The Israel National Basketball Team is readying for the second round of World Cup qualification as they will take on Poland and Latvia at the end of the month. Prior to the pair of games that will be played in Riga, the head coach Ariel Beit Halachmi along with acting captain Yam Madar as well as veteran forward Rafi Menco spoke about the upcoming window and the challenges that lie ahead.

“We want to do the best that we can in the upcoming window,”Beit Halachmi began. “We all want to make sure that we learned some lessons from the last window and come in prepared and ready to go. We are deeper this time around, we want to really represent the country the best that we can and we want to come into every game with the goal to win.”

“We are beginning practicing now and we will have a longer training period this time around than we have had in the past. Some of the guys have already been working out and while some won’t come into camp in perfect condition we will work with them so that they will be ready to go. We looked back at the last window and you can see that we have players here who will want to win and bring back pride to the national team.”

Yam Madar, who will be the captain for this window in place of the injured Tomer Ginat spoke about what he sees as the challenges for the national team in the upcoming games against Poland and Latvia.

“It’s exciting to be the captain in Tomer’s place as we are coming into a pair of important games. We aren’t looking at what are chances are to qualify for the World Cup but the goal is to play as best as we can and play better than we did in the last window. Since the last national team games, we had a chance to rest up and make sure that we are as prepared as possible for this window and do the best that we can.”

With Madar as captain and with Tamir Blatt back with the team, this is the first time in quite some time that the country’s two best point guards are playing together on the national team and this is something that Beit Halachmi is very excited about.

“It makes me very happy. We’ll have the two top point guards in Israeli basketball and we need to find a way for them to play together. It’s very possible that they’ll also be on the court together, but these are things that will develop as we go. We need to start practicing, establish our style and hierarchy and then move forward from there.”

Madar, who joined Maccabi Tel Aviv in the offseason after having starred for Hapoel Tel Aviv will have to miss some of the preseason but he’s not concerned and sees the national team as the number one priority.

“Every player comes from their own situation and is with one team or another. When you come to the national team, you have to put aside the club and the situation you’re in. We’re with the national team and we’ll do everything we can to represent it properly.”

After the press conference, the team held a practice session with plenty of belief that despite the chances to qualify for the World Cup being fairly low, they can still pull it off.

One of the players who returned to the national team is veteran Rafi Menco, who shared his feelings about coming back to play in the white-and-blue, “It’s great to be back here. We’re all very happy to be part of the national team. We’re going to give our heart and soul for the national team. It’s going to be difficult, that’s true, but as Israelis, we’ll fight and I hope we can achieve good results.”

Unlike the previous window, this time Tamir Blatt and Yam Madar will play together, along with several new faces, “It’s amazing. There are excellent players here who can lead us to good places,” Menco said about the squad. “I’m not going to get into what happened in the last window, because I wasn’t there. The national team is the most important thing for everyone, for those who are here and for those who aren’t. Representing the State of Israel is an honor that we’ve had since we were kids, especially during a time like this. We’re in a difficult situation and everyone who is here will give everything they have,” he concluded.