The poor performance in the games against Italy and Belgium and the fearsome opponent opposite brought the Israeli camp to the game against Spain. More than the fear of an expected loss to Spain was the fear of getting entangled in games for places 9-16, which could have led to relegation from the second tier. The concern was removed by one of the biggest victories by a young Israeli team in years.
Spain's last loss at the UEFA European Under-20 Championship was four years ago. It was in Tel Aviv against Israel in the final. Then there were two years without championships because of the coronavirus. Last summer it won the title after an undefeated championship and also came to the game with Israel undefeated.
In order to understand Spain's strengths, it is necessary to mention that it reached the championship as European reserve champion and is the under-19 world champion, a title it recently won. It has two players who have already received Euroleague minutes, Juan Núñez and Michael Caicedo, who are products of Real Madrid and Barcelona.
Elad Hussein. A huge victory and a lot of character, photo: FIBA
Our team just did the opposite. In the two games in which we were clear underdogs (Turkey and Spain) the team won. In both games against equal opponents on paper (Italy and Belgium) - we were simply defeated.
In a game against a significantly superior opponent, the tactic is to stay in the game until the final minutes. In this situation all the pressure is on the favourites and yesterday we saw that pressure well on the young Spanish players.
Apparently, the underdog position is good for Israel, and in these games it manages to use its tools more correctly. It's no secret that there is a significant difference in the contribution of points between the Jacob-Wolf duo and everyone else. This matter is structured. The question is the contribution of the supporting team: against Spain it was a very big contribution, especially on the defensive side - Israel deducted a third of the Spaniards' average points output and caused them to lose 20.
Danny Wolfe. A huge erosion of the union, photo: FIBA
We only have two top players in terms of the right age, but what two players. When it comes to the pair of Israeli stars, it must be said that they are also two of the best players in the championship. Noam Yaakov leads the tournament in assists, Danny Wolf is third in scoring and second in points.
Wolf (19, 2.11) is the Basketball Association's biggest grind in years. The ability to bring in the naturalized chin changed the face of the team. So much so that it overshadows even the person who was supposed to be the undisputed star of the team - Noam Yaakov.
Noam Yaakov. It was huge, photo: FIBA
His numbers in the current championship: 18.5 points and 9.8 rebounds. In the game with Spain, Wolf peaked with 24 points in his minutes on the court. An amazing statistic.
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Now we will see if the young unit in blue and white is capable of the extra step. In the last four championships we were in the top four. A win tonight (13.30) in the quarter-finals over Germany and we will maintain our wonderful streak.
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