1.
The Israeli team finished another World Cup qualifying campaign this week, and once again it became clear that our football is not good enough to cross the hurdle that will allow us to be among the 32 happy teams.
The meetings against Denmark, Scotland and Austria, as well as the game against the Faroe Islands on Monday, revealed a defensive game at a poor level, and this is another tournament that is considered successful for goalkeeper Ophir Marciano.
Austrian coach Willy Rotensteiner, who came to Israel in general for another mission - to build football from below, improve coaching theory and improve young footballers - has better and less good qualities.
He is excellently connected to the players, he brought Eran Zehavi back from suspension and got him at his peak, and his team came to the games ready and organized.
The problems started while playing, when tactical changes or player changes had to be made in moments of decline.
In too many games it could be seen that Rotensteiner was fixed and unable to change lineup to get to the crucial minutes of the game in improved mode.
Israel in his time played better and more attractively, scoring many goals - but as it got closer to the final minutes, it lost because it was exposed to its conspicuous shortcomings, especially physical and mental fatigue, which called for a setback and a breakdown that Marciano could not prevent.
Fans of easy solutions are demanding to fire Rotensteiner and bring in another coach.
But past experience since we joined Europe 30 years ago shows that all Israeli national coaches, and they were the top coaches here, have failed in their mission.
Even if they achieved reasonable results, like Abraham Grant - snatched criticism for the defensive and unattractive nature of the team.
High-level foreign coaches will not come here, because their salaries range from 2 to 10 million euros a year, and Israel pays one million shekels at best.
The Portuguese Paolo Souza, who successfully coached Maccabi Tel Aviv, is now busy bringing Poland to the World Cup, also through the playoffs. The Football Association knows that the success of the Israeli team requires investment at a state level, which is not currently on the agenda.
2.
While open year strangest World Cup ever.
Qatar, a country with less than 3 million inhabitants, will become the center of interest of the whole world for a month.
For this event to take place world orders have changed, and to overcome the harsh climate (50 degrees in summer), the upcoming World Cup will be held, for the first time in history, in winter, between November 21 and December 18, 2022.
This week, the Premier League manager in England released next season's updated game schedule, announcing that she "hopes this is a one-off event".
The English, who hold the best and most popular league in the world, hint at what everyone no longer whispers in chambers - that the world of football, and humanity in particular, have paid too heavy a price to fulfill this whim of Qatar.
For the past 50 years, the World Cup has been held mainly in superpowers or giant countries with infrastructure and organizational capabilities - Russia, USA, Brazil, Germany, Japan, Korea, France, Italy, Mexico, Argentina, South Africa. Qatar was selected in 2010 when it won. .. USA, Australia, Japan and South Korea.
At the time it had two active stadiums out of 12 originally planned.
Finally, it was decided that eight stadiums would host the games, all with a capacity of about 45,000 seats, and all covered and air-conditioned (the weather in winter is about 30-28 degrees);
The distance between them should not exceed 80 km.
The huge criticism surrounding the hosting of the games in Qatar raises the question of whether all this effort was worth it. We are not talking about the new cities, roads and tens of thousands of acres of grass and trees, established on the desolate desert spaces. Not everyone stops talking about the way Qatar has won hospitality, and how much it has paid in the dark to gain fame.
This affair brought disgrace on FIFA, the World Football Association, which has not been able to break free for many years from the messy and corrupt image of its leaders. Who was a candidate to replace him, Michel Platini, who was accused of illegally receiving millions of dollars. It can be said quite clearly that the glory of Platini, one of France's greatest footballers of all time, is behind him. FIFA, which is supposed to best represent the interests of football, has lost the trust of all those who saw in it their loyal representative - the national teams, clubs, associations, the media, and especially the fans.
Although the organizing committee stated that only 38 (...) workers died during the construction of the stadiums and infrastructure for the World Cup, the real numbers are chilling - more than 6,500 victims, most of them working hard from South Asian countries, and many thousands more injured and disabled.
And we have not yet talked about the difficult basic working conditions, the ban on workers traveling to their country to meet their families, and other serious violations of labor laws.
The exposure of the great tragedy may have slightly improved working conditions, but the great damage has already been done.
Lethal reviews alongside a huge investment.
Simulation of a new stadium in Qatar,
Despite the deadly criticism of the host and allegations of human rights violations - the $ 138 billion that Qatar has invested in its life project proves that it also understands the size of the dividend it will reap from the World Cup, the biggest sporting and entertainment event in the world.
It should be remembered that for the two greatest footballers of the last generation, Leo Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo (if Portugal qualify for the tournament, which is still uncertain), it will be a last World Cup and a last chance to appear on the biggest stage of all, and possibly win the country the biggest prize.
Ronaldo has previously brought Portugal to Euro wins, and Messi has in the past year brought the first Copa America to his homeland.
Winning the World Cup of one of them will burn him in the consciousness as the greatest of them all.
Aviadp65@gmail.com
