Beijing - The game on Saturday against the United States basketball team will be the best possible training session for Spain, according to coach Aito Garcia Reneses.

The European side, like the Dream Team around Kobe Bryant and Lebron James, has already qualified for the Olympic quarterfinals and can afford to ease back a gear against their all-star rivals.

"But that does not mean you are going to lose the game. It means you are going to train really hard. And this is perhaps the best timing," said Garcia Reneses.

The coach took charge of the world champion just a few weeks before the Games, and he is seeking to polish some of the shortcomings that the team has so far shown in China.

Spain is clearly struggling to get by. Pau Gasol and his teammates qualified for the quarters on Thursday by beating Germany 72-59 with a lacklustre and imprecise game, and in their Beijing debut they needed extra time to beat host China.

"We are having some trouble, it's true, but the important thing is that the players find their rhythm," Garcia Reneses admitted.

Appointed coach after Pepu Hernandez was sacked in early June, he inherited a closely-knit squad which has been together for years. What Garcia Reneses did not have, however, was time to pass on his own ideas.

"Training cannot be hard, because there is a game every two days. So what we have to do is almost to train during games. And that is what we are trying to do, with all the difficulties that this entails," the coach explained.

The US team is the favourite to win gold in Beijing. It looks virtually unbeatable and it is physically one step ahead of everyone else, Spanish player Jorge Garbajosa said Thursday.

Basically, no one is counting on beating the Dream Team in the first round of the Olympic tournament. And having earned a place in the quarterfinals Garcia Reneses is approaching Saturday's game with a cautious, exploring attitude.

"We will not lose our head," he stressed. "If Carlos Jimenez or anyone else is not fit to play, we will not rush them, because there is still a large portion of the tournament ahead of us."

"What we have to do is to acquire habits that we can use in the play-offs," Garcia Reneses noted.

Spain plans to practise these "habits" in front of Bryant and his men, although the performances of players like Juan Carlos Navarro and Raul Lopez might be undermined by the remnants of old injuries. nevertheless, Garcia Reneses' men trust they will manage.

"If we lose we will learn a lesson in case we come across them again," said Jose Manuel Calderon.

Still, the Toronto Raptors point guard - set to meet his NBA teammate Chris Bosh on court on Saturday - is not giving up on beating the Dream Team.

"I always want to win, every game. And I want to be first. Our team does not know how to play otherwise," Calderon insisted. "It will be a beautiful game to watch."