“The goals are clear, we want the best possible results” Ran Ben Shimon and Israel prepare for Belgium

Sep 5, 2024 | Football

The Israel National Team held its prematch press conference ahead of their Nations League clash against Belgium at the Nagyerdei Stadionin in Debrecen, Hungary. The League A game is being played outside of Belgium due to the security situation as they were unsure if they could host Israel safely in their home country.

Israel Head Coach Ran Ben Shimon is the new man on the sidelines for Israel and gave his opening remarks about facing one of the top teams not only in Europe but across the globe, “Belgium is one of the best teams in the world. While they didn’t have such a successful Euro 2024 campaign, the quality of their squad speaks for itself. It’s a good challenge for us as we want to face this type of challenges. It’s nice to start against a team at the highest level. Our side may be young and there are players who grew up emulating the Belgians, but we want to turn this into an opportunity.”

“The goal is to turn this so-called ‘Group of Death’ into the ‘Group of life’. We want to show our quality, see what we are able to do and find out what method of play are suitable for us. We are going on a long journey. This game will give us a lot of material from which we will know how to improve the team. Despite the high level of teams we are not going to give up on this campaign in advance. The goals are clear, we want the best possible results. From the moment I took over training the team, I decided not to complain but to see what I could change. There are players who are playing abroad who will help the team improve and players from Maccabi Haifa and Maccabi Tel Aviv are making a difference in their teams. We have a very good squad and we want it to improve over time.”

As for Ben Simon’s targets, those he explained are clear, “Our main goal is to turn this collection of players and this squad into a team. Many expected Switzerland were just going to play defensively against Italy and look to counterattack, but the exact opposite happened and they pressed them high and with the help of this special game plan. Sometimes you have to change your attitude, change your game plan and take the initiative. You don’t want to be a defensive team looking to counter.”

“We need to build trust with the national team players and it takes time” Ben Shimon continued. “We will do our best to show the best team that we can. There are national teams that went to the European Championship and were considered ‘small’ but left it very big. We analyzed what made these teams successful and we will try to take away some of the ideas that are suitable for us. A pair of players who are featuring in Belgium are Anan Kahlali who shortly will become the best player in Belgium. Just wait. Omri Gandelman who continues to improve all the time has made huge strides since he arrived in Belgium. He is a very important player for the team and is full of motivation. He’s a special player.”

The Israel National Team captain Eli Dasa added, “We want to represent the country and represent it in the best way especially after October 7th and this is an opportunity to do just that. Our hearts are in Israel, but we want to make people happy and make them also feel better. Our commitment is to do the best that we can.”

Sign up for our newsletter

0 Comments

You may also like…

Newsletter

Subscribe To Our Newsletter

Join our mailing list to receive the latest news and updates. 

You have Successfully Subscribed!