the premier scorers in our league, one of the best players in our league, in Dirk," said Lebron James. "We've got to do a great job in trying to contain him and try to make sure we contain some of the others on their team also."

TOO HEAVILY

The U.S. have already showed what can happen when a team leans too heavily on one player.

Milwaukee Bucks' Andrew Bogut, the number one pick in the 2005 NBA draft, had 20 points for Australia in a second-round clash with the U.S. but it was not nearly enough to keep the Americans from rolling to a 113-73 rout.

In Wednesday's other quarter-final, Greece and France meet in an all-European clash between two teams back in the championships for the first time in eight years after failing to qualify in 2002.

European champions Greece -- like Spain, Argentina and the U.S. -- have reached the quarter-finals with 100 percent records of 6-0 but are the only one of the four unbeaten teams without an NBA player in their lineup.

France have made it through to the final eight despite losing San Antonio Spurs all-star Tony Parker on the eve of the tournament with a broken finger and will be seeking revenge for a buzzer-beating loss to the Greeks in the semi-finals of last year's European championship.

"It was a tough loss and we can use it as experience," Phoenix Suns French forward Boris Diaw said. "Sure you can call it revenge because we lost last year but it is just a game we need to win."

The other final eight matchups on Tuesday will see Olympic champions Argentina take on Turkey while Spain face Lithuania.