The Israel National Team begins a busy few weeks ahead when they play a pair of World Cup qualifiers and then opens up the 2022 Eurobasket group stages in Prague. The blue-and-white will look to get off to a solid start on the road in Finland and then at home against Sweden while also planning to make waves in the continental competition with five games against the likes of Serbia, Poland, Holland, Finland and the host country Czechia with a relatively new and young squad.

With only three players who have featured in previous Eurobaskets, head coach Guy Goodes had a large pool of players to work with including four up and coming Israeli forwards.

Tomer Ginat who just returned to Israel and Hapoel Tel Aviv after two years at Metropolitans in France, Maccabi Tel Aviv big man Roman Sorkin, Nimrod Levi who is toiling these days up in the north with Hapoel Galil Elyon and Rafi Menco who just moved from league champs Hapoel Holon to the yellow-and-blue of Maccabi.

The quartet all looked ahead to the upcoming qualifiers and Eurobasket as each one spoke about their expectations and the keys that they see will lead to Israel’s success.

“We have had a good preparation period,” Tomer Ginat began. “But we’ve also had some things that we haven’t been able to control. We’ve played well in the exhibition games and we have our goals in front of us as we want to put together some good results.”

“We have been together for a number of years and we’ve seen how we have improved window to window as we have had the chance to work together. We want to have a good championship and these games run into one after the next.”

Nimrod Levi agreed that the past few weeks have helped the team come together, “The preparation so far has gone well and most of us have played together for some time which makes things a bit easier. We’re looking forward to the games coming up. We are happy to be here as we’ve been together for some time. Each flight and each window it’s been great.”

Rafi Menco also focused on the quality time the team have spent with each other, “We’ve been together for a while and this is our first tournament together. Over time we have been able to get to go know one another and we want to get off to a good start.”

Roman Sorkin enjoyed the time away from playing basketball at his club and the chance to work together for a common goal, “It’s a good break from our club games as we are playing for our country and we are good friends on and off the court, you can see that when we play. We accomplished our goals as we won all of our exhibition games and we are looking to gain more chemistry. Our first goal is get off to a good start with the opening games in World Cup qualifying.”

Israel will enter the World Cup qualifying portion of their schedule with a 3-3 record that was brought over from the first round of play. In order for Goodes’s side to be in the race to punch their ticket to the global event they’ll need to play quality basketball and win as many games as possible with Germany and Finland at the top of the group with 5-1 records followed by Slovenia at 4-2 and then Israel in 4th. Sweden and Estonia fill out the rest of the six team group with 2-4 records to their names as the top 3 teams will advance to the tournament being held in Indonesia, Japan and the Philippines.

“We have two challenging games coming up and Finland we are also playing in the Eurobasket so we have to come in very focused and ready to go. Hopefully, we will get to the Eurobasket in the best shape as possible,” Ginat began.

“We are taking it one game at a time and if we are thinking about going to the World Cup we have to win and that is a goal that is very important for us. Finland may have an NBA star like Lauri Markkanen but they have many weapons so we will make sure we will come in as ready as possible.”

Levi spoke about his Swedish heritage and is looking forward to representing Israel, “My grandparents live in Sweden and for them it’s going to be very special. It’s going to be an honor for me to represent Israel and it will be great fun. It’s very special to play for the national team and it’s something that we all dream of as children. It’s a big honor.”

The two most senior players on the squad are Guy Pnini and Gal Mekel who are both important pieces to the team as they look to reach their goals. Menco was fortunate t be able to play all of last season with Pnini at Holon and that isn’t something he is taking for granted.

“As someone who was able to play with Guy for an entire year you can see his drive and will to win. This is something that we can all learn from.”

“Gal and Guy have had a lot of experience,” Ginat chimed in. “They are helping us both on and off of the court and have been able to really impact the younger players.”

Sorkin indicated that defense will be a kay factor in the team’s success and on a personal level he feels that having played in the Euroleague last season will also be a help with a huge challenge ahead.

“The defense is going to be very important for us as our offense will be fine. I’m looking forward to playing Nikola Jokic with Serbia as he’s the best player in the world over the past two years, but we have a mission ahead of us.”

All in all, Ginat sees the opportunity that this team has and it’s also based on how well they play together and how they play all for one and one for all, “Every player has done a good job in improving over the past few years and everyone here wants to help out to reach our goals. You can see that Israel always fights and battles and this team has players who will go for every ball and every possession. We have a lot of heart.”