Katsch: Even though we have to – we want to continue the process

Winner League Basket 20-21

ONE System | 19/02/2021 00:10

Israel national team players in training (Basketball Association) (ONE system)

Tonight (Friday, 18:30) the Israeli team will advance to its penultimate game in the European Championship qualifiers with a perfect balance of 0: 4 and with the ticket to the European Championship to be held next summer, against the weakest team at home, Romania with an inverted balance of 4: 0.

The Romanians lost their four games and lost a chance to advance to the European Championships. If they started the campaign with reasonable losses by 13 points to Spain and 16 to Israel, last February, then in a bubble in Valencia, where they were most of the time in strict isolation, they suffered defeats by 30 points to Poland and 53 to Spain.

Our team comes with a missing staff. Gal Makal is recovering, Idan Zalmanson remains in Israel and Nimrod Levy and Golan Gut, who were part of the previous bubble, are not with us. But this is an opportunity for others to get minutes. Noam Dovrat, Israel’s future players, will make his debut and also Spencer Weiss who looks great. Yiftach Ziv and Yam Madar will help Tamir Blatt manage the game and our team has a lot of experience and character with players like Tomer Ginat, Rafi Manko, Jake Cohen and of course Guy Pnini. Adam Ariel, who missed the previous window, returns to the squad in good shooting shape and Ben Carter will also continue to get minutes. Roman Sorkin, who received a few minutes in Valencia, is also expected to play in position number 5 because of Zalmanson’s disadvantage.

Roman Sorkin and Spencer Weiss (Hagai Michaeli)

Coach Oded Katash He said ahead of the game: “Although we have to continue the process we are doing, we are in a slightly lacking staff (stick) which is an anchor for us not found but we have young devices that I very much trust. We want to continue to win. Even at home against the Romanians there was no game “Easy, they are a young and talented team, in two years they will be stronger. They should always be respected, they lack a dominant player but it will give their youngsters a chance to prove themselves.”

About Noam Dovrat, Katsch said: “He will have many more good years on the team, from the little I got to coach him he does not feel like 18 years old, his maturity and understanding and also the way he plays basketball is a mature way.”

Jake Cohen (Basketball Association) (ONE system)

Jake Cohen: “We already have and we can use these games to get better and of course want to win. Our secret is always team basketball and my favorite part of the team is that everyone is close to each other. Without Zalmanson it will be different but for that we have a good and wide staff. “We have more responsibility, trying to show how things are done and throwing in important comments. The novels have talent, we saw their video today, we have to be focused and do our job.”

In the extra game at 21:30, Poland will try to beat Spain and also ensure a rise, even though Israel’s earlier victory over Spain and also in the championship. The Poles brought their excellent citizen A.J. Slaughter.