When I watched Belarus' victory over Turkey I thought it should light a red light towards Estonia - an inferior team on paper that is surprisingly a clear favorite.
But then Estonia arrived, and with a huge victory over Germany turned the red light into a bright red light.
Tonight's game is not going to be an easy trip after Estonia made it clear in the opening round that they are not ready to be the weakest team at home, despite all the predictions.
At least she spared Guy Goodes the motivation call before the game.
The World Cup qualifiers are a tournament of exploitation of opportunities more than it depends on the ability and quality of the teams.
Israel, for example, lacked Sussman, Blatt, Sorkin and Di Bartholomew against Poland, but was not forced to field a sub-team because two-thirds of the squad he played would receive a summons in every game.
Germany (which was at the Olympics in Tokyo), on the other hand, appeared with one player who might have a place on the strong squad - it really was Team B.
Roman Sorkin.
Reached the second date, Photo: Danny Maron
Israel's position in terms of recruiting staff is better than that of most of the teams in the tournament.
It is one of the units where Euroleague players play, the vast majority of whom are not released to the national teams (due to the conflict of dates), so Israel needs to take advantage of the situation.
Just to mention that the Slovenian team, the 2017 European champions and fourth in the Olympic tournament, did not advance to the previous World Cup in 2019 because the teams it manages to collect in the winter are not similar to the ones it puts in in the summer.
Estonia's victory shocked preliminary estimates.
Whoever thought that the three who ascended to the next stage are known in advance - was wrong.
It proves how careful one should be in what plays in Tallinn, but on the other hand also creates a great opportunity.
A victory over Estonia - which defeated Germany - and after we defeated Poland, will allow Israel to take over the house already in the first window, and may also be a springboard for the battle for first place towards the next stage.
With all due respect to the special conditions of the window tournaments, Israel must first look at itself.
It is important to win the opening game even if the basketball is not impressive, but one should pay attention to the problems.
Israel was mediocre at best and a full-fledged Polish team with a little more talent could have beaten us.
Guy Goodes.
Want 2 of 2, Photo: Oded Karni
One clear proof came out of the battle against the Poles - the team went through a system robbery and a process of mourning, but it is still dependent on the veteran players.
Pnini, 38, and Makal, 33 (and after an injury) gave the extra that Israel needed to get through the game safely.
This duo has almost 30 years of experience in the team, plus leadership and a lot of intelligence - and it's worth gold.
Because a failure against Poland would have greatly complicated the situation.
Were we wrong?
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