The members of the Israeli national team breathed a sigh of relief yesterday (Thursday) at the end of the 61:69 over Poland in the first game of the 2023 World Cup qualifiers.
The opening was stressful, but slowly the players released and compared the level of aggressiveness to that of the Poles.
As time went on, the quality gaps did their thing for Israel.
In fact, since the guests' stunning 6:21 in the opening, Israel ran 40:63 and rightly won.
"All the games at the beginning of the windows are tough. Especially with a new method and a new coach," said Guy Goodes at the end.
"They started very aggressively, made traps and it took us a while to deal with it. I'm glad it only took us a quarter and the second wave came off the bench and gave us energy, we closed the gap they opened and controlled the game until the end. It was not nice, and it's hard to build chemistry "In three days, but I'm happy with our defense as a team, we made mistakes on the rebound and with some bad penetrations and closures, but I'm happy with what the players did on the pitch. It was important to start with a win."
The coach also referred to Guy Pnini who at 38 was the man who brought about the change and was perhaps the best player on the pitch: "Guy did not surprise me, his wisdom to play without moving too much and make the important moves. Give a little pass to Jake to the layup. He gives a lot of his experience "It is very important for Israeli basketball and we get to enjoy it."
Captain Gal Makal who was good also agreed with his coach: "It was not beautiful, but we wanted the victory more than anything else and we are happy. In the first quarter they came super aggressive and we made a lot of mistakes on offense and allowed them to score a lot of points in a short time. It's not pretty but it's a victory. "
Gal Makal and Tomer Ginat.
Can be satisfied, Photo: Oded Karni,
After the game, the professional team announced that Golan Gut and Gabi Chachashvili, who did not register against Poland, will not fly to Estonia this morning.
Roman Sorkin and John Dibertolomeo will arrive directly from Germany, and after training on Saturday, the professional team will decide who will be the 12th to sign up for the game.
"Estonia is a good team," Makal said.
"She not only beat us at home, Serbia also lost there and other good teams. It is difficult to play there, they are very mobile, intense, excellent scoring for 3. Now it is most important that we rest and come super sharp for Sunday, because it is a very important game."
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