China are about to meet South Korea in the 17-32 Classification Round game in the FIBA Basketball World Cup in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou on Friday. The result of this game will decide whether China will get an automatic qualification spot in the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. Therefore, the team not only cannot afford to lose it, but will also have to go for a big win.

Though China seem to be in an advantageous position, as they are the only Asian team that claimed a victory in the first-round group stage, things get complicated if you take a look at the schedules of China and the other team, namely Iran, in the Classification Round.

On Friday: China vs. South Korea, Iran vs. Angola

On Sunday: China vs. Nigeria, Iran vs. Philippines

What's the difference? First, the Philippines and Angola are two of the weakest teams in the World Cup. Angola lost to Serbia 105-59, to Italy 92-61 in their first two games; the Philippines lost to Italy 108-62, to Serbia 126-67; in terms of field goal rate, Angola (38.5 percent) and the Philippines (36.2 percent) are the fifth- and the third-worst of all 32 teams; the 3-point rate of the Philippines was only 18.3 percent, the worst of all teams; Angola could only deliver 10.3 assists on average per game, again the worst of all 32 teams.

By contrast, though Iran lost all of their three games in the first stage, they were all close games: they lost to Puerto Rico 83-81 by buzzer beater, to Tunisia 79-67 (equally matched in the last three quarters) and to Spain 73-65 (leading in the first three quarters).

Now you understand why Iran felt confident about qualifying for the Summer Olympics next year as soon as they learned the second-stage schedule.

As for China, things are not so bright. As one of the major opponents of China in Asia, South Korea have always been more than willing to make trouble for their neighbor and have often able to do so. For example, in the World Cup's Asian qualifiers, the two teams both claimed one win in their two games against each other.

South Korea also have a weapon that can drive China crazy and his name is Ra Gun-ah, naturalized American forward Ricardo Ratliffe. In the three games in Group B, he could drop 22.7 points and 12 rebounds, including five offensive ones per game.

Whoever watched China's loss to Venezuela should understand what kind of fear Ra can give Chinese players.

Nonetheless, China's biggest concerns are not South Korea but Nigeria. This team has four players who played in the NBA last season and six with NBA records. They had been expected to be a quarterfinal team before the World Cup began. Though the two losses against Russia and Argentina kicked Nigeria to the Classification Round, the team are not anyone's punching bag – they smashed South Korea 108-66 in their last game. Besides, Nigeria also need to win to acquire early qualification for the 2020 Summer Olympics. Do China really have the confidence to defeat this team?