The Last Word Returns

The Last Word
Don’t take it all so seriously]
By JEREMY LAST
With unfortunate predictability, the Israeli sports world plunged itself into depression a few minutes before 11 p.m. on Tuesday night.

The national soccer team had been outplayed and thoroughly beaten in a 2-1 defeat to Greece in Piraeus, leaving its chances of qualifying for the 2012 European Championships all but over.

Aside from a few illuminating runs of Hapoel Tel Aviv striker Itai “Etay” Shechter, there was a clear lack of spice in the performance by the boys in blue and white, something which was almost immediately blamed on head coach Luis Fernandez.

But with some five months till Israel’s next qualifiers, against Latvia and Georgia at the end of March, it’s time to get some perspective.

Now, I would be the last journalist you’d find praising the work of Monsieur Fernandez. Having seen him do very little to improve Beitar Jerusalem in the few months he coached the team in 2005, I opposed his appointment this past summer from the very start.

The man was a quality footballer in the 1980s when he won the Euro with France, but his coaching career has been patchy at best, most notably when he was unable to get the best out of a young Ronaldinho at PSG in 2001/02.

He often comes across like a petulant child, from when he disappeared to France after his Beitar team lost to Hapoel Petah Tikva to his latest rant against the Israeli media in Monday’s pre-game press conference.

And, had Israel Football Association chairman Avi Luzon appointed an appropriate coach, rather than the first foreigner he had heard of who agreed to accept the cut-price salary on offer, there’s a chance Israel might have come away with a point on Tuesday evening. Even if the overly-excitable Eyal Berkovic got the job.

However, there has to be a limit to the over-analyzing of these games.

Whoever was chosen to stand on the sidelines and guide the team through the games against Croatia on Saturday night and Greece on Wednesday was facing an uphill struggle.

International soccer always will attract the attention of the nation due to one word: pride.

Everyone wants to see their country represented well on the global stage, and world sports provide that opportunity.

From England to Israel, Croatia to Colombia, the local media whip the fans into a frenzy in the lead up to the games, often leaving them with far too high expectations.

As much as we all love internationals, the fact is they are a lottery. The coach only gets a few days with the players to prepare for the games, he has a very limited pool of players to choose from and that can be ruined by sudden injuries.

When I spoke to Ronnie Rosenthal on The Last Word Show on Monday he claimed the blame lies with the IFA. The ex-Liverpool star and Israel international told me the IFA isn’t investing enough in providing youngsters with facilities and the opportunities, and that comes out in the performances of the senior national team.

Whether Rosenthal is right or not is immaterial. Maybe there could be a few more quality Israeli players. Either way, the nature of the international schedule makes it practically impossible for any team to prepare properly.

The countries which do the best are usually those with larger populations or smaller countries who are lucky to have a few overly talented players born there.

For international soccer to be truly representative of a country’s worth the schedule has to be totally changed.

The best example is the European basketball schedule, where all EuroBasket games are played in the offseason, giving coaches and players the chance to come together and prepare properly, spending a significant period of time together before and during the qualifying campaign or tournament.

In the absence of such a situation all we can do is watch and hope. But it just isn’t worth getting into a tizzle over.

Sports fans have a right to put their hopes in individual sportsmen playing in international competitions like athletics, or local teams playing in international sporting events like Hapoel Tel Aviv in the Champions League.

But, considering the lack of preparation and the effect injuries like those to Yossi Benayoun and Biram Kiyal can have on a team, it’s not worth getting too upset about Israel’s likely failure to qualify yet again.

jeremylast@gmail.com