Asunto: Israel U20

ISRAEL 1:1 Romania!
Romania scored quite early (earlier than I wished), but they were a bit lulled by this goal. Great Tishbi kept our chances high! He made almost 10 saves. In 60' we risked 3-4-3, later in 80' I switched to all-in (almost all players pulled forward) and sucessfully!!! 81' Elisha SHIKMAAAN scored and it was the substitute who scored! But what followed! In a hectic ending we were very close to another goal and Yona missed the targed by centimeters from the fast break. Now we have 4 points and let's watch the game between Serbia and our tomorrow's opponent Latvia!

Latvia 1:0 Serbia

1st ISRAEL ... 3:1 ... 4pts
2nd Latvia ... 2:1 ... 4pts
3rd Romania ... 2:2 ... 2pts
4th Serbia ... 0:3 ... 0pts

Tomorrow:
ISRAEL vs. Latvia
Romania vs. Sebia

Hmm, there IS a chance. Because Serbia is currently a bit stronger than Romania and Romania MUST win! Latvia is level above Romania and Serbia - it will be hard to get even 1 point for our tired team which is weaker by 40(!!) points.

Thanks, but don't be silly We had a great portion of luck this season - we can just hope that there remained some small drops for tomorrow

Game over...
The match between Romaina and Serbia started half a hour before our game and Romania scored very early from the penalty kick. Later they added another one. Serbia scored once but wasn't able to add another. Final score ROM 3:1 SER.

So we were in a bad situation - we couldn't lose with Latvia (and I think even 0:0 draw wouldn't be enough because of score) and Yahav was out because of cards. They used slightly better tactic (they placed defenders wider and we attacked only via left side), but the biggest difference was in the team strength - we have very tired team and we are more than 40 points weaker.

But overall it was great experience! We successfully qualified and we earned 4 points in the group stage as a total outsider. There could be no smaller target for another two seasons than qualifying again! I hope you enjoyed the tournament and all this season as well as I did!

Thank you for your support in the elections. I am currently snowed under my school tasks, but when something important crops up, I will write a post Thanks again and have a nice day

Hello again!
Let's sum up our preparation for the qualifiers -
My strategy was to play 5/5 importance against teams high in the ranking table (because it is worth more points), other matches I played 1/5.

Results:
ARG 0:1 (importance 1/5)
BLR 0:5 (1/5)
NOR 3:0 (5/5 -> 3/5 at the half time)
AUT 0:3 (1/5)
ITA 1:0 (5/5)
SVK 2:2 (5/5)
RUS 0:1 (1/5)

I divide the results in two groups:
A) Games I really wanted to win and we played 5/5
B) Games I wanted to win, but didn't want to waste energy

B)
0-0-4 (win-draw-loss)
This could have been better but there were mainly better teams against us and we played 2 tight games out of 4. If I was choosing teams for friendly matches now I would choose different opponents (easier). Maybe next time

A)
2-1-0
Great! And we saved few energy against Norway. Maybe against Slovakia... They scored twice and that is quite a lot considering their squad and our dominance.

And here goes the qualifieeeeers!

ISRAEL U20 (Team strangth 154)
------------------------------------------------
28.5. (Home) Saudi Arabia (Team strength 132)
4.6. (H) Argentina (184)
11.6. (away) Ukraine (178)
18.6. (H) Egypt (119)
25.6. (a) Montenegro (81)
2.7. (a) Tchai-wan (164)
9.7. (H) Ireland (144)

Thanks to our ranking and high position we got very nice group! One total outsider - Montenegro, one outsider - Egypt, one weaker team - Saudi Arabia and two comparable - Ireland, Tchai-wan! Favourites are Argentina and Ukraine, we should fight with Ireland and Tchai-wan for two spots

1st ROUND
Israel 6:1 Saudi Arabia
Why did they used 1/5 importance?! First of all - we would have beaten them even if they had used 5/5 Why? Because they played 2-6-2!
DO check our strategy here: prntscr.com/ba3uod

That's all for now, have a nice day and see you in one week

Hi, just a short summary -
1 Tchai-wan ... 16
2 Israel ... 15
3 Argentina ... 15
4 Ukraine ... 14
5 Ireland ... 10
6 Saudi Arabia ... 7
7 Egypt ... 4
8 Montenegro ... 0

What a great position! We lost two games against Ukraine (we played away so I was saving a little bit) and Argentina (tight 0:1 loss home). We dominated the games against Montenegro (3:0), Egypt (3:0) and Saudi Arabia (6:1). Then we managed to win both two very important matches for us - against Tchai-wan (1:0 away!) and against Ireland (1:0 home). Against Tchai-wan it was a game with just a few chances but we were given a chance to score from the penalty kick and Amit Mor scored! We played home against Ireland, we were better all the game, but the score was 0:0, but... Denis Liberman scored after a corner kick in the last seconds of the match! So we have 15 pts, but the group table shows, that we are not certain yet and it will be very tough.

Another news, we qualified for the PPM Challenge Cup (division B). We will play on MONDAY against SUITZERLAND (team strength 155), on TUESDAY against SWEDEN (team strength 160) and on WEDNESDAY against one of our qualification-group-opponent TCHAI-WAN (team strength 146). Our team strength is 149, so we aren't one of the two favourites, but I hope it will be tough.

I hope you enjoyed this repre season, although I didn't write here as much as I wanted to

Now enjoy the tournament, support our team and hope it could be another medal

Good job and good luck!

1 Tchai-wan ... 25
2 Argentina ... 25
3 Ukraine ... 23
4 Ireland ... 22
5 ISRAEL ... 21
6 Saudi Arabia ... 14
7 Montenegro ... 6
8 Egypt ... 4

...and two games remaining! We are facing TCHAI-WAN (this weekend home) and IRELAND (away, next week). Situation is a bit complicated because of our loss against Saudi Arabia.

Ukraine and Argentina are facing both Egypt and Montenegro, so they for sure get 6pts. So it is only between us, Ireland and Tchai-wan and one must out. Both this teams will play against Saudi Arabia (Ireland away, Tchai-wan home).

So we can reduce it like this:
1. Tchai-wan ... 4 (goal difference: +10)
2. Ireland ... 1 (+24)
3. Israel ... 0 (+11)
4. Saudi Arabia ... -7 (-5)

But leave the calculations and start with beating Tchai-wan tomorrow.

22.10.
ISRAEL 3:0 Tchaj-wan
Saudi Arabia 1:3 Ireland

1. Ireland ... 4 (goal difference: +26)
2. Tchaj-wan ... 4 (+7)
3. Israel ... 3 (+13)
4. Saudi Arabia ... -7 (-6)

We are playing the last game away against IRELAND.
Victory = World Cup
Loss = eliminated
Draw = If Saudi Arabia could steal some points in Tchaj-wan, we may draw in Ireland. Otherwise we are eliminated.

(NOTE: I suppose that Argentina will defeat Egypt, will be played late tonight)

!Israel 4:0 Ireland! well done

LET THE PARTY BEGIN! (m.youtube.com/watch?v=sKw... )
Unbelievable, but we are there again! Israel has just qualified for the World Cup!

Great job Jakub!
You've taken our youngsters to the big boys court, Keep it up.

Thanks, friend!
This team is almost perfect... almost! The only thing we miss is a good goalkeeper. We have amazing defense (one for all - Ron Bender with OR 1712), but behind them is Eshel Oskar with OR 911 It could be lottery, if he will catch all balls or get 3 goals from 3 shots.

Players are almost drained, with very low energy but well motivated! I am looking forward to see which opponents we are going to meet in the group stage (I'm not sure, if it is random (draw), or according to a ranking table or position in the qualifiers).

And at the end, the Czech republic is eliminated! They lost their last game against Greece, although they were about 70 points stronger and playing home!

And one more thing, thanks to the successful qualifying battle, I would like to candidate again. If you like my work, please support me with your preferential vote soccer.powerplaymanager.c... ! Thanks