Out of the box: Summary of the opening of Alon Hazan's term in the Israeli national team

The rare achievement in away games, the real surprise in the amount of absorption and the impossible connection between Resin's eggs and Grant's ass.

Ron Amikam on three initial games is especially encouraging for the new national team coach, the mistake in the tip and the question of Zehavi that still hovers over

Ron Amikam

14/06/2022

Tuesday, June 14, 2022, 11:00 p.m.

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We ticked off: Summary of today's events, June 14 (Sports 1)

One has to go very far, perhaps as far as the Oceania sub-house in 1989, to find three consecutive games - including two away games - in which the Israeli team does not lose against equal teams or superior to it on paper.

There are, of course, two caveats that agile talkbackers will be quick to point out: 1. The Israeli team has not yet finished in first place at home and past precedents tell us that it is certainly capable of losing at Bloomfield to Albania on September 24.

2. Who determined that Albania and Iceland are weak from the Israeli team on paper, where did you see it on the grass?

This can be answered patiently and in order: 1. The Israeli team should and can beat Albania in front of 20-30 thousand home spectators in September, although a summer break awaits and it is not known what the team's players will look like in three months, and where the Legionnaires will be.

To be sure, we have seen in the last three games a national team coach who selects the best players he sees fit at that moment.

2. As a team that recently lost to Albania and northern Macedonia at home, Israel must not boast favorites even against really weak teams.

Iceland and Albania were in big tournaments just "recently", and the 4 away points against them, including four right-handed goals, a few more misses, and mostly dominance, only testify to the achievement.

Bottom line: The team's three games in the last two weeks are nothing short of a success, given that the team has a new coach and is missing key players from the last few campaigns.

More on Walla!

Weissman: "We made 3 very good games."

Spori: "We are all for the benefit of the team"

To the full article

A coach who chooses the best players he sees fit at that moment.

Alon Hazan (Photo: Udi Citiat)

Still, let's start with half an empty glass.

The general feeling remains a bit sour.

As long as the team does not play well, the result will be ruined as a result of a mistake or a non-binding defect of a very low standard.

The first goal that Israel conceded yesterday is a classic example of this.

There was a regular outing exercise for the Iceland team.

You do not take out a long outside ball if you do not build an exercise on it.

The Icelanders did not take the ball deep into the extension.

They know that spending outside is not a sharp elevation, it is an action done by the hands, the force invested in spending outside is significantly lower than a force invested in passing a ball on foot.

They know that deep in the extension they will have brakes or high players waiting for them, and therefore, they take the ball out to the area where the opponent has link and attack players with a less defensive orientation.

From there comes the jab / delivery to the depth of the extension.

Because it is so practiced, air control must be interrupted immediately, otherwise it produces a comfortable conquest situation, which is exactly what did not happen.

Dor Peretz came out too late for the first Icelandic player to put the ball in the box, a player who was half a head taller than Mahmoud Jaber standing next to him, while Eli Desa could not reach the goal scorer because he was physically inferior to him.

Add to that the negligent placement of Ophir Marciano and even more negligent footwork, and you got a gate that should not be absorbed in such positions.

It is impossible to absorb a shot from a long distance, from a ball that came after an outing and another shot on the way.

This is a zero score in preparation and defense.

A wonderfully ridiculous gate.

The amazing thing is that the five goals that Israel conceded in the League of Nations campaign are not a surprise in terms of the amount of concussions and the accompanying amount of mistakes, but a surprise in that this time it was not the brakes who were directly responsible for these goals.

Miguel Vitor is an upgrade to everything that has been going on in Israel's territory in recent years.

It is a pity that he is 33 years old and it is a great pity that they are not able to grow up like him in the country.

He will not save the homeland alone, and as we saw yesterday, it is difficult for him with two games in 72 hours.

Hazan - and even before we define him as a national team coach - decided that the defense and the back link will play players who can move a ball and participate in the offensive game - zero carpenters.

It also has a price, but it is also what creates a new image for the team.

Will not save the homeland alone.

Miguel Vitor (Photo: Udi Citiat)

When appointed, Hazan did not speak in terms of promotion to a major tournament.

For 46 years the team did not go up to any tournament, needless to say anything else.

Hazan was much more modest: he wants to make the team more exciting, to restore the audience's trust in it.

To do this, Hazan changed the lineup, introduced young players, let the players play in their positions, made the team's game flow and especially offensively at all costs.

You do not feel for a moment that the team is cumbersome, or stuck, or stenciled.

There are moments when she is confused, as a result of the same mistakes in defense, but the principle of the game quickly puts her back in the groove.

There were almost no moments in the last three games in which the Israeli team was eliminated in front of the opponent: did not pass the half, went away without an address, failed to make simple stripes.

In most games it was dominant from the opponent, and that includes two away games.

There were games in the Austrian period in which the team was dominant in the away games, but not for 90 minutes, but for limited and short periods, in which the momentum was its own.

Here you feel that the team is able to win every game and even disappointed that it does not happen.

With the Austrians, too, the team came back from behind here and there, but it's really hard to remember when the team came back from behind four times in three consecutive games!

More than character, it is indicative of setting a goal and believing in that goal.

It is not for nothing that Hazan spoke on the eve of the game in Iceland that the players should continue to enjoy.

The enjoyment of the game is a factor in the form of the game.

Once the team is looking to attack, create situations, score in every attack - the players have more fun.

Hazan cast his own DNA in the team.

This is really not a trivial matter.

Of course it will be interesting to see how this DNA will be expressed with other players or against A-level teams and not just against B-level or C-level.

To this day, in the European era, there have been two coaches who have been more successful than average: Shlomo Sharaf, with whom the team played attractively and also made beautiful victories, and Avraham Grant who finished an entire campaign without a loss.

Not a 4-game campaign, but a 10.

Ironically, one could say that only Alon Hazan managed to make an impossible connection between Shlima and Abram (and sorry for the somewhat intimate metaphor): he has Sharaf's eggs and Abram's ass.

A semi-own goal and another goal approved by VAR yesterday can only compete with the goals of Avi Yechiel (in Ireland) and Adoram Casey (in Switzerland) in the 2006 World Cup qualifiers, with Abram.

Proved that his preference over noble is justified.

Liel Abda (Photo: Udi Citiat)

The power of this team is in the wings.

Liel Abda proved yesterday that his preference over the player of the season in Israel, Omar Atzili, is completely justified.

There is no debate about the Solomon Manor.

The question is whether there is no reconstruction of Andy Herzog's beginnings: the reliance on Eli Desa and Taleb Tawtah as wingbacks.

Here the team earns Ramzi Spori over another brake, but the principle is the same.

When Twataha was not available to the Austrians - most of the time - they improvised, and the imitation was not true to the original.

The difference between Hazan and his predecessors will be emphasized, when Avda or Solomon will not be available to him, and then, even moving (again) to an array of three brakes and two deadly wingers will have to be considered.

Most important of all will be horstylism.

Not according to the opponent, as according to the players' material available to the coach.

Hazan made intelligent and almost accurate use of this material.

Why almost accurate?

Because the decision to place Moanes Dabour at the expense of Sean Weissman yesterday did not prove itself.

Dabour is not a goal striker and his love of escaping to the sides has not proven itself because of his slowness.

Weissman is able, as in a game in Albania, to run aimlessly.

The team enjoyed linebackers, front link and defenders in these games, but not really strikers.

Tempted to think what would have happened if Eran Zehavi had been eligible for these games.

Some would say he would upset the balance, and some would say we were with him with 9 points.

We will begin to answer this question on September 24th.

The decision to place him over Weissman did not prove itself.

Dabour (Photo: Reuters)

Bottom line: We've seen in the last two weeks a team we're already looking forward to seeing in the next game.

And that is exactly what Hazan wanted to achieve.

• sport

• Israeli soccer

• Israeli national teams

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• Israel's national team

• Alon Hazan