Asunto: Israel U20

Huh I have a big debt here so I'd better start -

Belgium 2:2 Israel
Although they used 4/5 (5/5 in the 2nd half respectively) we took 1 point there! They played long passes so at least 4 defenders were necessary. I chose defensive 4-4-2 (I was thinking also about 5-3-2). They had quite weak CD sector so I focused there with 2 CF. We scored 2 times from 3 shoots on target and successfuly defended 7 of 9 opponent's shoots. What a pity there was an early penalty kick for them. But they are about 30 points better in team strength rating + were playing at home. 1 point was the maximum and I am satisfied.

Germany 2:0 Israel
We traveled from Belgium straight to Germany to focus on the next match against home junior "Nationalelf". They used 3/5 so we could not overcome the 54 team rating points gap + the disadvantage of playing away even with 5/5. 1st half was promising with 0:0 on the scoretable. But in my eyes it was just a question of time, when we capitulate for the first time. We were not able to shot on the target and only with 2 attempts off was the victory very far away. I guess it was about 90% loss - 10% draw - 0% victory. Unfortunately we were not lucky enough and lost this match.

We ended our quaifying group 7th with 10 points, 4th Belgium 10 points above us. But we lost it last season.

Friendly - Israel 2:0 Malaysia
I expected a bit different tactics (I did not think they are so scared of us to play 5-4-1). The best against 5 defenders are short passes, dominate the midfield sectors and boil their defense! But I was calculating with their 5-4-1 as well so our 3-4-3 would defeat all their possible setups I think... Very important Raihman's goal at the additional time in the 1st half calms us. After the break he scored once more and the victory was almost us.They were 30 points weaker, we have home and one importance level advantage.

We are finishing this season as world's #50 (prntscr.com/857pdy ). Saudi Arabia (in red) has qualified for the WC, so they can earn more points. We have quite comfortable gap below us #51 Colombia is more than 1000 pts under us. And we are losing 680 for the #48 (= PPM Challenge Cup). We earned 3277 points and this result is comparable with #40 Turkey.

But what the season reset will do with these rankings? (prntscr.com/857q77 ). We will be still #50 but only 366 points ahead of #51 Colombia. But the good news are that we are only 299 points behind #48 Canada! What's more, we play our first two friendly matches with #49 Ireland so we can easily get in front of them. I think we can make next season 3000 points as well and that should be enough to qualify for the first time at the PPM Challenge Cup and make there even more points.

So because I am the only candidate in this season's elections let me thank you for your trust and make the nomination for this season.

GOALKEEPERS
Reuven Shevet (OR 1326, age 20)

In:
Avi Tishbi (1012, 18)
Gosha Shapira (749, 18)

Out:
Shon Yoel (905, 21) - age
Zelik Ivri (701, 19) - as #3 is Shapira better and younger with slightly better training facilities (TF) as well

Note: #1 Shevet (1326, 20), #2 Tishbi (1012, 18), #3 Shapira (749, 18)

CENTRAL DEFENDERS
Elitzur Shavit (1153, 20)
Ofer Adler (1291, 20)
Danik Lobotzki (1222, 20)

In:
Aviv Kramnik (818, 18)

Out:
Evgeniy Sukenik (1170, 21) - age

Note: Our trio Shavit-Adler-Lobotzki is 20 yrs old now, hope there will be enough CD in U17 this year.

WING DEFENDERS
Vladimir Nakhmias (883, 20)
Israel Shvitzer (915, 19)

In:
(R) Giora Toledo (1110, 18)
(U) Emil Keshet (1119, 18)
(L) Beni Green (1101, 18)

Out:
(L) Avimeleh Rahat (1405, 21) - age
(U) Anatoliy Rozin (1267, 21) - age
(L) Effi Lezinger (769, 19) - he was only the reserve one, with 3 new good youngsters do not need him

Note: Although our best players (OR) left, their substitutes are sooo good

CENTRAL MIDFIELDERS
Gilad Norman (1126, 20)
Yaakov Landau (1186, 20)
Eyzer Ilani (1141, 19)
Evgeniy Yahav (1225, 19)

In:
Gabi Cedar (928, 18) - Ako Cubs sold this guy recently and he ended in slovak team with bad TF - I missed his market deadline, shame, I could have saved him in my 14/12 TF... :/

WING MIDFIELDERS
R - Noah Shushan (1277, 20)
L - Sagi Shevet (1297, 20)
L - Avigdor Or-el (1355, 20)
U - Gershon Toledano (1041, 19)
R - Ofek Golda (1162, 19)

In:
R - Emil Nakhum (1100, 18)

Out:
L - Yosef Koganovich (1133, 21) - age
U - Alex Nosbaum (1053, 21) - age

CENTRAL FORWARDS
Zeev Livnat (1292, 20)
Ron Raihman (1325, 20)
Elisha Shikman (1109, 19)
Israel Yona (1186, 19)
Evgeniy Zeevi (1154, 19)

In:
Amit Mor (922, 18)

Out:
Elad Ilyin (1227, 21) - age
Eliah Snir (1288, 21) - age

Note: #1 Raihman, #2 Livnat, #3 Yona

WING FORWARDS
L - Tzvi Ben-David (1240, 20)
U - Danik Shani (1212, 20)
L - Hannoh Rozenshtein (1252, 19)
R - Efram Simkhon (1197, 19)

Out:
U - Giora Shlain (1138, 21) - age

Note:
L - #1 Rozenshtein, #2 Ben-David
R - #1 Shani, #2 Simkhon

Qualifying group 2:
#3 - Ukraine
#9 - Serbia
#21 - Spain
#25 - Slovenia
#33 - Saudi Arabia
#45 - Japan
#50 - Israel
#60 - Egypt

I think we can beat Egypt, Japan and Arabia - I must decide which countries to choose for friendly matches to qualify us at the PPM Challenge Cup

Ireland 0:2 Israel
Hmm?! I am pretty sure I made proper squad and tactics so I am very suprised why played the automatic generated squad. But it is victory so leave it. Just check one more time my squad & tactics if is it made properly next time

prntscr.com/8ba1br
Enjoy the friendly matches' map
I picked the top quality teams and try to earn as many points as possible.

Great job so far. Let's hope we keep on advancing.
We're counting on you

Israel 1:5 Ireland
Wow. What a match. They used short passes with 1CM (!!) playing 4-3-3 against our 3-4-3. We had better ball possesion (except our RM sector, but that didn't lose the match). They just scored 3 times from 3 shoots in the 1st half (what's more, 2 of 3 goals were scored by their CD!). The half time result was 1:3 and we didn't scored the goal closing this 2-goals gap. Offensive substitution in 60' (a bit win-or-bust) followed in 70' with Adler's red card led to another 2 goals in our net overall loosing this game 1:5. But it was shooting what sank us - only 3 shoots on goal and 11 (!!) shoots away.

Israel 5:0 Bulgaria
Bulgaria used 5/5 importance last time so I expected the same against us. But they used 1/5, that's why we didn't save more energy in the 2nd half. What an incredible dominance - 16 shoots on target, 10 away! Wish it will happen more often

Just a short look into the world's ranking table:
45 Moldova (0) 3215
46 Scotland (303) 3098
47 ISRAEL (687) 3052
48 Venezuela (50) 2915
49 Japan (0) 2902
50 Ireland (159) 2755
*in brackets = this season
Plenty of points from Bulgarians moved us to the 47th place. This weekend we welcome the Italy, victory will be awarded with about 500 points as well, so go for it!

Italy 1:2 ISRAEL
I tried to block their short passes with 5 midfielders. But it was not as successful as I supposed, the half time was 1:1, with advantage in ball possesion but no advantage in shooting. So here came our typical 3-4-3 switch followed with very lucky red card for Italian CM. That means that they were not able to attack a lot, because I put defenders more to the centre in order to have more players in the middle of the field in order to stop their short passes. There was an enormous advantage, we produced 15 shoots (2/3 of them went wide), scored only once but deserved to won that game

41 Australia (534) 3768
42 Lithuania (408) 3766
43 Indonesia (531) 3690
44 ISRAEL (1251) 3616
45 Canada (789) 3453
46 Venezuela (545) 3410
47 Moldova (0) 3215
48 Scotland (303) 3098
Almost 600 points from Italy pulls us to the 44th place, with more than 500 points above the 48th Scotland, but there are still 5-6 games where we should earn some points Next week against world's #9 Serbia. I think that our chance is as high as it was against Italy.

Great job Jakub. It's a shame we don't have a community that can appreciate your work. keep on!

Thanks for your post! I know, you are micro community and this is "only" U20... But I don't care, I want to share my ideas and tactical insight and hope it helps at least one manager with his own team's preparation

ISRAEL 2:0 Serbia
Today I don't understand why the hell I played through the left side with short passes because here was standing Stefan Đukić with rating 41! But Or-el and Shevet aren't loosers, their rating is 37 and 36 respectively so if you add an importance level advantage we MUST be better in most sectors. Mainly in CM where played their weakest played with rat 26 - Gordanic. But they had strong defense (remember the only way to put strong defense under pressure is to use short passes and dominate in the midfield) and their defenders were focused at the centre so 1 wing forward is a very good choice. In this game would be slightly better to use RF and pull attacks MR. But nice victory, more shots on goal than wide, that's the basis of success.

ISRAEL 1:0 Brasil
That is another surprising result. Just have a look at their forwards - Romero Garcia OR: 1689, Jorginho Leripio OR: 1467 and they were playing with long passes just at these two pigs! We absolutely dominate CM sector, I put everything there, because it was Brazilian weakest sector. Their very wide and offensive 4-4-2 helps me as well. But the biggest "haluz" is in the shooting statistics, Reuven Shevet had to manage only 1 shoot on goal! 3 shoots went wide so it was obvious that if we were not impotent (in shooting of course ) the victory is home.

Ranking table:
37 Israel (2148) 4513
...
48 Moldova (110) 3325

As sings Bon Jovi "we're halfway there!" www.youtube.com/watch?v=b...
This October will be decisive. We still have a friendly with France (could won again about 600 points) and three weaker opponents in the qualifying group.

QUALIFYING GROUP - Day 1

Egypt vs. ISRAEL 0:5
We traveled for the first match to Egypt, the outsider of our group. 2 of their key players were suspended but I didn't want to underestimate it - so the best squad and 5/5 importance. Egyptians used only 3/5 (absolutely unbelievable). We absolutely were able to save a huge ammount of energy, but as I said before, it was an away qualifying match and the victory with energy loss is thousand times more than loss with them but save energy. The game does not need to be commented I think.

Saudi Arabia vs. Japan 1:1
Japan came to Arabia for 0:0 draw with 4-5-1 squad. Although they are very weak CM players, they closed the midfield in the 2nd half successfuly and blocked Arabians playing short passes. Arabia did not shoot in the 2nd half.

Spain vs. Slovenia 2:1
The first surprise, Slovenia should attack 1st place in the group but they used only 3/5 while playing away in Spain. Spain does not have a strong team this year, but only 2 shoots on goal were enough to claim the victory.

Ukraine vs. Serbia 1:1
The battle of the top teams in our group. But Serbia very good closed the centre of the field and Ukraine attacking only through the middle was not able to control the match. Deserved draw.