The Israel National Soccer Team begins qualification for the 2024 European Championships this weekend when they welcome Kosovo to the Holy Land on Saturday night in a sold out Bloomfield Stadium and then head on the road for a date with Switzerland the following Tuesday. <\/p>\n
The 17th edition of the Euros will take place in Germany over the course of the summer of 2024 as an expanded field of 24 nations will take part in the tournament. There will be 53 countries participating in the qualification phase which begins this weekend as the 10 matchdays will stretch all the way until November with the semifinals and finals of the last places being played in March of 2024.<\/p>\n
Israel will be playing in Group I together with Romania, Belarus, Andorra along with the aforementioned Kosovo and Switzerland and are expected to find a way to advance to the Euros for the first time in the nation\u2019s history despite the international retirement of marksman Eran Zahavi. <\/p>\n
The blue-and-white I\u2019ll be under the direction of head coach Alon Hazan who will begin his first European Championship campaign on the bench. Together with sports director Yossi Benayoun, the pair have built a team with a mix of veterans and youngsters some of which who are also heading into their debut European Championships.<\/p>\n
The team will be anchored by a young strike force trio up front in Manor Solomon who has turned into a legitimate English Premier League star with Fulham, Liel Abada who plies his trade with Celtic in Scotland and Red Bull Salzburg starlet Oscar Gloukh. <\/p>\n
\u201cManor Solomon as a star is not going to be expected to lead the national team to the Euros,\u201d Hazan said trying to lower expectations. \u201cHe\u2019s going to be a part of the national team that can help us advance to the European Championships. We are going to have patience with Oscar Gloukh and he will be someone who will lead this national team, but we have a journey that we are on and that is most important of all.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shon Weissman who transferred from Real Valladolid to Granada in Spain\u2019s second division and Wolfsberg\u2019s Tai Baribo will also be counted on to pick up the goal scoring slack without Zahavi.<\/p>\n
In goal there will be a changing of the guard with shot stopper Ofir Marciano not playing consistently with Feyenoord as Maccabi Tel Aviv keeper Daniel Peretz and Beer Sheva\u2019s Omri Glazer vying for the starting role. <\/p>\n
On defense, Beer Sheva\u2019s centre back Miguel Vitor will be a main cog in the back line while Eli Dasa who is playing in Russia will be a reliable right back, however, the balance of the defensive corps is fairly inexperienced with the likes of Danny Grouper, Raz Shlomo, Doron Liedner and Sagiv Yehezkel.<\/p>\n
The midfield will be manned by plenty of veterans including Israeli league stalwarts Dor Peretz, Dolev Haziza and Gaby Kanichowsky along with Neta Lavi who is currently playing in Japan along with the likes of up and coming Muhammad Jaber, Mohammed Knaan and Omri Gendelman.<\/p>\n
One player who will be making his final appearance for the Israel National Team will be captain Bibras Natcho who will be hanging up his cleats in his 88th appearance for the blue-and-white. The Partizan Belgrade midfielder scored 4 goals for Israel and was the nation\u2019s first ever non-Jew to hold the honor of captain. <\/p>\n
\u201cBibras Natcho is one of the best people I have ever encountered,\u201d Yossi Benayoun said. \u201cHe has been one of the best players and most loyal players for the Israel National Team. He deserves the highest of honors. I tried to convince him to continue. I personally enjoyed every moment that we spent together and he deserves the chance to perform one last time in a game like this one coming up.\u201d<\/p>\n
Eli Dasa who has served as the caption on occasion spoke about Natcho\u2019s contribution to the national team program over the years, \u201cI can\u2019t say that I\u2019m excited about his departure, in fact, it\u2019s very upsetting. We have spoken a lot about this recently and it\u2019s not simple because he is a very central figure for the national team. He taught me what it means to be a captain and was involved in helping with my transfer to play in Russia. Having people like Bibras Natcho shouldn\u2019t be taken for granted.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are obligated to battle for second place in this group,\u201d Dasa said about the expectations. \u201cHowever, this won\u2019t be simple including against Kosovo. We know we have a realistic chance but we will have to bring our best game in order to accomplish that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shon Weissman also discussed the expectations that Israel is under heading into this tournament, \u201cI\u2019m happy that there are expectations which means that we have a good national team and that we have set high goals. We will have a packed stadium and because we do we can defeat any team.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIsrael hasn\u2019t participated in a major tournament in over 40 years,\u201d Miguel Vitor said. \u201cSo we can\u2019t be considered as favorites. We need to be realistic as Kosovo is at about the same level that we are. But we do have players with quality and modesty with a mix of older and younger guys.\u201d <\/p>\n
For Hazan no match will be easy and whoever believes to underestimate their opponent will be in for quite a surprise, \u201cI\u2019m excited that we have two very important and tough games that are in front of us. While Kosovo may not be a big name, they are an excellent national team and it\u2019s not going to be a walk in the park. While there may have been issues leading up to this point, our goal first and foremost the success of the national team and to record the best possible results.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Israel National Soccer Team begins qualification for the 2024 European Championships this weekend when they welcome Kosovo to the Holy Land on Saturday night in a sold out Bloomfield Stadium and then head on the road for a date with Switzerland the following Tuesday. The 17th edition of the Euros will take place in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":83101,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[4949,139,5526,29],"class_list":["post-83035","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-football-israel-2","tag-alon-hazan","tag-bibras-natcho","tag-euros","tag-israel","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"yoast_head":"\n