Israel's men's dominoes team celebrated today (Sunday) one of the country's greatest achievements in the ball industry in recent years, after qualifying for the European Championships after a dramatic 7-9 victory over Turkey.
At the end, one could see the great excitement of everyone, with hugs and jumps into the water of the whole team, including national team coach Tal Grodman, who also shed tears.
"It is a huge achievement for the industry, to qualify for the European Championships for the first time," Grodman told Israel Today.
"The guys have been doing an amazing job for a year and a half. We are working and preparing for this moment. Everything has been concentrated for the last four weeks, we have made much more intensive preparation and they came and gave a performance.
The dominoes team qualifies for the European Championships, Photo: Oren Aharoni
What is different in the team today than it was until now?
"I know how I work now. We worked very seriously, every week, every weekend we had a very clear goal and the guys got carried away and carried each other, and also with me together and we really had faith that we could do it. We had a lot of preparation. "Good, with nine days of training camp in Greece and day after day and game after game, the team made a leap forward and we saw it today."
Can we say that we have reduced the gap from Europe?
"I still think it's far to say, but today we definitely took the first step to reduce. The leap is that we're going to be in the European Championships. We set ourselves a high standard and it's a holiday for the industry. I really hope it gives a very serious boost, more children It will be more in the media now, and that way we will increase the number of people in the industry. "
The dominoes team qualifies for the European Championships, Photo: Oren Aharoni
So what else is missing to reach the level of teams like Croatia or Hungary, the current champions?
"There are definitely more facilities missing. We need facilities like the one we played today at Wingate. We do not have suitable pools that parallel here or to Europe. It's just another dormitory. We tried for four weeks to make this transition from the facilities we are used to It is true and in appropriate facilities it can be done. "
It seems that the industry has progressed in recent years, with the women also reaching the European Championships several times in a row. What happened?
"Hopefully the women will rise again this year and that means there will be two teams at the European Championships, an amazing thing in itself. We did something new and we can proudly say we made history and the jump we had hoped for a long time with the hard work."
The dominoes team qualifies for the European Championships, Photo: Oren Aharoni
And now the face of the European Championship, what does it look like there?
"We have to swim a lot and work hard, to prepare not differently from what we have done so far, only more intensely. The European Championships is a different story, it is the Lions of the continent, it is teams we are not used to facing, but only watching them on TV, and we are going to be strong. In the same pool. It's great fun. "
The dominoes team qualifies for the European Championships, Photo: Oren Aharoni
Were we wrong?
Fixed!
If you found an error in the article, we'll be happy for you to share it with us
