In the first Nations League, Scotland was first and promoted, Israel was second, and Albania was third. Scotland won 4-0 at Albania, and the other five games were won by the home team. Scotland had 3 wins and 1 loss, Israel had 2 wins and 2 losses, and Albania had 1 win and 3 losses. Then UEFA decided to expand the top three leagues, promote more teams and not relegate any teams. Now Leagues A, B, and C have 16 teams, and League D has 7 teams. In 2020-2021, Israel will be in League B2. They will face Scotland again, along with Czech Republic and Slovakia. 4 September: Scotland vs. Israel and Slovakia vs. Czech Republic 7 September: Czech Republic vs. Scotland and Israel vs. Slovakia 11 October: Israel vs. Czech Republic and Scotland vs. Slovakia 14 October: Scotland vs. Czech Republic and Slovakia vs. Israel 15 November: Slovakia vs. Scotland and Czech Republic vs. Israel 18 November: Czech Republic vs. Slovakia and Israel vs. Scotland Israel will play consecutive Nations League games at Scotland with their loss to end the previous one and a game to start this one. Israel plays away, home, home, away, away, and home. Israel and Slovakia have one home game and one away game every month. Czech Republic has one of each in September, two away in October, and two home in November. Scotland has one of each in September, two home in October, and two away in November. Here is each team's rank within the group in the UEFA rankings, FIFA Rankings, and ELO, noted as U, F, and E: Czech Republic: U 1st, F 2nd, E 1st (average of 1 1/3) Slovakia: U 3rd, F 1st, E 2nd (average of 2) Scotland: U 2nd, F 3rd, E 3rd (average of 2 2/3) Israel: U 4th, F 4th, E 4th (average of 4) 4 September is Friday that is 41 days from today.
Scotland's first shot on goal was in a penalty kick in the 45th minute that gave them a 1-0 lead. Eran Zahavi scored in the 73rd minute, and it ended 1-1. Scotland had over double the shots with 11 to Israel's 5, but Israel had more shots on goal, 3 to 2. Scotland had 1 more free kick and 1 more corner kick. Israel had 52 percent of the possession, but only 42.4 percent of the attacks, and 40.9 percent of the dangerous attacks. On November 20, 2018, Scotland won 3-2 hosting Israel to end the previous Nations League, so the draw is an improvement for Israel. Scotland entered with a much better FIFA Ranking in 50th compared to Israel's 93rd. Scotland was also better in ELO in a tie for 51st compared to Israel's 70th. Home field is worth 100 points in ELO, and if you subtract 100 points from Israel it would make them tied for 93rd. Czech Republic won 3-1 at Slovakia, so Slovakia will be in bad shape if they lose at Israel on Monday. Czech Republic won't host Scotland on Monday because the game is postponed.
I saw that Czech Republic vs. Scotland was postponed, but now I see that it will be played as scheduled. Both games will be at 9:45 P.M. Israel/8:45 P.M. CET/2:45 P.M. USA Eastern.
Israel dominated the statistics including dangerous attacks being 89 to 17, but away team Slovakia led for most of the game. Ilay Eliyau Elmkies was subbed on by Israel and scored on the 90+1st minute for a 1-1 draw. He's 20, and he played one game for Hoffenheim in the Bundesliga. Scotland won 2-1 at Czech Republic, Scotland has 4 point, Czech Republic has 3, Israel has 2, and Slovakia has 1. The teams plays next in 34 days on Sunday October 11. Israel hosts Czech Republic, and Scotland hosts Slovakia. On Wednesday October 14, Israel is at Slovakia, and Scotland hosts Czech Republic. Scotland's last two games are away, and they end at Israel.
Our team was disbanded due to a masseur and other member of non-playing staff testing positive for Covid-19. The tests happened before the Slovakia match, but our senior team was still cleared to play. Afterwards they were all told to quarantine and we hoped to postpone the Scotland match, but UEFA told us to play or face punishment. So Saturday afternoon we called in league players from all of the country to come to Olomouc and be tested and wound up with a squad of 23 players Czech league players (only 2 with national team experience and on of those retired from the national team in 2016) and the coaching staff of our U-18 team with one day to train. Despite that we only lost by a goal and out-shot Scotland 19-6 including 2 shots hitting the woodwork, so it sort of turned into a moral victory that out quickly assembled C team outplayed a full-strength squad. How did Israel look for their two matches?
You're the first person other than me to post in this forum in a while. Thank you for explaining about Czech Republic. I haven't watched Israel play in a long time. Israel has Moanes Dabour, who scored 6 goals in 15 games in all competitions for Hoffenheim in 2019-2020 when they finished sixth in the Bundesliga; Manor Solomon, who scored 3 goals in 2019-2020 for Ukrainian champion Shakhtar Donetsk; Bibras Natcho, who scored 8 goals in 22 games which was the third most for Partizan Belgrade when they finished second in the Serbian Super Liga in 2019-2020; Elazar "Eli" Dasa, who played 10 games for Vitesse in 2019-2020 when they finished seventh in the Eredivisie; and Nir Bitton (15 games) and Hatem Abd Elhamed (5 games) who played for Celtic in 2019-2020. Natcho (68), Eran Zahavi (54), Beram Kayal (45), Eitan Tibi (43), and Tomer Hemed (37) have the most caps among active players. In 2015-2016, Zahavi scored a 96th minute equalizer at Basel of Switzerland for a 2-2 draw and scored Maccabi Tel Aviv's goal in their 1-1 home draw to advance on away goals to the Champions League Group Stage, which is the last time an Israeli club did that. He now plays for Guangzhou R&F in China. Ariel Harush (20) and Ofir Marciano (18) have the most caps among active goalkeepers, although I don't know Marciano. Those statistics come from Wikipedia. Yossi Benayoun scored 24 goals in 102 caps from 1998 to 2017. He scored 23 goals in 125 games for Liverpool, Arsenal, and Chelsea combined, with most of that for Liverpool from 2007 to 2010. He also played for West Ham United, Queens Park Rangers, Racing Santander in Spain, and five Israeli clubs. Goalkeeper Dudu Aouate got 78 caps from 1999 to 2013. He played 303 games in La Liga for Racing Santander, Deportivo la Coruna, and Mallorca. Racing Santander and Deportivo la Coruna got relegated after he left, and Mallorca got relegated late in his time there so his last games for them were in the Segunda Division. Israel peaked in qualifying for World Cup in 2006 and Euro 2008, where they didn't qualify for either but still played well. 11 of the 12 games between France, Switzerland, Israel, and Ireland were draw, and France beat Ireland once. Israel opened the group with a draw in France. Israel finished fourth of seven in Euro 2008 Qualifying, but they lost the head-to-head tiebreaker to England, and were 1 point behind second place Russia. A 90+2nd minute goal gave Israel a 2-1 win hosting Russia on the second-to-last matchday, which helped England, but England lost 3-2 hosting Croatia to fail to qualify when a draw would have been enough. Israel finished 7 points behind second place Portugal in World Cup 2014 Qualifying, but Israel determined the winner with two losses to Russia and two draws with Portugal. On the second-to-last matchday, Israel got a 1-1 at Portugal, who would have won the group if they won that game. Portugal qualified from the playoffs and lost their World Cup goal differential tiebreaker to USA. Israel finished fourth with 4 wins and 6 losses in World Cup 2018 Qualifying. 3 of the wins were away, and they lost 3-0 hosting Albania and 1-0 hosting FYR (now North) Macedonia. Israel's FIFA Ranking peak was 15th on November 2008, so at that point they were above a majority of the teams that qualified for the World Cup before or after. Now Israel is 93rd, which is not much above their worst rank of 99th.
Zahavi's goalscoring record for club and country looked impressive when I looked at our opponents, although I must admit the now retired Benayoun is probably the only Israeli player I'm very familiar with. Tal Ben Haim II was at Sparta Prague for a while recently, but never did very well and is back in the Israeli league. When our A squad is available we have have a strong central midfield, goalkeepers and full backs. Center back is our weakest position and we are fairly thin on the wing and at striker currently though our usual starter Patrik Schick is one of our best players. A lot of our core roster comes from players that either are current or recent Slavia Prague players as that has been the most successful club in our country the past 2 years. Best established players are probably Schick (Bayer Leverkusen), Tomas Soucek (West Ham), Vladimir Darida (Hertha Berlin) and Jakub Jankto (Sampdoria). We also have 2 rapidly improving young talents in Alex Kral (Spartak Moscow) and Adam Hlozek (Sparta Prague), the latter just broke the record for youngest appearance on the national team and is widely regarded as the biggest Czech talent since Tomas Rosicky. In addition to the complete roster change vs Scotland, we missed Schick & Soucek against Slovakia. I think the opinion of Czech fans is that we should win this group unless we have injuries or more Coronavirus disruptions, but we are not consistent enough to be overly confident.
I know the names of clubs who have been in the Champions League and/or Europa League. From Czech Republic I know Sparta Prague, Slavia Prague, and Viktoria Plzen. All of them have a higher coefficient than every Israeli club. I looked at the club coefficients and recognized the names of other Czech clubs, but I could only name three. Thanks in part to soccer, I got a perfect score on a quiz to match European countries and capitals. Israel and Czech Republic both have their FIFA Ranking among UEFA countries worse than their country coefficient. Including four complete seasons and the beginning of this one, Czech Republic is 20th with a 20.100, and Israel is 21st with a 19.000. In the FIFA Rankings, Czech Republic is 26th in UEFA, and Israel is 39th in UEFA. Of the four teams, Slovakia has the best FIFA Ranking and the worst country coefficient. One of your locations is Brooklyn. My parents were born there, but met on vacation in Florida.
I've been watching little bits of this Scotland-Israel match on a 2nd screen while working (convenient opportunity to scout our next two opponents), and would say Soloman is the biggest standout for Israel today. That said, it's a very tame and even match overall. For the Nation league match this weekend, we will have a mostly full strength side except at striker where our top two options are both injured. Yes, Brooklyn is currently home as I've been here almost 10 years after going to graduate school in the NYC region. Brno is hometown, but it's been a while since I actually lived there.
Nobody scored until penalty kicks. Israel kicked first, and Eran Zahavi, who was second in UEFA in Group Stage goals, missed. Scotland made all 5 to win. Israel had more possession with 58 percent, Scotland had more shots (18 to 12), and there was only 1 shot on goal each.
A 14th minute own goal allowed Czech Republic to have 1 shot on goal and win 2-1. Czech Republic led 2-0 until Eran Zahavi scored. Israel had 52 percent of the possession and 4 shots on goal.
It was the kind of bizarre to watch own goal that may live in YouTube compilation infamy honestly, although it also sort of kick-started Israel as they spent the first part of the match withdrawn in defense until they needed a goal. The match was fairly even after that and neither team (us especially) were very clinical.
Slovakia 2-3 Israel Slovakia led 2-0 at halftime. Eran Zahavi scored a hat trick with goals in the 68th, 76th, and 89th minutes. Possession was close with Israel having 51 percent. Israel had double the shots (26 to 13) and more shots on goal (7 to 5). Total passes (534) and attacks (123) were equal, and Israel had slightly more dangerous attacks (50 to 47). Through four of six games, the standings are: Scotland: 10 points, +3 Czech Republic: 6 points, +1 Israel: 5 points, +0 Slovakia: 1 point, -4 With one promotion and one relegation spot, the battle for second doesn't matter. Israel goes to Czech Republic and ends hosting Scotland.
https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/sports/blue-and-white-roars-back-to-beat-slovakia-645865 is titled "Blue-and-white roars back to beat Slovakia." Israel got their first win since October 2019 and their first away win since June 2019. Eran Zahavi has the nickname EZ7, which I'm assuming is modeled after Cristiano Ronaldo being CR7. https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/sports/over-reliance-on-zahavi-an-issue-for-israel-645365 is titled "Over-reliance on Zahavi an issue for Israel." It was written after Israel lost their Euro 2020 Qualifying Playoff to Scotland in penalty kicks with Zahavi having the only miss for either team. Israel knows that they wouldn't have gotten that far without Zahavi, so they weren't mad at him. Nobody scored before penalty kicks. Zahavi now plays for one of the top clubs in the Netherlands, PSV Eindhoven.
Matchday 5: Czech Republic 1-0 Israel Slovakia 1-0 Scotland Matchday 6: Israel 1-0 Scotland Czech Republic 2-0 Slovakia Standings: 1. Czech Republic (Promoted): 4 wins, 0 draws, 2 losses, 12 points, 9 goals for, 5 goals against, +4 2. Scotland: 3 wins, 1 draw, 2 losses, 10 points, 5 goals for, 4 goals against, +1 3. Israel: 2 wins, 2 draws, 2 losses, 8 points, 7 goals for, 7 goals against, +0 4. Slovakia (Relegated): 1 win, 1 draw, 4 losses, 4 points, 5 goals for, 10 goals against, -5 The group had 26 goals, which is 1.08 per team per game, which is low. There weren't any scoreless draws, but there were five 1-0 games, and seven (a majority) had both teams score 0 or 1.
Ever since Israel were kicked out of Asia, their football has suffered. It's a real shame for Israel. If it wasn't for the problems with the other Asia members, I think Israel today would have had a team that was consistently competing at the World Cup finals, much like Japan and South Korea have done.
Israel did well in qualifying for World Cup 2006 (third: 2 points behind winner France and lost tiebreaker to second place Switzerland) and Euro 2008 (fourth: behind Croatia, Russia, and England and lost tiebreaker to England). Israel's FIFA Ranking peaked at 15th in November 2008. They're much worse than they used to be. It's much harder to qualify for the World Cup in UEFA, but now they wouldn't qualify from any confederation. Soccer is the most popular sport in most of UEFA, but judging by https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/sports basketball seems more popular, and at least once Israeli club has had success in basketball's champions league.
American ex-pats have made basketball very popular. That was the case for Greece. Nick Galis led Greece to victory in Eurobasket. Success breeds popularity. The closest I remember Israel qualifying for a major finals was Euro 2000. They were heavily beaten by Denmark in the play-offs, but Israel had an exciting player back then in the form of Haim Revivo. He was a special. Luckily Yossi Benayoun managed to follow in his footsteps and was a big part of those relatively successful/near miss campaigns you mentioned. He was a great player too. It's easier now to qualify for the Euro finals, but the World Cup remains very difficult. Even for Greece it's been very hard. We were lucky in 1994 because Yugoslavia withdrew and Russia were not as formidable as they were when they were the Soviets. That made qualification possible for Greece, but we didn't belong at those finals and it showed. We shipped in 10 goals with no reply to finish bottom place of the tournament. When Otto Rehhagel came in 2001, he changed everything. He was the major force behind Greece winning Euro 2004. We qualified for 2010 and 2014 because we were a top seeded team and we were handed easier qualification routes. Nowadays, Greece is back in pot 3 and qualification is probably only possible via the play-off route, and that's if we get some luck our way. I like our new coach, van't Schip, but he's building something for the future and it may take a long time before Greece becomes properly competitive.