Sergei Matin, president of the Israel Ice Hockey Federation, explained expectations for team Herzliya Pituach in Continental Cup
Team Herzliya Pituach is this year's Israeli representative to the IIHF Continental Cup tournament, having won the league championship in 2009.
Sergei Matin, who is the president of the Israel Ice Hockey Federation, will be leading the team to Ankara in Turkey, where the tournament will be held.
In an interview with Matin, he brought up a number of points about the team. "Several of the regular team members are unable to make the trip for the tourney, owing to a variety of circumstances [ jobs, family, etc., ] and we have decided to replace them with a number of players who are under 18 years of age. Our objective is to participate in the event, as even with the complete team that won the Israeli championship, their chances would be next to nil to advance to the next round. Instead, we've added these youngsters for a number of reasons.
Having but one international sized rink in Israel, means that the possibility for our youngsters to gain international experience is very limited. This tournament will allow us to both provide these players with some exposure to players from other countries, and will help to allow us to evaluate their future potential for the team, and in future, the country.
As they will be playing against such teams as Barcelona, where the majority, if not all of their players are professionals, or Turkey where about half the team are pros, they will be given an opportunity to square off against players of a much higher level than they are. The Bulgarian team does not consist of pro players, I've been given to understand, and could be somewhat closer to our level.
In all, the team is looking forward to competing, and to giving their all to the utmost of their ability." |
