THE Bulgarian men's national basketball team met at Universiada Hall in Sofia last week to begin training for the European championship in September in Serbia-Montenegro.
The team will be facing off with Lithuania, Turkey and Croatia in the preliminary group stage.
Nikolay Vurbanov and twin brothers Kaloyan and Deyan Ivanovi were absent from the meet in Sofia, having received a few days vacation after taking part in the final game of the under 20 Youth European B division in Varna. The young Bulgarians defeated Hungary, 86:80.
Bogdan Boev was also not present, as he still does not possess an international passport. 
Lyudmil Radulov and Ilia Stankov are recovering from injuries. Boev, Akexiev and Vurbanov were called on to replace them.
The rest of the players on the team list are Tencho Banev, Boyko Mladenov, Georgi Davidov, Stefan Georgiev, Hrisimir Dimitrov, Dimitar Angelov, Deyan Ivanov, Kaloyan Ivanov, Filip Videnov, Yordan Bozov, Yulian Radionov and Todor Stoykov.
The team is leaving for a training camp in Belmeken on Thursday.
"We will try to get physically well prepared, so we will be in a better condition than our rivals," Rossen Barchovski, the team's head coach said.
"There is no use in going to the championship without motivation and self-confidence," he said. "Our rivals will start their preparation later than us. The European champion Lithuania is the favorite in our group. Croatia and Turkey are very good and well balanced teams as well.  We have the ambition to overcome the group phase, so this means we must defeat Croatia and Turkey." 
Team captain Todor Stoykov, who is Bulgaria's best-ranked player, appeared at the meeting with the Bulgarian national flag in his hand. 
"I want to show the boys what we are fighting for," he said. "We have one goal at this tournament - to stand up for the national flag. We need good preparation if we want to perform well. There is a very long season in front of us."
"We are well conscious of what we should expect. I am sure that everyone on this team will give 100 per cent of his abilities," said teammate Hrisimir Dimitrov.