Israel national football team

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Israel

Nickname(s)	The Blue and White
Association	Israel Football Association (IFA)
Confederation	UEFA (Europe)
Head coach	Dror Kashtan
Captain	Yossi Benayoun
Most caps	Arik Benado (95)
Top scorer	Mordechai Spiegler (32)
Home stadium	Ramat Gan Stadium
FIFA code	ISR
FIFA ranking	25
Highest FIFA ranking	15 (November 2008)
Lowest FIFA ranking	71 (September 1993)
Elo ranking	36
Highest Elo ranking	23 (1976)
Lowest Elo ranking	73 (Feb 1968)
Home colours Away colours
First international
Egypt 7 - 1 Palestine/Eretz Israel (Cairo, Egypt; March 16, 1934)
Biggest win
Israel 9 - 0 Chinese Taipei  (Wellington, New Zealand; March 23, 1988)
Biggest defeat
Germany 7 - 1 Israel (Kaiserslautern, Germany; February 13, 2002)
World Cup
Appearances	1 (First in 1970)
Best result	Round 1, 1970
European Championship
Appearances	0 (First in -)
Best result	-
AFC Asian Cup
Appearances	4 (First in 1956)
Best result	Winners, 1964

The Israeli National Football Team (Hebrew: נבחרת ישראל בכדורגל‎) is the national football team of Israel and is controlled by the Israel Football Association (IFA).

The Israel Football Association was founded under the name Palestine Football Association (PFA) in 1928, 20 years before the establishment of the state of Israel at the end of the British Mandate of Palestine. The PFA was accepted as a full member of FIFA in 1929. The PFA first dealt with local leagues, but later also managed the national team that was created to participate in the World Cup qualifications (participating in 1934 and 1938 as the Palestine/Eretz Yisrael national team). Its main rivals include Germany, Austria, Cyprus, Iran and Egypt.

Israel has taken part in three different continents: Asia, Europe and Oceania in the Football World Cup qualifiers, before settling in Europe as a member of UEFA in 1994.

The Israeli side qualified for their only FIFA World Cup to date in 1970.

Contents 1 History 1.1 Before independence 1.2 Asian history 1.3 Years in exile 1.4 European history 2 Competition history 2.1 FIFA World Cup record 2.2 Asian Cup record 2.3 European Championship record 3 FIFA 2010 World Cup Qualification 4 Current squad 5 Recent call-ups 6 Player history 6.1 Most capped players 6.2 Top scorers 6.3 Player records 7 Managers 7.1 Palestine/Eretz Yisrael managers 7.2 Israel managers 8 Results against other national teams 9 External links 10 Notes 11 Titles

[edit] History

[edit] Before independence

Palestine played its first official game in 1934 in the World Cup qualifiers losing 1-7 to Egypt. The team's first goal ever was scored by Avraham Nudelmann. Upon the creation of the State of Israel in 1948, the IFA became the official association of the new state. The Israel national team's first game as an independent nation was on September 26, 1948, against the USA (result: 1-3 to the USA).

[edit] Asian history

Israel initially competed in the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), although due to their ongoing geopolitical situation many Asian nations often refused to compete against Israel. This meant that they mainly competed in European (UEFA) or Oceanian (OFC) World Cup qualifying tournaments. In 1964 Israel hosted and won the Asian Nations Cup. In 1968 Israel went to their first Olympic Games and lost to Bulgaria in the quarter-finals. In 1970 Israel qualified for their first and only World Cup, via Oceania, but only got two points after draws with Sweden and finalist Italy and a loss to Uruguay.

In 1976, Israel went to their second Olympic Games and lost in the quarter-finals again, this time against Brazil. In 1972 and 1977 they attempted World Cup qualification as part of Asia, which both times ended in failure.

[edit] Years in exile

In 1974, Israel had left the AFC as their position within it became untenable.^{[clarification needed]} During the 1980s they played their majority of matches against European teams, and competed in the European leg of qualification for the 1982 World Cup. For the next two tournaments they entered the Oceania Football Confederation's qualification groups and in 1989, Israel made it to the playoffs of WC Italy 1990 to play against Colombia, who qualified from the South American group, but lost (1-0, 0-0).

[edit] European history

In 1991 Israeli clubs began participating in European club competitions and Israel returned to the European leg of World Cup qualifying in 1992, notably winning 3-2 in Paris against France in 1993 and 5-0 against Austria in the late 1990's. In 1994, Israel received full UEFA membership, twenty years since they had left Asia.^[1] Within Europe, Israel have been a relatively minor nation, though with some successes. In 1999, Israel made it to the playoffs of Euro 2000, but was beaten by Denmark.

In 2006 World Cup qualifying, Israel finished third in European zone Group Four behind France and Switzerland despite being unbeaten in their 10 matches after four wins and six draws, and failed to qualify for the finals. Coach Avraham Grant announced his resignation on 26 October 2005. After the end of his contract he was succeeded by Dror Kashtan. In UEFA Euro 2008 qualifying, Israel finished fourth in group E, behind Croatia, Russia and England. The 3-4 home loss to Croatia was the first loss after 13 consecutive official games and 9 home games without a loss. Although Israel failed to qualify, Israel advanced in the world ranking, which led Israel to pot 2 at the 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification draw. The continued presence of the Israeli Football Association in UEFA was a precedent cited by Australia to justify its transfer from Oceania to the Asian Football Federation.

[edit] Competition history

[edit] FIFA World Cup record

Year	Round	Position	GP	W	D*	L	GS	GA
1930	Did not enter	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1934	Did not qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1938	Did not qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1950	Did not qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1954	Did not qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1958	Did not qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1962	Did not qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1966	Did not qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1970	Round 1	13	3	0	2	1	1	3
1974	Did not qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1978	Did not qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1982	Did not qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1986	Did not qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1990	Did not qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1994	Did not qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1998	Did not qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
2002	Did not qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
2006	Did not qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
2010		-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Total	1/18		3	0	2	1	1	3

[edit] Asian Cup record

Year	Round	GP	W	D*	L	GS	GA
1956	Runner up	3	2	0	1	6	5
1960	Runner up	3	2	0	1	6	4
1964	Champions	3	3	0	0	5	1
1968	Third place	4	2	0	2	11	5
Total	1 Title	13	9	0	4	28	15

Israel did not compete in a regional competition between the years 1968 and 1996

[edit] European Championship record

Year	Round	GP	W	D*	L	GS	GA
1996	Did not qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-
2000	Did not qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-
2004	Did not qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-
2008	Did not qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-

[edit] FIFA 2010 World Cup Qualification

Team v • d • e Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts  Greece 6 4 1 1 12 4 +8 13  Switzerland 6 4 1 1 11 6 +5 13  Latvia 6 3 1 2 10 6 +4 10  Israel 6 2 3 1 10 8 +2 9  Luxembourg 6 1 1 4 3 13 −10 4  Moldova 6 0 1 5 2 11 −9 1

Greece  – 2 – 1 10 Oct 14 Oct 3 – 0 1 – 2 Israel  1 – 1 – 5 Sep 9 Sep 10 Oct 2 – 2 Latvia  0 – 2 1 – 1 – 2 – 0 14 Oct 9 Sep Luxembourg  0 – 3 1 – 3 0 – 4 – 0 – 0 10 Oct Moldova  9 Sep 1 – 2 1 – 2 5 Sep – 0 – 2 Switzerland  5 Sep 14 Oct 2 – 1 1 – 2 2 – 0 –

Date	Venue	Opponents	Score¹	Competition	Israel scorers
26 March 2008	Ramat Gan Stadium, Ramat Gan (H)	Chile	1-0	F	Yossi Benayoun
20 August 2008	Ratina Stadion, Tampere (A)	Finland	0-2	F
6 September 2008	Ramat Gan Stadium, Ramat Gan (H)	Switzerland	2-2	WCQ	Yossi Benayoun, Ben Sahar
10 September 2008	Zimbru Stadium, Chisinau (A)	Moldova	2-1	WCQ	Omer Golan, Klemi Saban
11 October 2008	Stade Josy Barthel, Luxembourg (A)	Luxembourg	3-1	WCQ	Yossi Benayoun, Omer Golan, Salim Tuama
15 October 2008	Skonto Stadions, Riga (A)	Latvia	1-1	WCQ	Yossi Benayoun
19 November 2008	Ramat Gan Stadium, Ramat Gan (H)	Côte d'Ivoire	2-2	F	Elyaniv Barda, Omer Golan
11 February 2009	Ramat Gan Stadium, Ramat Gan (H)	Hungary	1-0	F	Yossi Benayoun
28 March 2009	Ramat Gan Stadium, Ramat Gan (H)	Greece	1-1	WCQ	Omer Golan
1 April 2009	Pankritio Stadium, Heraklion (A)	Greece	1-2	WCQ	Elyaniv Barda
5 September 2009	Ramat Gan Stadium, Ramat Gan (H)	Latvia		WCQ
9 September 2009	Ramat Gan Stadium, Ramat Gan (H)	Luxembourg		WCQ
10 October 2009	Ramat Gan Stadium, Ramat Gan (H)	Moldova		WCQ
14 October 2009	Stade de Suisse, Berne (A)	Switzerland		WCQ

Key

• ¹ = Israeli score shown first
• H = Home match
• A = Away match
• F = Friendly
• WCQ = World Cup Qualifier

[edit] Current squad

Squad selected for the qualifier against Greece on 28 March 2009.

No. Pos. Player DoB (Age) Caps Goals Club Goalkeepers 1 GK Dudu Aouate 17 October 1977 (age 31) 42 0 RCD Mallorca 22 GK Nir Davidovich 17 December 1976 (age 32) 48 0 Maccabi Haifa GK Liran Strauber 20 August 1974 (age 34) 8 0 Maccabi Netanya Defense 6 DF Dedi Ben Dayan 22 November 1978 (age 30) 18 0 Maccabi Netanya 2 DF Klemi Saban 17 February 1980 (age 28) 16 1 Maccabi Netanya 13 DF Dekel Keinan 15 September 1984 (age 24) 10 0 Maccabi Haifa 3 DF Tal Ben Haim 31 March 1982 (age 26) 48 0 Manchester City DF Yoav Ziv 16 March 1981 (age 27) 18 0 Lokeren DF Avi Strool 18 September 1980 (age 28) 6 0 Lokeren DF Eyal Meshumar 10 August 1983 (age 25) 3 0 Maccabi Haifa DF Dean Mori 8 November 1988 (age 20) 0 0 Bnei Yehuda Midfield 11 MF Tamir Cohen 4 March 1984 (age 24) 10 0 Bolton Wanderers 4 MF Gal Alberman 17 April 1983 (age 25) 24 1 Borussia Mönchengladbach 7 MF Biram Kiyal 2 May 1988 (age 20) 7 0 Maccabi Haifa 15 MF Yossi Benayoun (captain) 5 May 1980 (age 29) 71 19 Liverpool MF Aviram Baruchyan 20 March 1985 (age 23) 7 1 RCD Mallorca MF Ravid Gazal 9 June 1982 (age 26) 9 0 Maccabi Netanya 16 MF Salim Tuama 9 August 1979 (age 29) 12 1 Larissa Forward 17 FW Ben Sahar 10 August 1989 (age 19) 14 3 RCD Espanyol FW Itay Shechter 22 February 1987 (age 21) 1 0 Maccabi Netanya 12 FW Omer Golan 4 October 1982 (age 26) 34 8 Lokeren 9 FW Barak Yitzhaki 25 September 1984 (age 24) 9 1 Beitar Jerusalem 10 FW Elyaniv Barda 15 December 1981 (age 27) 14 3 Racing Genk FW Amit Ben-Shushan 23 May 1985 (age 23) 12 2 Beitar Jerusalem

Caps and goals correct as of March 29, 2009.

[edit] Recent call-ups

The following players have all recently been called up to the Israel squad.

No. Pos. Player DoB (Age) Caps Goals Club GK Ohad Cohen 10 June 1975 (age 33) 0 0 Maccabi Petah Tikva DF Shimon Gershon 6 October 1977 (age 30) 50 4 Beitar Jerusalem (Friendly v. Chile, 26 March) DF Tomer Ben-Yosef 2 September 1979 (age 29) 7 0 Beitar Jerusalem DF Arik Benado 5 December 1973 (age 34) 95 0 Beitar Jerusalem DF Yuval Spungin 3 April 1987 (age 21) 8 0 Maccabi Tel Aviv MF Gai Assulin 9 April 1991 (age 17) 1 0 FC Barcelona B (Friendly v. Chile, 26 March) MF Idan Tal 13 September 1975 (age 33) 69 5 Beitar Jerusalem MF Michael Zandberg 16 April 1980 (age 28) 21 4 Beitar Jerusalem MF Yossi Shivhon 22 March 1982 (age 26) 3 0 Maccabi Tel Aviv FW Roberto Colautti 24 May 1982 (age 26) 12 6 Borussia Mönchengladbach (Friendly v. Finland, 20 August) FW Toto Tamuz 1 April 1988 (age 20) 10 2 Beitar Jerusalem FW Pini Balili 18 June 1979 (age 29) 29 7 Antalyaspor

[edit] Player history

[edit] Most capped players

#	Name	Caps
1	Arik Benado	95
2	Alon Harazi	90
3	Amir Schelach	85
4	Mordechai Spiegler	83
5	Nir Klinger	83
6	Eyal Berkovic	82
7	Avi Nimni	80

[edit] Top scorers

#	Name	Goals
1	Mordechai Spiegler	32
2	Yehoshua Feigenbaum	24
3	Ronen Harazi	23
4	Nahum Stelmach	22
5	Shiye Glazer	18
=	Giora Spiegel	18
=	Yossi Benayoun	18
8	Alon Mizrahi	17
=	Eli Ohana	17

[edit] Player records

[edit] Managers

[edit] Palestine/Eretz Yisrael managers

Manager	Palestine/Eretz Yisrael career	Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	GF[2]	GA[3]	Win %
Shimon Ratner	1934	2	0	0	2	2	11	00.0%
Egon Pollack	1938	2	0	0	2	1	4	00.0%
Arthur Baar	1940	1	1	0	0	5	1	100.0%

[edit] Israel managers

Manager	Israel career	Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	GF[2]	GA[3]	Win %
Egon Pollack	1948	1	0	0	0	0	1	00.0%
Lajos Hess	1949	3	1	0	2	5	12	33.3%
Vladislav Scali	1950	2	1	0	1	7	4	50.0%
Jerry Beit haLevi	1953 - 1954	5	0	0	5	1	7	00.0%
Jack Gibbons	1956	5	2	0	3	7	12	40.0%
Jerry Beit haLevi	1957	1	0	0	1	4	5	00.0%
Moshe Varon	1958	5	2	0	3	6	7	40.0%
Gyula Mándi	1959 - 1963	31	12	7	12	49	63	50.0%
George Ainsley	1963 - 1964	3	2	0	1	4	2	66.7%
Yosef Mirmovich	1964	1	0	0	0	0	4	00.0%
Gyula Mándi	1964	3	3	0	0	5	1	100.0%
Yosef Mirmovich	1964 - 1965	3	1	0	2	2	2	33.3%
Milovan Ćirić	1965 - 1968	25	8	2	15	43	45	36.0%
Emmanuel Scheffer	1968 - 1970	24	8	8	8	44	34	50.0%
Edmond Schmilovich	1970 - 1973	19	10	4	5	27	13	63.2%
David Schweitzer	1973 - 1977	36	17	11	8	67	34	62.5%
Emmanuel Scheffer	1978 - 1979	13	5	4	4	17	15	53.8%
Jack Mansell	1980 - 1981	10	2	3	5	8	12	35.0%
Yosef Mirmovich	1983 - 1986	27	8	9	10	39	36	46.3%
Miljenko Mihić	1986 - 1988	20	4	5	11	27	35	32.5%
Itzhak Schneor Ya'akov Grundman	1988 - 1992	18	5	5	8	21	30	32.5%
Shlomo Scharf	1992 - 1999	82	31	18	33	131	118	48.2%
Richard Møller Nielsen	2000 - 2002	20	7	4	9	29	33	45.0%
Avram Grant	2002 - 2006	33	14	13	6	55	37	42.4%
Dror Kashtan	2006 -	19	10	4	5	27	19	52.6%

[edit] Results against other national teams

Against	W	D	L	Pts
Cyprus	8	3	2	26
Romania	5	5	16	23
Japan	7	0	0	21
United States	6	1	2	19
New Zealand	6	1	1	19
Chinese Taipei	6	0	1	18
Australia	3	9	6	18
Luxembourg	5	0	0	15
Malta	4	2	0	14
Lithuania	4	1	0	13
Greece	3	4	6	13
Hong Kong	4	0	0	12
Ethiopia	4	0	0	12
India	4	0	0	12
France	2	5	4	11
Netherlands	3	1	5	10
Sweden	2	4	6	10
Korea Republic	2	4	5	10
Poland	2	4	5	10
South Vietnam	3	0	1	9
Estonia	3	0	0	9
Sri Lanka	3	0	0	9
Azerbaijan	3	0	0	9
Belarus	3	0	1	9
Russia	2	3	2	9
Austria	1	5	4	8
Yugoslavia	2	1	6	7
Belgium	2	1	5	7
Finland	2	1	2	7
Hungary	2	1	2	7
Georgia	2	1	1	7
Faroe Islands	2	1	0	7
Turkey	2	0	4	6
Portugal	2	0	4	6
San Marino	2	0	0	6
Liechtenstein	2	0	0	6
FYR Macedonia	2	0	0	6
Andorra	2	0	0	6
Malaysia	2	0	0	6
Latvia	2	0	0	6
Switzerland	1	3	3	6
Republic of Ireland	1	3	1	6
Bulgaria	1	2	4	5
Moldova	1	2	0	5
Ukraine	1	2	0	5
Thailand	1	2	0	5
Germany	1	1	5	4
Iran	1	1	3	4
Bosnia and Herzegovina	1	1	0	4
Iceland	1	1	0	4
Pakistan	1	1	0	4
Mexico	1	1	0	4
Denmark	1	0	7	3
USSR	1	0	4	3
Norway	1	0	1	3
Myanmar	1	0	1	3
Argentina	1	0	1	3
Ghana	1	0	0	3
El Salvador	1	0	0	3
Armenia	1	0	0	3
Singapore	1	0	0	3
Uzbekistan	1	0	0	3
Philippines	1	0	0	3
Serbia	1	0	0	3
Indonesia	1	0	0	3
Chile	1	0	0	3
Northern Ireland	0	3	3	3
England	0	2	2	2
Spain	0	2	4	2
Wales	0	2	2	2
Slovenia	0	2	1	2
Croatia	0	1	4	1
Italy	0	1	4	1
Uruguay	0	1	3	1
Slovakia	0	1	2	1
Colombia	0	1	1	1
Guatemala	0	1	0	1
Côte d'Ivoire	0	1	0	1
Scotland	0	0	4	0
Brazil	0	0	4	0
Egypt	0	0	2	0
South Africa	0	0	1	0
Czech Republic	0	0	1	0
Total	151	96	161	549

[edit] External links

• The Israel Football Association (official)
• Israel National Team - List of "A" Games

[edit] Notes

1. ^ The Israel FA Background
2. ^ ^{a b} Goals for / scored
3. ^ ^{a b} Goals against / conceded

[edit] Titles

Preceded by 1960 Korea Republic

Asian Champions 1964 (First title)

Succeeded by 1968 Iran

v • d • e AFC Asian Cup winners 3 titles  Saudi Arabia (1984 · 1988 · 1996)  Iran (1968 · 1972 · 1976)  Japan (1992 · 2000 · 2004) 2 titles  Korea Republic (1956 · 1960) 1 title  Iraq (2007)  Israel (1964)  Kuwait (1980)

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