World Cup Soccer: Israel in Luxembourg for crucial match

Kashtan's team is favored on the road but must not let up to grab all three points.

By ALLON SINAI
Israel soccer 224.88 (photo credit: Asaf Kliger)
Israel soccer 224.88
(photo credit: Asaf Kliger)
Israel enters Saturday's 2010 World Cup qualifier at Luxembourg in the dangerous position of having everything to lose but very little to gain. Dror Kashtan's men must take all three points at the Josy Barthel Stadium, as any other result will severely damage the national team's hopes of reaching a first World Cup in 40 years. Israel began its qualifying campaign last month with a 2-2 home draw against Switzerland followed by a 2-1 road victory at Moldova and, thanks to Luxembourg, is already well-placed to advance from Group 2. Luxembourg stunned Switzerland 2-1 on the road in its last match, inflicting an almost-fatal blow to one of Israel's main challengers for a top-two finish. Alphonse Leweck's 86th-minute strike in Zurich earned Luxembourg its second competitive victory since 1995 and the side's first World Cup qualifying win since it defeated Turkey 2-0 in October of 1972. "We're facing two very important matches," Kashtan said ahead of the qualifiers against Luxembourg on Saturday and at Latvia this upcoming Wednesday. "I've always said that we must treat every opponent with respect. The gaps in international soccer have narrowed and we all saw Luxembourg's surprise victory at Switzerland. I told the players in the dressing room that we're not going away on a holiday. We're up against a well organized and tough opponent." Luxembourg is entering Saturday's match in high spirits following its victory over Switzerland, and coach Guy Hellers believes the recent success is no coincidence. "We have been working together for three years now and hoped to enjoy such success at some point," Hellers told the Web site www.uefa.com of the long-term strategy of the Luxembourg Football Federation to develop its best youth talents. "In our Euro campaign we beat Belarus away and now it was Switzerland, all with a very young team; the youngest team in Europe, in fact. The work done in Luxembourg is at a good level and as a result you have matches like those against Belarus and Switzerland." Luxembourg's lineup against Israel, however, will once more be made up almost entirely of amateurs. "We currently have two full professionals, but our goal is to bring young players through to become professionals playing abroad at professional clubs and then hope they come back as professionals. Maybe we will then have half a dozen professionals like we used to have in the '90s. Our goal for the future is to come third or fourth in a group. We don't want to always be last in the group." Israel's biggest problem ahead of Saturday's match is that the anchors of the side have played limited minutes at their clubs so far this season. Yossi Benayoun has only averaged 35 minutes per game in the Premier League for Liverpool and Tal Ben-Haim has only taken part in three of Manchester City's seven matches. Out-of-favor Deportivo La Coruna goalkeeper Dudu Awat, Portsmouth's Ben Sahar and Bolton's Tamir Cohen have yet to even see a single minute of league action so far, giving Kashtan a selection headache for Saturday's match. "A national team coach is not like a club coach who has time to deal with different problems," Kashtan said. "In the national team you only have two or three days to find the solutions and you need to try and get the best out of what you have." Israel has been anything but impressive in its first two qualifiers and Kashtan is making sure his team won't take Luxembourg lightly. He does, however, know that there will be no excuse if the side fails to defeat Luxembourg on Saturday. "We are the favorites and we have an advantage," Kashtan said. "Nevertheless, we're facing a tough match. We need to be very clever and find the way to crack their game plan."