Watching Yovel Zoosman was an absolute thing of beauty in the first quarter of Israel’s 96-77 win over Estonia to punch their ticket to the second round of FIBA World Cup Qualifying. Zoos drained a trio of triples early on to set the tone for Guy Goodes’s squad as the Blue & White came out gunning from the get go. While it may have been a phenomenal defensive display in the third quarter that sealed the deal, it was the opening ten minutes that made all of the difference.

Yovel Zoosman Highlights 💪 pic.twitter.com/XGJyNMKb2L

— איגוד הכדורסל הישראלי (@TherealIBBA) July 4, 2022

Zoosman returned to Israel to play for the national team following a season abroad at ALBA Berlin where he will continue on for the near future and he put his full arsenal of skills on display making his mark as arguably the most talented player on the current squad. That of course will be the case until Washington Wizards forward Deni Avdija rejoins the team for the next window of qualifiers and the Eurobasket.

Goodes made extremely positives changes to his starting lineup after the 90-85 overtime loss at Poland and they paid off almost immediately which is exactly what the doctor had ordered. Instead of going with two true guards and a relatively inexperienced big man, he went bigger with Zoosman and Menco at the 2 and 3 while veteran center Idan Zalmanson also made his mark early. That ultimately was the key to the game as Zoosman played a huge part in orchestrating the offense as well with deft passing and bringing confidence and guile to the court after not having been on the court to begin the game in Lublin.

“I gave everything I have, my energy, my body and my soul. I always give 100% no matter what I am doing if it’s chess or playing basketball and I know I did my best,” Zoosman said following the game.

It was clear that the Berlin swingman has continued his maturation in Germany and the intelligence he brings to the court has been augmented by learning a variety of different experiences including capturing the BBL League Championship over Bayern Munich.

While he has improved and expanded his horizon, he has still misses some home cooking so to speak, “I’m trying to do my job the best possible way. I’m 24 years old but I have experience, I want to get my teammates involved because that is the best way to win. Playing here is different than in Germany when the fans call my name. Hopefully we can achieve great things together.”

While Zoosman and the new generation of National Team players, whether it was Tamir Blatt with his 3-point shooting and passing ability, Roman Sorkin who found a nice niche for himself over the course of the game or high scorer Tomer Ginat it would have all been for not without veteran Gal Mekel’s turn back the clock performance.

After not having played a minute in the overtime loss to Poland, Mekel took the bull by the horns and orchestrated one of his all-time great national team games with 8 points, 7 rebounds and 6 assists that had everyone around the squad with smiles on their face. Who knows if Estonia’s second quarter run would have been a game changer had it not been for Mekel’s calming presence (as well as Guy Pnini) during a precarious few minutes that saw the visitors take the lead.

Mekel once again showed how crucial a player he has been and still is for the blue-and-white along with one who can always be counted on when they chips are in the middle of the table, despite having been in all intents and purposes benched in the team’s last game.

“I was shocked that I didn’t play in the last game,” Mekel began. “That was something that hasn’t happened in many years. I felt from the start of training camp that I wasn’t going to be a big part of the plan and after the game I had a talk with Guy (Goodes). I didn’t see it coming, but things have never been easy in my career. I have always had to climb the mountain. I told myself that even at my age, at 34 that I would have to prove myself and that is what I did.”

“I wanted to make it clear that he could count on me, that I have been in these situations many times and that in do or die games I have always been there for the National Team. There have been times when I haven’t played for months but I was always able to perform.”

Fans and media members were as shocked as Mekel was that he didn’t play in the first game of this summer window. While it is true that the guard had not been great in his last blue-and-white game, he has been one of the anchor’s of this squad through thick or think since Oded Katash began reinvigorating the program back in 2017.

“Gal’s last game was in February and it took him time to get into shape,” Goodes said. “When you are coming back from injury and when you have 12 players that want to play, I can’t make everybody happy. When we landed back in Israel, Gal said to me that he knew that he wasn’t good in the last window and that he’s not the best shape, but if I needed him he would be there as he usually shows up to all of the big games. Basketball is like riding a bike. I know what type of character he has and I wanted to throw him right into the game. To me it was almost a perfect game. That’s the way I wanted to see from my players.”

While the victory over Estonia seemed to never be in doubt, there was a time in the second quarter that Israel allowed the visitors to dictate the pace as a 3-point track meet began in earnest and that was not going to be one that the blue-and-white were going to win as they knocked down five ahead of halftime.

Israel needed to go back to the basics and play responsible defense and show a commitment to the game plan in order to move into the second round with more than a mathematical chance to advance to the World Cup after a game in Poland that saw Goodes’s men chuck up 47 triples (!).

“The real difference in this game compared to the loss at Poland was our commitment,” Tomer Ginat explained. “We had a lot of energy, commitment, defended well and ran all over the court as we played our basketball. We were able to record a very important win and we have to now take these games one at a time. We have a few weeks off now and we will relax before we get back and do the best possible job that we can do.”

Roman Sorkin also chimed in about what message Goodes had ahead of the second half, “Guy told us at halftime that this was our game and that we have to be focused and stop their 3’s as our offense was fine and all we had to do was just play defense. Over the course of the second half we played good defense and we stopped their 3-pointers and that is what made the difference.”
Israel now finds themselves right in the middle of a group with both Germany and Estonia along with Slovenia, Finland and Sweden as they sport a 3-3 record. They’ll play each of the latter three teams twice but perhaps lucked out a bit that the games against Slovenia will be in November and February and that will be without one superstar by the name of Luka Doncic.

“Fans will need to go to see him in the NBA and buy a ticket,” Goodes said with a smile. I prefer them to see him there and not here. The August window will have most of the players, (Lauri Markkanen will play for Finland in Israel’s first qualifier) and November there won’t be as many players due to the EuroLeague as well. But now the most important window is August.”

Israel will be in a very tough spot over the course of the second round of qualifying as they will be without no less than 9(!) players during the November and February windows. That list will include not only Avdija who will play at Finland and then at home against Sweden before heading to the Eurobasket, but also a slew of Euroleague players such as Rafi Menco, Tamir Blatt, Yam Madar, Guy Pnini, Roman Sorkin, John Dibartolomeo, potentially both Jake Cohen and Iftach Ziv and of course Yovel Zoosman.

Goodes will need to bring in almost an entire new roster of players in order to find a way to the promised land in Japan, Indonesia and Philippines if they want to feature at the 2023 World Cup. While two wins in August would be great, the bigger challenge will be on the horizon and that will be no easy task for both the bench boss and the players who will be counted on for the blue-and-white.