The fact that the Israeli national team once again failed to qualify for a major tournament through the group stage should not really surprise anyone or even cause disappointment. After all, this has happened so many times, or if I want to be precise, it has always happened, except once way back in 1970 - and as the tracker says: 53 years you will remember.
Israeli national team players and residents of the envelope sing the national anthem in Hungary | Liav Nachmani
The Israeli national team is in continuous decline. Four different coaches have coached us in the last decade, and almost every qualifying tournament, Euro or World Cup, has had a drop in success rates. 46% for Eli Gutman in 2014, 43% and 40% for Elisha Levy in 2016 and 2018, and 36.6% for Andy Herzog. Only the much-maligned Willy Rothsteiner had a 53.3% success rate, but the ability was far from giving hope for the future or signaling a trend of change.
Despite all this, there was a sense that this time things would end differently. The qualification to the A-level of the Nations League, achieved even if thanks to Russia's suspension, was impressive when we were ahead of Iceland and Albania (who admirably qualified for the Euros as head of the group ahead of the Czech Republic and Poland), the draw that brightened our faces and gave us the most comfortable home we could have and of course the exciting successes of our young teams over the past year and a half, gave the feeling that the generation that did not know Yosef, Will continue the momentum and bring us the change.
So that's it, no. The team of Alon Hazan and Yossi Benayoun provided the weakest campaign of an Israeli team since the early 2000s. It's not just the low success rate (44%), it's the way, the bad management that has done damage to the team, the tactical failure and the way the game is played.
Cantor and Benayoun. There is a price to bad management, photo: Alan Shaver
I'll start with the dry data. The Israeli team achieved only 6 point out of <> against each of our three opponents for one of the top two places: Romania, Kosovo and Switzerland (in a horrific tournament for them, despite qualifying). Had Kosovo not made a point from its two games against Andorra and Belarus, we would have finished fourth.
The team conceded in 8 of 9 matches, including a mandatory goal against Andorra in Teddy, with the only game we kept a clean net in was against Belarus in Bloomfield. Our three victories were achieved with great difficulty. We got both wins over Belarus in extra time (Oskar Gluch from Direct Horn and Gabi Kanikovsky, both coming off the bench) and Andorra narrowly won after a personal effort by Manor Solomon in the 61st minute.
The national team has a negative goal coach (11:9) and has scored an insulting amount of goals per game. In two games the team did not score, in five we scored one goal and in three two and all this despite the message at the beginning of the tournament that we are coming to play offensively with all the tools we have.
They say that in life everything starts with management and in the case of the national team, it stood out even more. From the moment Yossi Benayoun was appointed professional manager, he did not stop creating affairs around the team, causing great discomfort and the feeling that his considerations were not advancing the team towards the goal.
It started with a quarrel with Marco Balbul, a very difficult person to argue with and that's to say the least, about wanting to see Daniel Peretz in a friendly match, continued with the retirement from the team of three of the best attacking players we have (each for his own reasons) and culminated around the ridiculous affair of Eran Zahavi and the room, which could have been solved in so many simple ways and prevented Hazan from inviting the best Israeli striker available.
Eran Zehavi. The affair of the room was unnecessary, photo: Udi Zitiat
Tactically, the team went for a 4:3:3 main formation, but like Rothsteiner who insisted on a formation (3:5:2) and refused to move even when the results and players did not fit the positions, the current team did the same.
The most prominent example of fixation came in the important game against Kosovo, in which the team tried to move the ball, to play open and wide on a muddy field with players whose qualities are expressed in a quick game on the ground, with the team opposite, adapting to the conditions, raising a three-stop formation and kicking balls forward on two forwards that our defense found difficult to deal with without cover.
Even against Romania, the decision to bench Mohammed Abu Fani hurt the team and a line-up of four midfielders and two strikers, certainly with our three senior wingers injured (Solomon, Abda and Ezekiel) and all the players in their best positions, could have worked better.
And yet, our hope has not yet been lost. In March, the national team is due to host (hopefully by then we will be able to play in Israel) in the semi-finals of the Nations League, with two wins leading us to a historic Euro. But in order for that to happen, the team managers led by Shino Zuaretz must think well and see how they bring the team in an ideal professional situation to a very specific event.
Sean Weisman. Another mistake that Benayoun won't admit, Photo: Ami Shumen
In order for this to happen, Yossi Benayoun must come to his senses and take responsibility. His statement at the end of the game, that he is completely at peace with the way and conduct throughout the campaign, even if it was uttered from the mouth out, is worrisome, because a person who does not take responsibility for failure and thinks that everything he did is okay will never be able to make amends.
The professional staff must put stubbornness aside, lower the noise level around the team (the Shaun Weissman affair also attests to poor management), be open to new summons and ideas, and do everything, but everything, so that the coach will have the most appropriate and correct tools at his disposal to meet the task. The rivals that are emerging are offensive opponents, but in order for the team to make history it needs a change. Because if change doesn't come, we'll continue to be disappointed, which is a shame.
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