GREECE-ISRAEL overview; Israel line up ISRAEL POSITIVES: Young, fast, on the verge of having a lot of good offense that can break out any game. ISRAEL NEGATIVES: Limited depth. No big, tall players. INJURIES: Benayoun may be injuredm which would cost it the key advantage it has in the midfield. GREECE POSITIVES: Excellent experience, great defense, superior depth. GREECE NEGATIVES: Old and out of shape, poor midfield and inferior offense. Likely to play defense-first, defense-second and offense very rarely. INJURIES: Forwards Nikos Liberopoulos (their second-leading scorer) and Ioannis Amanatidis are out. Another forward Evangelos Mantzios is 50-50. Gekas is out of shape, similar to Colautti. This will leave the team with even less fire-power. EXPECTED RESULT: Israel wins 1-0 or 2-0. ============================== Israel has a lot of good fire power now, which it really didn't have until half a dozen years ago when Benayoun was just starting out on the international scene. The Greeks midfield is terrible and their strikers are all out of shape now. Their defense is great, as is their depth, but a draw at home would be a failed result. All their fans expect Otto to play defensive football in Ramat Gan (and probably in both venues), not going for the win. Here's what I think Kashtan should do: FORWARDS/STRIKERS: Given the Greeks' likely inability to score, Israel should try going with 3 strikers. Golan is definitely the best striker right now. He's done very well in Belgium and for the National Team. If there's one striker who'll play, he'll be it. Sahar should play. I think he's ready for full-time duty and he looks to be in good shape. Long-term, he's Israel's main guy for the future. To me it would be obvious at he should start with Golan against a no-offense team, but who knows what Kashtan is thinking. I don't like Kash very much, and neither do most people. The third guy would be tougher: I don't think that Shechter should start his career vs. Greece, just be around the big boys for now and come in for a few minutes vs. smaller teams. Ben-Shushan may be a replacement for one of the strikers. Greece is an older, out-of-shape squad and having a young guy fresh late in the game may give Israel a particular advantage. But I wouldn't start him. Barda looks like the best option here. So the forwards should be: Golan - Sahar - Barda ======================================== MIDFIELD Benayoun on the wing is the obvious one, of course. Hopefully he'll be healthy. Alberman would play in the center. The third guy would be Bruchian because I am not impressed with any of the other guys. They each have some ups, but even more downs. Vermut seems to be the most talented one, but has no NT experience and lacks size. I am not sure why Buzaglo were left out. His offense in the midfield could've been used to put extra pressure on the Greek defense. ============================ DEFENSE Ben-Haim is an obvious one here. Keinan is pretty obvious also. He's a very good defender and even though he's young, he has decent experience for the NT and a lot of experience for U21. Ben Dayan would be my third guy for his experience and also because he's the young defender who could do damage offensively. Belgian teammates Ziv and Strool seem to deserve a spot, so Kash should choose between one of them. Maybe the second one can come in as a replacement during the game. =========== FINAL STARTING ROSTER Golan - Sahar - Barda Benayoun - Alberman - Bruchian Ben Haim - Keinan - Ben Dayan - Zev/Strool
Re: Will Yossi Benayoun be fit to play? Barring any more setbacks, Benayoun should be fit for the Greece game. And, if he isnt, i can almost assure you he will take an injection to play.
Shame about Colautti, he needs to leave BMG, and so does Gal (if he doesnt start getting time again) Bring Colautti back to Haifa, or even Netanya!! Gal would be good in England, maybe some teams are interested in an inexpensive, quality DM. He started the season so well for BMG, his confidence isnt too high right now either probably.
Re: Will Yossi Benayoun be fit to play? They were celebrating his injury on the Greek board a couple weeks ago, but now they are the ones without 2 strikers, maybe 3, including their second-leading scorer.
Hans Meyer doing a great job in BMG, despite the fact that they can still relegate. Most of Borussia fans supporting him..Gal and Colautti will have their chance. Only last week Gal was responsible for a penalty...They need more patient, since BMG have better players in these positions such as Rob Friend and Michael Bradley.
Re: Will Yossi Benayoun be fit to play? you guys dont seem to know much about the greek side so allow me to familiarize you. Attack: Amanatidis is great but he has been injured for a long time and hasnt played for greece since september. lyberopoulos who is the 2nd leading scorer never starts, he is just a late sub with a scoring touch, he is 34. greece's leading scorer charisteas, is not their number one option. he is likely their #3, he plays for one of the bundesligas top team in bayer leverkusen. Gekas is on loan at portmouth from leverkusen, but has not been giving one chance to touch the pitch, because tony adams, who brought him in, was fired a week later and he is not wanted by the new coach, who prefers english style. Gekas was the bundesligas top scorer 2 years ago and is menace when on his game. greece's last 2 games were vs italy and denmark and gekas scored in both games, which were drawn. he will play with a chip on his shoulder and is hungry. Salpignidis is one of panathinaikos best players and CL starter. mantzios who is 50/50 scored 2 vs bremen and vs villarreal in CL and is coveted by a few major teams looking forward. Samaras, who is a sure starter, came to celtic from man city last year and is their top scorer this season. he is 2nd in the spl only because he was injured for 2 months... Midfield: karagounis was dominant in champions league scoring key goals throughout vs werder bremen (voted in top 10 goals of group stage) vs anorthosis (goal which clinched panathinaikos group over inter and werder) and recently highlight strike vs villarreal in spain. tziolis is a regular at werder bremen. torosidis will most likely play mid, he is a young star at olympiakos and is coveted by many top teams like everton, sevilla and lyon. katsouranis has just been awarded benfica's player of the year and was in talks with ac milan during the transfer window. basinas is captain and plays for portsmouth. Defense: Kyrgiakos is just an animal, probably greece best player, punishing CB, that besides ibrahimovics long range blast, shut him down at euro. papastathopoulos is very young but is a starter for Genoa in serie A, who are fighting for a champions league spot for next season. Seitaridis is a great defender who plays for Atletico madrid. Vyntra and spyropoulos play for panathinaikos. moras plays for bologna in serie A. Dellas anorthosis key player in CL. Papadopoulos is one of olympiakos most important players. on paper there is no comparing the 2 sides, now we will see on the pitch.
Re: Will Yossi Benayoun be fit to play? They do have a good lineup, especially on defense, but who will score for them? Based on what I can see, they will have a lot of trouble finding someone to put the ball in the net. Gekas is one, maybe Samaras, but I think they will start only one of them in Ramat Gan. All in all, if I were the Israel NT coach, I'd go with an offensive line up in Ramat Gan, and a mixed defense/offense one on Crete (I think they are going to play the second game there). Israel should definitely go for the win at home. I don't see the Greeks scoring unless the Israelis make a mistake.
Re: Will Yossi Benayoun be fit to play? ^^^^ fair enough but i dont see israel scoring unless greece makes a mistake...if we can break italies d we can surely break israel. the qquality of greece strikers surpases the quality of israel d. we will start samaras (celtic) behind gekas (portsmouth) and charisteas ( bayer leverkusen). all backed by dynamite speed torosidis and free kick specialist workhorse karagounis. Irael cannot match. if our stubborn d-minded coach actually desides to take a chance then we can score 2 or 3 goals.
Israel has not lost at home for past 3 years except of Croatia. You can ask: France Ireland England Russia Romania Chile Hungary Macedonia Belarus Ukraine Switzerland Côte d'Ivoire and many other teams We will not lost to Greece! 2-0 Israel. bye bye.
It's the kind of games that anything can happened. I still think Greece are overrated, but they are definitely the favorite in this group... TRG22 I think you are wrong about quality, most of our scorers are young and don't have much experience, but if our coach is going to surprise and open with one of these talents, you will see their quality. Just remember the names Ben Sahar (which scored yesterday vs Heerenveen), Itzhaki and Shechter. Personally I hope for a good game. It's kind of worrying me that this kind of games usually end in 0-0...
I am sure about that but: France Ireland England Russia Romania Chile Ukraine Switzerland Côte d'Ivoire are better then Greece.... maybe Romania not. dont worry we will not lose this game.
I wouldnt say that Bradley is a better player than Alberman, he just scores more goals, which is why he is in there, Alberman is more technical and faster, Borussia need all the goals they can get. I liked the Lineup I saw earlier ---Sahar---Golan---Barda- Yossi-----Alberman--Bruchyan Ziv---Ben-Haim-Keinan--B.Dayan ------------Awat------------- We are going to cause greece all kinds of problems with our pace up front Sahar and Barda especially. Kashtan has to start this lineup.
Israel MUST win this match. If we will win in Ramat-Gan and atleast a draw in Crete(Greece), I think we go into the World Cup. BTW: Where should I watch the game on the internet?
Re: Will Yossi Benayoun be fit to play? You can start that lineup, but you will NOT. Odds are you will go with just one striker and mostly defensive players in midfield. Israel's midfield is stronger than yours. Your offense has potential, but it's injured or out-of-shape and your coach won't go for it. It's not just what you have on paper, it's what you can get to produce. I am really not sure that Gekas is in shape to create scoring chances. If you went with the lineup most Greeks wanted, then you surely could score. But if Otto goes with the expected lineup, I really can't see Greece scoring. Samaras alone or an out of shape Gekas alone won't likely score. If Greece goes with one striker, Israel should definitely go with the most offensive lineup it can muster. If not, I still say go for the win, but be a little more careful.
Yup, I definitely like this lineup, though I have some minor disagreements about which D to start. I would be happy with it overall. The line up is younger and faster than the out-of-shape Greeks. Israel would give all kinds of problems to the Greeks. Their defense is strong, but there would be enough attackers in such a lineup. Their fans know nothing about the Israel National Team. They've heard of Benayoun, but that's it and do not realize the kind of talent the young Sahar is, for example, or that Golan, Barda and Itzhaki have really been scoring well in Belgium (the first two) and Beitar. Israel's offense is made of up and coming players, some of whom are still very, very young (Sahar and Itzhaki) and therefore not yet know. Their strikers are old, injured and/or out of shape. They have longer and better resumes, but our youngsters will give them tremendous problems. The Greeks will be surprised. P.S. I am not sure I would want Itzhaki there from the start, maybe in the second half. I think he should go slower and start against the next 3 weaker opponents at home.
http://free-football.tv/amember/members/3407.php I've been watching it there. It cost me about $10 a year, but it's definitely worth it. The connection quality is not as good as on TV, but it's good enough. I would recommend it. (I have no ties to this company other than using their service.)
No doubt it would be in good shape. Had it not given away 2 points to Latvia at the very end, it would've been nearly assured. As it stands, it would be near-certain to get the second place. The first place would come down to the Swiss game in October. Israel would need a draw if the Swiss lose or draw the Greeks, and a win if the Swiss beat the Greeks. But we are getting ahead of ourselves. To get the first place, this team will need to win at least 1 out of the 3 games vs. the Greeks and the Swiss, without losing the other two games. I think a second place is still the most likely outcome, with the hope of squeaking out a favor pair of ties in the playoff round.
I think it is fair to say that greece and israel dont know eachother at all, and that includes us fans. all we see is whats on paper. what i see is benayoun, because he plays for liverpool. now im sure that there is some more talent on your team, but on and off paper greece is the better team. On midfield, where we are supposedly weaker, we have karagounis who was a star in champions league, torosidis, basinas, katsouranis and tziolis who is a regular at werder bremen. this isnt by any means the best midfield in europe, but it has potential. the only reason people deem it weak is because of our coachs defensive strategy which limits the mids. i hope that greece will come out attacking. they did somewhat vs swiss and they were the better team but git caught on a counterattack. karagounis on our midfield can match benayoun in regards to the threat posed.
disagree at all. after the game read what you wrote here again and you will eat your hat buddy , Israel much much better then last year. and greece is the team from wc2006 ( germany ). just wait for the game.... 6 days to go!!!!!!!
Here're my calculations. Obviously if Israel loses both games, it will be out of contention, with no chance to even get the second place. If it gets just a 1 point, it is out of contention for first place. Israel would have 9 points, and the Swiss and the Greeks would have 13 each. Israel would then need to beat the Swiss and hope they lose or draw to the Greeks just to get the second place. Not good chances here, and the team would probably just be better off giving experience to young guns like Sahar, Assulin, Scechter, Itzhaki, Azriel (he scores a lot of goals and he's big too), Rafaelov, etc. If after 6 games, if Greece and Israel each win one, then the standings would be (all outcomes presume that the top 3 will learn and stop dropping points to the garbage teams): Switz: 13 Greece: 12 Israel: 11 In game 7, presuming Israel will beat Latvia at home, these are the possible outcomes based on who wins the Greek-Swiss game: DRAW: Israel - 14 Swiss - 14 Greece - 13 This is the best outcome for Israel. It could very well be in first place before the Swiss game based on goal differential and that would mean that a draw in Switzerland would be enough. GREEKS WIN Greece - 15 Israel - 14 Switz - 13 Not a good outcome. Had Israel beaten Latvia in the last game, it would've been able to get the first place by beating the Swiss. Now it would not. SWISS WIN Swiss: 16 Israel: 14 Greece: 13 Same as before. With a win in Latvia (when Benayoun hit the goal post), it could've gotten in with a win and maybe even with a draw. Not anymore. Now it would need to win the away game in Switzerland. If Israel can take 4 points from the Greeks, the standings look like this after 7 games: DRAW: Israel - 15 Switz - 14 Greece - 11 Greece would be out at this point, and Israel would be in very good shape vs. the Swiss who would need to win at home to relegate Israel to second place, presuming they don't drop a pair of points in either Latvia or Lux (both away games for them). In all 4 games, the Latvians have proven that they are not a pushovers and may get a draw against the Swiss. SWISS WIN Swiss - 16 Israel - 15 Greece - 10 Greeks can't even contend for second place anymore. Israel would need to win away. Not a great outcome, but at least Israel would get to go to the playoff round. Anything can happen there. GREEKS WIN Israel - 15 Greece - 13 Switz - 13 This would be a good, but deceptive outcome. Still would need a draw in Switzerland because I would expect that either (or both) the Swiss and/or the Greeks will win both their "easy" games against Latvia and Lux. If both the Greeks and the Swiss will win, as expected, and Israel loses in the Switzerland, it would finish in third place. However, a draw in Switz would guarantee a second place and likely would mean first place. If Israel wins both games vs. the Greeks, obviously it will be the heavy favorite to win the group. It would be story of the year probably, catapulting Israel into the top dozen ranked teams as well as bringing enormous media interest to the emerging Israeli youngsters. A number of Israelis would likely immediately get signed by European teams. After 7 games, the standings would be: DRAW: Israel - 17 Swiss - 14 Greece - 10 Anything short of a catastrophic performance at home vs. the weaker teams, or a huge loss to the Swiss would mean a trip to the World Cup. A terrible performance the rest of the way would mean second place, but in such a case, I doubt Israel wouldbe psychologically able to win the playoff round because of the devastating effect of such a collapse. But at this point, after 7 games, Israel would be in tremendous shape. Making the World Cup this way would be the biggest event for Israel NT since 1970, maybe even ever. It might lead to greater funding and definitely to more interest by talented teens and pre-teens. It was one thing to make the World Cup by beating the Aussies, it's another to go through the UEFA by twice beating up on the UEFA champs twice. SWISS WIN Israel - 17 Swiss - 16 Greece - 9 Israel would need the Swiss to lose a pair of points to either Latvia or itself. I would say that Israel would then have a 70-30 chance of winning first place, and probably 40-60 of winning the playoff round in case it finishes second. In all, Israel's odds of making it one way or another would be 80-85%. GREECE WINS Israel - 17 Swiss - 13 Greece - 12 Israel makes it almost certainly, barring a catastrophic collapse. It would need to lose to the Swiss and also drop another pair of points to one of the 3 weaker teams. Not a likely outcome for what would be a very highly confident team.
LOL. I was about to say that I hope you do come out attacking because you will get caught on the counter-attack. A team can't just suddenly change its style of play and not make massive and repeated mistakes. You need to know where the other guy is without looking around for half a minute. You should just know, glance in his direction and pass it onto this foot. Otherwise, it will cause problems. Problems that you got playing against the Swiss. Remember, you can't teach an old dog new tricks, and the Greeks are very old dogs. Other than Tziolis, who never scored for the NT in 11 games and just once in 12 games for the U21 team, every other midfielder is over 30. Toro is not playing. Kara and Basi are 32 and 33, not exactly rookies there. Kats is 30 and still producing well, but I doubt that you can start teaching him a brand new way of playing for the NT. He may be a very good player, but I don't think that he's better than Benayoun. I would take Yossi if I had a choice between the two. All in all, your midfield is talented and has great resumes, but when everyone is old, there's only so much running they can do. They can open it up a little bit, but even then our younger guys may be a little too much speed for them. If they decide to really open it up, it will cause so many errors, Israel will be sure to win any back and forth shootout match.
I wouldn't be worried if Israel had an ''European'' coach. I'm from Holland and there are so many good Dutch coaches and I never get it why Israel didn't want them. There've been a lot of Dutch coaches who were available and free to be national coach of Israel. Israel never negotiate or something. I hope Kashtan will bring the right formation/tactics and line-up against Greece.
Damn, I wish Israel had signed Russia's Gus Hiddink instead of Kash. Now that is a real coach. You can be certain we wouldn't have lost to Latvia if he were here, and probably would've beaten the Swiss too.