Before the 2010 FIBA World Cup, the team exhibited impressive performances during friendly preparation matches, beating Germany 82–54, Russia 101–63, Croatia 90–81, Canada 123–49, Slovenia 96–72, and Serbia 74–73, in a game that ended up in a brawl. That brawl exposed problems within the team, which showed a different face in crucial matches in the World Cup. In the group stage, Greece lost to Turkey and Russia, (being accused of purposely losing the game with Russia, to avoid playing with Spain in the knock-out stage). France's loss to New Zealand meant that Greece had to face Spain anyway in the round of 16. The two teams met once more, in a dramatic game that Spain won in the last minutes (a game that lead to Greek complaints about critical referee calls). That loss meant that the Greek team was eliminated from the next stage, ending up 11th (its worst performance in a World Cup). That game led to the fifth consecutive Spanish victory over Greece in major international competitions (Greece would stop Spain's winning streak 3 years later at EuroBasket 2013, beating them 79–75, with Vassilis Spanoulis scoring 20 points). That actually represented a reversal of the previous situation, as Greece had previously defeated Spain in every game they played against each other at the four major international competitions (1990 FIBA World Cup, EuroBasket 1993, EuroBasket 1995, and the 1998 FIBA World Cup). After the elimination in the 2010 FIBA World Cup, Dimitris Diamantidis announced his retirement from the national team, at age 30.