A fan with a cap at the Israel/Basketball Association game
The Israeli national team was defeated 88:79 by Slovenia this evening (Sunday) as part of the European Championship qualifiers, and suffered its first loss of the campaign.
But Bonifika in Cooper received the blue-whites in a particularly hostile atmosphere, when after the demonstration of support for Palestine outside the field walls before the match, several incidents happened during the game: near the beginning of the second half, a fan burst into the field wearing a cap and was forcibly removed.
In addition, throughout the game, fans and especially Slovenian fans behind the Israeli bench shouted "Palestine" and waved signs and flags.
"We came to play basketball, we thank the Slovenian national team for the hospitality and security. What happened around the game does not worry us. There is no room for other talks. Thank you to the Slovenians for the hospitality, and everything around, we are a proud people, we will appear everywhere and do everything for the pride of our country, And all in order to represent us with respect and make those who see us always proud," said coach Ariel Beit HaLhami in reference to the events.
Yeftah Ziv, who scored 9 points in the game, added in the same matter: "We wear this shirt with pride and genius. Israel is alive."
Debut loss for the Israeli national team.
Yam Madar with Yeftah Ziv/official website, fiba.com
As for the game, Beit Halhemi said: "The Slovenian team deserved to win, they played very well. We failed in two things - in attack we missed so many shots, I don't remember a team that misses so many, especially in the first half. We didn't do the job in defense, we failed in defense, we were late for their threes and it hurt us the whole game. They hurt us in the offensive rebound. The better team won."
The coach added: "In the end we fell on the defensive side. For a quarter and a half we did what we had to do in defense and kept well, after that our defense was not good enough and not physical. I told the players that we fell one on one. Our percentages in the attack? Players stood alone and made mistakes, You can make complaints. Part of that is their fitness in the teams. We got to free throws and players who usually score didn't score, I have no complaints about that. The defensive side must be at a higher level. Looking ahead to the rest, I wish the players to finish the season properly, healthy, And we'll see you later. We could have taken this game today, we started it well, if we had scored what we missed, the difference would have been bigger and we would have had more air to hold. ".
Ziv concluded: "We knew we were meeting a good and experienced team, we came here to fight and leave with the victory. We are disappointed with the result, but it is what it is."
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