Andy Van Vliet, one of the stars of the Belgian national team and former Bnei Herzliya forward who played in Israel between 2021-2023, spoke to the media ahead of Tuesday’s critical game at 3pm against the Israel national team.

Van Vliet spoke about his team’s chances against Israel, “It will we a tough game. I think Israel has been playing a great tournament so far, they’ve obviously been getting good results and you can tell that the team plays really well together, so it will be a tough matchup, but I’m excited for it. I know my teammates are very excited for it as well, so we are going to give it 100%.”

The keys to the game, “Like I said, it will be a really tough game and I think free throws have been something that’s been bothering us. Against Iceland it helped us close the game out, so that’s definitely something we got to focus on better, closing the game out with three throws, but with a team like Israel you can never count them out and you have to be focused 100% of the time with them.”

He also commented about Israel beating France, “I’m not surprised. Like I said it’s a really good team with a lot of really good players, France is obviously also a great team, but it’s the Eurobasket, a lot of things could happen. I wouldn’t really call it an upset, I thought it was a good game, Israel played great and hopefully they don’t play great against us on Tuesday.”

Van Vliet has bumped into plenty of familiar Israeli faces, “It’s amazing. I spent time with Yoav Shamir at Herzliya and Mor Peretz as well, so great seeing those guys.”

Did he give nightmares to some of the Israeli players as he was part of a Bnei Herzliya team that beat Hapoel Tel Aviv in the State Cup finals and knocked out Maccabi Tel Aviv in the league semifinals.

“No, That was a long time ago, this is years later, so obviously all of those players are doing really well individually and with there teams. I still follow the league a bit and who knows, maybe one day I’ll be back.”

How about remembering the Belgium theme night in Israel, “That was my first year in Herzliya, it was fun. That was organized by Amit and Eldad, it was really nice of them to do. I remember winning the game because it was against Obasohan with Jerusalem. It’s crazy you remember that.”