Benayoun believes Israel have historic opportunity
By Steve Tongue in Tel Aviv
24 March 2007
Israel's captain, Yossi Benayoun, having spent the season at West Ham under Alan Pardew and Alan Curbishley, knows full well how stress can affect a team and their manager. He is therefore hoping that the negativity surrounding Steve McClaren's England will translate into the greatest result in his country's football history this evening.
"I read a lot of newspapers and see all the pressure you put on your on team," Benayoun told British reporters yesterday. "Hopefully for us, all this pressure will affect England and we get the advantage and take the points. I know what's going on in England, everyone is picking on Steve McClaren, but I think he's a very good manager. The problem in England and also sometimes in Israel is that people don't have patience. They need to give him time. I think he proved himself when he was manager of Middlesbrough and reached the final of the Uefa Cup.
"The only bad [England] result was really against Macedonia at home, where nobody expected them to lose points but you need to understand that Croatia is one of the most difficult places to play. Yesterday we watched the game against Spain and England didn't deserve to lose."
Benayoun, who has missed West Ham's last two games with a knee injury, is expected to be given a free role today in front of an otherwise defensive midfield trio.
Dror Kashtan, the lugubrious 62-year-old Israeli coach, has called upon his country's warrior spirit to overturn the odds, even referring back to having been under the British mandate when an English team first played here some 75 years ago. "England are clearly the favourites, but on a given day everything if possible," he said. "It will be a very important match for the Israeli players, who will be very passionate and give a lot. It's very significant for the country that this nation knows how to fight. It will be possible. There are obviously gaps between the two teams but English football is famous for Second and Third Division clubs managing to beat the big guns. One of the nice things about football is that teams sometimes cause upsets."
He was speaking from experience. Kashtan was in charge of the Hapoel Tel Aviv side that dramatically knocked Claudio Ranieri's Chelsea out of the Uefa Cup in 2001, when six Chelsea players refused to travel to Israel because of security worries. Shimon Gershon, who is expected to be alongside Bolton's Tal Ben Haim in central defence today, scored a penalty in the first leg, which Hapoel won 2-0, before hanging on in London for a 1-1 draw.
Regarded as the most successful Israeli club coach of all time after winning five domestic championships, and briefly in charge of Israel's Under-21 side almost 20 years ago, he took over the senior squad last summer following the resignation of Avraham Grant, the current Portsmouth technical director.
Grant had overseen a World Cup qualifying campaign in which Israel remained unbeaten but failed to reach the finals after drawing every game against France, Ireland and Switzerland.
Israeli supporters, frustrated at being edged out of a first qualification since 1970 by what was effectively one away goal, seemed to decide that their glass was half-empty rather than half-full. They have taken a similar view of the current group: pleased with a 1-1 draw in Russia but upset by Croatia's 4-3 victory here in November, a first home defeat for seven years.
Yesterday Kashtan closed the squad's training session, which ran on later than expected as he pondered his options. He has well-travelled defenders in Gershon and Ben Haim as well as Arik Benado, who is likely to play as a holding midfielder while breaking the Israeli record of 90 caps. But with Roberto Collauti suspended there is much less experience among attackers like the uncapped Elyaniv Barda and the teenagers Ben Sahar, of Chelsea, and Toto Tamuz.
"There are beautiful players in the England team," said Avi Cohen, the former Liverpool and Rangers defender. "If they have a good day, we will have problems." If they do not, the problems will all be McClaren's.
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