Re: Title Change Bad game a poor perfomance from Israel, they looked slow to the take and sloppy. What did they do for so many days in training? They were lucky that Davidovic made the big save and my Beitar man Nimmni puts in the Benayoun pass. At least its 3 points in the bag for now. and BTW how bad was the Ref? eecchhhh.
Re: Title Change It will be good fun for the Israel-Ireland game in March! Are you guys ready for the invasion of the green army?
Re: Title Change The Irish are coming?!?! We'll take you down!!! I hope... You guys are a tough match for us and we are trying to do what ever it takes to not succumb to a loss. Ireland only let what? 1 goal in and scored 6? im hoping that Israel can play defensive and steal 2 points from the deadly irish and atleast have some hope to qualify in the WC Q playoffs...... But while your in Tel Aviv in March 26, we'll greet your team and supporters with all the possible hospitality..... We've got an "IRISH PUB"
My final outlook for this game: Although many are not happy with only a 2-1 win. A win is a win! It still gets you the crucial 6 points that you need. Israel managed to get all potential 6 points from the cypricots, which was hard in 2004, as well as 2002 and 2000! And i belive....1998 and perhaps 1996 So with the win, came the triumph of having played 4 games and wining 2 while tieing two to share 1st place with Ireland and France. What Israel needs to focus right now is the Goal Difference in the end of the Tournament. Faroe Island will be our target and with both FI matches in the end of the WC Q, we need to get as many goals as possible. Call me optimistic, but i was a 7-1 Goal Difference in 2 games with F.I so we can have a strong margin lead in case there will be this sort of tie in the end of the qualification. March will be difficult for Israel. We have Croatia friendly in Febuarym which might prepare us. For those who did not know, Croatia lost to Ireland in a friendly 2 days ago!
My Take Agreed that a win is a win. But I found it to be rediculous that Yediot Aharonot put on their front page today, "On the way to the World Cup" as though Israel are in that good of a position. If we had beaten the Swiss in Ramat Gan like we chould have/should have, I would be alot more confident in receiving a play-off birth to the World Cup. But we didn't. We are equal on points with the Irish and the French. The Swiss still have a game at hand so they too will probably have the same amount of points if they win that match. If we can beat the Irish and the French at home then we have a good chance at the playoff. If we don't then we really have to pray for bad results from the other sides in our group. All in all, I think we have a 35% chance of making the playoff spot.
We need 18 points and atleast a +6 GD to get into the playoffs. Agreed that, if we had beaten Switzerland, things would have been easy. Israel was very close to doing that, but unfortunately, bad performance from our players and some injury woes made us look bad. We need to focus from now on. The games remaining of France vs. Ireland, Ireland vs. Swiss and Swiss vs. France will be crucial for us. We need to see if one can lose so we can succeed. I am also hoping for Cyprus to imrpove, which won't be likely and perhaps beat Switzerland or atleast tie them so they can be slowed down!