Dirk Bauermann's side now face the ultimate test - playing the United States in the quarter-finals. If Germany want to repeat at least their bronze medal from the 2002 FIBA World Championship, they will have to deal the highly-motivated Team USA their first loss of the tournament.

Bauermann coached Germany to a surprising silver medal at the 2005 EuroBasket last summer, losing to Greece in the final. And he gets perhaps the biggest challenge of his career on Wednesday.

The coach talked to FIBA about Germany's chances against the United States.

FIBA: Coach, Team USA is considered one of the major favourites of this tournament. What's the approach to the game for Germany?
Bauermann: This is the opportunity of a life time. That's how we look at it. We don't have anything to lose. But we feel that in 40 minutes anything is possible. Obviously they're the huge favourites. But we played them tough two years ago in Cologne. With Dirk, we feel we have a player who will generate enough points to at least stay in the game. And then we'll see what happens in the third and fourth quarters. But we all know that we're facing a very, very difficult challenge.

FIBA: With the Americans' athleticism and abilty to play the open court game, your best chances seem to be keeping the score in the 70s or 80s.
Bauermann: Oh, max 80s. We have to shorten the game as much as possible and limit the number of possessions if we can. We have to try if possible to control the rhythm and tempo of the game. And if we do that then maybe we can stay in the game. It's not just a matter of the right game tempo. We have to play with unbelievable passion and unbelievable intensity and unbelievable desire to beat the best team in this tournament.

You can look at a game like that from a strategic perspective. But more than anything you have to rip your hearts out of your chests, throw them on the court and compete until you drop dead. And I think that's the bottom line. You have to play with tremendous confidence and very, very strong faith and belief in your ability. And if you do that then maybe we can surprise people. Not just by winning. What are our chances of doing that? But keeping it close and giving them a great game, maybe scaring them a bit. If we can do that, I think that would be a huge success. I think that in itself would be a great achievement.

FIBA: They will likely put massive pressure on the ball. Do you think you're manned well enough at playmaker position to handle that?
Bauermann: You're right, they're going to put tremendous pressure on the basketball and put tremendous pressure on the passing lanes, which is going to make it hard for us to get into our offense. We have to do a good job of executing our plays. Because if we don't and if they're able to disrupt us to the point where we don't function as a team on offense and they take us out of what we want to do, then obviously it's going to be very difficult. Our abilty to execute against their tremendous pressure is going to be crucial on the offensive end.

FIBA: A lot of people are billing this match-up as Team USA and their NBA stars against Germany's only NBA player, Dirk Nowitzki. Do you think they're probably going to focus on Nowitzki and make other guys beat win the game?
Bauermann: They have a great coach, and I'm sure he's going to come up with a great game plan. They have a great coaching staff. I mean, they have the Coach of the Year a year ago as well. And they're going to come up with a great game plan. Whatever it is that they're going to do, it's our job to somehow cope with it. If that means they're going to double or triple team Dirk, then others are going to have to step up to the forefront and make shots. And if they play them in single coverage then he's going to have to take over and be aggressive and do what he does. It's going to be tough, no matter what.

FIBA: Just one last question, how happy are you seeing that Ademola Okulaja has become a bigger force on the offensive side of the ball?
Bauermann: He's been playing better the last two or three games. I tried to limit his minutes early in the tournament because he wasn't 100 percent. So I didn't want to play him too much. But he's played a little more in each game. And it seems like we can play him 30 plus minutes. He's found his rhythm and he's playing really well. Obviously against a great team like that one scorer is not going to get the job done. Even if (Nowitzki) scores 40 points we need to generate 30 to 40 more points to have a chance. And that's if we can do a great job controlling the tempo, which is going to be very difficult. So, we need Ade at full strength. But he's made huge strides in that direction.