Israel national football team

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Israel
Image:Israel football.jpg
Association	Israel Football Association
Confederation	UEFA (Europe)
Head coach	Dror Kashtan (2006-)
Captain	Yossi Benayoun
Most caps	Arik Benado (95)
Top scorer	Mordechai Spiegler (32)
Home stadium	Ramat Gan Stadium
FIFA code	ISR
FIFA ranking	22
Highest FIFA ranking	20 (April 2008)
Lowest FIFA ranking	71 (September 1993)
Elo ranking	32
Highest Elo ranking	23 (1976)
Lowest Elo ranking	73 (Feb 1968)
First kit 　 Second kit
First international
Egypt 7 - 1 Palestine/Eretz Israel (Cairo, Egypt; March 16, 1934)  USA 3 - 1 Israel (New York City, USA; September 26, 1948)
Biggest win
Israel 9 - 0 Chinese Taipei  (Wellington, New Zealand; March 23, 1988)
Biggest defeat
Egypt 7 - 1 Palestine/Eretz Israel (Cairo, Egypt; March 16, 1934) Yugoslavia 6 - 0 Israel (Belgrade, Yugoslavia; August 21, 1949) Italy 6 - 0 Israel (Turin, Italy; November 4, 1961)  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	-
Asian Cup
Appearances	4 (First in 1956)
Best result	Winners, 1964

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

The Israel Football Association (IFA) 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).

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 Nations Cup record 2.3 European Championship record 3 FIFA World Cup qualification 4 Current squad 5 Player history 5.1 Notable current and former players 5.2 Most capped players 5.3 Top scorers 5.4 Player records 5.5 Palestine/Eretz Yisrael managers 5.6 Israel managers 5.6.1 Results of The National Israeli/Eretz Israel Team Against Other Teams By Nation 6 External links 7 Notes 8 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 creation of the State of Israel in 1948, IFA became the official association of the new state. The Israel national team's first game as an independent state 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. Both this, and their geographical proximity to Europe, 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.^[clarify] 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. 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, what 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 One	13th	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

[edit] Asian Nations Cup record

Year	Round	GP	W	D*	L	GS	GA
AFC Asian Cup
1956	Second place	3	2	0	1	5	4
1960	Second place	3	2	0	1	6	4
1964	Champions	3	3	0	0	5	1
1968	Third place	4	2	0	2	11	5

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
European Championship
1996	Did Not Qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-
2000	Did Not Qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-
2004	Did Not Qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-
2008	Did Not Qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-

[edit] FIFA World Cup qualification

Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts  Greece 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0  Israel 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0  Switzerland 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0  Moldova 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0  Latvia 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0  Luxembourg 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

– 1 Apr '09 10 Oct '09 14 Oct '09 11 Oct '08 15 Oct '08 28 Mar '09 – 5 Sep '09 9 Sep '09 10 Oct '09 6 Sep '08 10 Sep '08 15 Oct '08 – 1 Apr '09 14 Oct '09 9 Sep '09 6 Sep '08 11 Oct '08 28 Mar '09 – 15 Oct '08 10 Oct '09 9 Sep '09 10 Sep '08 6 Sep '08 5 Sep '09 – 28 Mar '09 5 Sep '09 14 Oct '09 11 Oct '08 10 Sep '08 1 Apr '09 –

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	Finland (A)	Finland		F
6 September 2008	Ramat Gan Stadium, Ramat Gan (H)	Switzerland		WCQ
10 September 2008	Zimbru Stadium, Chisinau (A)	Moldova		WCQ
11 October 2008	Stade Josy Barthel, Luxembourg (A)	Luxembourg		WCQ
15 October 2008	Skonto Stadions, Riga (A)	Latvia		WCQ
28 March 2009	Ramat Gan Stadium, Ramat Gan (H)	Greece		WCQ
1 April 2009	Greece (A)	Greece		WCQ
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

Israel's squad for the Friendly match vs Chile in March 26, 2008.

Goalkeepers

Number	Name	Age	Club	Caps (goals)	Debut
1	Dudu Aouate	30	Deportivo	34 (0)	v Spain, October 10, 1999
22	Nir Davidovich	31	Maccabi Haifa	46 (0)	v Turkey, February 19, 1998

Defenders

Number	Name	Age	Club	Caps (goals)	Debut
3	Tal Ben Haim	26	Chelsea F.C.	40 (0)	v Germany, February 13, 2002
5	Avi Strool	27	Maccabi Netanya	5 (0)	v Luxembourg, September 5, 2002
21	Klemi Saban	28	Maccabi Netanya	13 (0)	v France, September 4, 2004
6	Tomer Ben Yosef	28	Beitar Jerusalem	7 (0)	v Azerbaijan, February 18, 2004
14	Yoav Ziv	27	Beitar Jerusalem	14 (0)	Slovenia, August 15, 2006
5	Shimon Gershon	30	Beitar Jerusalem	50 (4)	v Estonia, January 18, 1999
19	Dedi Ben Dayan	29	Maccabi Netanya	13 (0)	v Hungary, June 3, 2000

Midfielders

Number	Name	Age	Club	Caps (goals)	Debut
19	Gal Alberman	25	Borussia Mönchengladbach	18 (1)	v Macedonia, November 20, 2002
20	Tamir Cohen	24	Bolton Wanderers	6 (0)	v Croatia, October 13, 2007
15	Yossi Benayoun	28	Liverpool	63 (15)	v Portugal, November 18, 1998
8	Aviram Baruchyan	23	Beitar Jerusalem	5 (1)	v Croatia, October 13, 2007
11	Moshe Ohayon	25	F.C. Ashdod	6 (0)	v Croatia, October 13, 2007
18	Gai Assulin	17	FC Barcelona	1 (0)	v Chile, March 26, 2008
13	Salim Tuama	28	Standard Liège	6 (0)	v Ukraine, August 15, 2005

Strikers

Number	Name	Age	Club	Caps (goals)	Debut
10	Elyaniv Barda	26	Racing Genk	7 (2)	v England, March 24, 2007
7	Amit Ben-Shushan	23	Beitar Jerusalem	12 (2)	v Slovenia, August 15, 2006
12	Omer Golan	25	K.S.C. Lokeren	24 (3)	v Moldova, 28 April 2004
9	Barak Yitzhaki	23	Racing Genk	8 (1)	v Macedonia, June 2, 2007

[edit] Player history

[edit] Notable current and former players

This section does not cite any references or sources. (May 2008) Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed.

Yossi Abukasis Reuven Atar Dudu Aouate Tal Ben Haim Yossi Benayoun Eyal Berkovic Avi Cohen

Gideon Damti Yehoshua Feigenbaum Bonni Ginzburg Shiye Glazer Ya'akov Hodorov Yaniv Katan Uri Malmilian

Alon Mizrahi Avi Nimni Eli Ohana Avi Ran Haim Revivo Zvi Rosen Ronny Rosenthal

Itzhak Shum Giora Spiegel Mordechai Spiegler Nahum Stelmach Yitzhak Visoker Yochanan Vollach Roby Young Daniel Brailovsky

[edit] Most capped players # Name Caps 1 Arik Benado 95 2 Alon Harazi 90 3 Amir Shelah 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 7 Alon Mizrahi 17 = Eli Ohana 17 [edit] Player records Main article: Israel national football team records

[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[4]	GA[5]	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 - 2001	20	7	4	9	29	33	45.0%
Avram Grant	2002 - 2006	33	14	13	6	55	37	62.1%
Dror Kashtan	2006 -							%

[edit] Results of The National Israeli/Eretz Israel Team Against Other Teams By Nation

Against	W	D	L	Pts
Cyprus	8	3	2	26
Romania	5	5	16	23
Japan	7	0	0	21
USA	6	1	2	19
New Zealand	6	1	1	19
Chinese Taipei	6	0	1	18
Australia	3	9	6	18
Greece	4	4	8	16
Luxembourg	5	0	0	15
Malta	4	2	0	14
Lithuania	4	1	0	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
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
England	1	2	3	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
Hungary	1	1	2	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	0	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
Lebanon	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
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
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	150	95	161	545

[edit] External links

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

[edit] Notes

1. ^ The Israel FA Background
2. ^ Goals for / scored
3. ^ Goals against / conceded
4. ^ Goals for / scored
5. ^ Goals against / conceded

[edit] Titles

Preceded by 1960 Korea Republic

Asian Champions 1964 (First title)

Succeeded by 1968 Iran

AFC Asian Cup Winners v • d • e
3 titles :  Iran (1968, 1972, 1976)  Japan (1992, 2000, 2004)  Saudi Arabia (1984, 1988, 1996) 2 titles :  Korea Republic (1956, 1960) 1 title :  Iraq (2007)  Israel (1964)  Kuwait (1980)
International football v • d • e
FIFA | World Cup | Confederations Cup | U-20 World Cup | U-17 World Cup Olympics | Asian Games | All-Africa Games | Pan American Games | Island Games | Minor Tournaments World Rankings | Player of the Year | Teams | Competitions | Organizations | Codes
Asia: AFC – Asian Cup      Africa: CAF – Africa Cup of Nations      North America: CONCACAF – Gold Cup      South America: CONMEBOL – Copa América      Oceania: OFC – Nations Cup      Europe: UEFA – European Championship      Non-FIFA: NF-Board – Viva World Cup
National football teams of Europe (UEFA) v • d • e
Albania | Andorra | Armenia | Austria | Azerbaijan | Belarus | Belgium | Bosnia and Herzegovina | Bulgaria | Croatia | Cyprus | Czech Republic | Denmark | England | Estonia | Faroe Islands | Finland | FYR Macedonia | France | Georgia | Germany | Greece | Hungary | Iceland | Republic of Ireland | Israel | Italy | Kazakhstan | Latvia | Liechtenstein | Lithuania | Luxembourg | Malta | Moldova | Montenegro | Netherlands | Northern Ireland | Norway | Poland | Portugal | Romania | Russia | San Marino | Scotland | Serbia | Slovakia | Slovenia | Spain | Sweden | Switzerland | Turkey | Ukraine | Wales
Football in Israel v • d • e
League competitions The IFA Cup competitions Ligat ha'Al (Premier League) Israel State Cup Liga Leumit (National League) (U-21) Toto Cup Liga Artzit (Nationwide League) List of clubs Liga Alef (A League) List of venues Liga Bet (B League) (by capacity) Liga Gimel (C League) List of leagues Israeli football league system Records Women's football in Israel League competitions   Cup competitions Women's Liga Leumit Israel women State Cup

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