goblue96
Disney and Curling Expert
I’ve been playing Football Manager in my usual comfort zone in England taking a team from the Championship into the Premier League and finally into European competition. I wanted something different. Something that could hold my interest so I don’t go crazy. I’m trying, for the first time, a club and country save and had it narrowed down to two countries with very little European history, Norway and Israel. I settled on Israel and chose Maccabi Haifa for my team.
Dutch-Israeli Raz Van de Vliert takes over Maccabi Haifa. The 30-year old manager has earned all of his coaching badges and has played at the national level professionally before having his leg shattered by a Nigel de Jong tackle. He is a Louis van Gaal disciple and will be bringing “Van Gaal Ball” to both Maccabi Haifa and to the Israeli National Team.
Press high. Press often. Keep the ball.
Maccabi Haifa is one of the “big four” teams in the Israeli Premier League but has won the third most titles with most of the titles coming the 2000s and last in 2010. So, they are in a bit of dry spell. They share the second largest ground in Israel, the Sammy Ofer Stadium which seats just over 30,000 people, with Hapoel Haifa.
I’ll have a full roster breakdown in the next post because there are a lot of players on the roster to sift through including a lot of players who are out on loan.
The board have the desire to be the best club in Israel. I have the desire to be the best club in Israel and we share a similar view in how to get there. Sounds like a match made in heaven.
The Israeli National Team has had a very interesting history.
1930-1938: Attempted to qualify for the World Cup as the Mandatory Palestine National Team
1954-1974: Attempted to qualify for the World Cup as part of the Asian Confederation
1958: Qualified for the Asian Games (group stage)
1970: Qualified for it’s only World Cup
1972: Asian Games Runner-up (won 2nd round group stages against North Korea and Kuwait by forfeit)
1974: Kicked out of the Asian Confederation due to the Arab League Boycott of Israel
1974-present: Attempted to qualify for the World Cup as part of UEFA
1994: Joined UEFA as a full member
The Israeli National Team has never qualified for the European Championships or the World Cup as a member of UEFA. They currently reside in Division C for the UEFA Nations League and finished in 2nd place, behind Scotland, in their group for the 2018-19 cycle. They should be in Division B for the 2020-21 cycle which has yet to be generated by Football Manager.
The short term goals for the team is to improve the ranking from it’s lowly 93rd place. This is a country that was ranked as high as 15th in FIFA’s ham-fisted rankings despite not ever qualifying for a continental competition or World Cup.
This is the Israeli roster that I was handed for their June 18, 2019 friendly against England which should be fun considering the game starts on June 17, 2019. I’ll, basically, be throwing a team out there and seeing what happens before moving into the fall European Championship qualifying matches where I will putting the “Van Gaal Ball” stamp on this team as well.
Dutch-Israeli Raz Van de Vliert takes over Maccabi Haifa. The 30-year old manager has earned all of his coaching badges and has played at the national level professionally before having his leg shattered by a Nigel de Jong tackle. He is a Louis van Gaal disciple and will be bringing “Van Gaal Ball” to both Maccabi Haifa and to the Israeli National Team.
Press high. Press often. Keep the ball.
Maccabi Haifa is one of the “big four” teams in the Israeli Premier League but has won the third most titles with most of the titles coming the 2000s and last in 2010. So, they are in a bit of dry spell. They share the second largest ground in Israel, the Sammy Ofer Stadium which seats just over 30,000 people, with Hapoel Haifa.
I’ll have a full roster breakdown in the next post because there are a lot of players on the roster to sift through including a lot of players who are out on loan.
The board have the desire to be the best club in Israel. I have the desire to be the best club in Israel and we share a similar view in how to get there. Sounds like a match made in heaven.
The Israeli National Team has had a very interesting history.
1930-1938: Attempted to qualify for the World Cup as the Mandatory Palestine National Team
1954-1974: Attempted to qualify for the World Cup as part of the Asian Confederation
1958: Qualified for the Asian Games (group stage)
1970: Qualified for it’s only World Cup
1972: Asian Games Runner-up (won 2nd round group stages against North Korea and Kuwait by forfeit)
1974: Kicked out of the Asian Confederation due to the Arab League Boycott of Israel
1974-present: Attempted to qualify for the World Cup as part of UEFA
1994: Joined UEFA as a full member
The Israeli National Team has never qualified for the European Championships or the World Cup as a member of UEFA. They currently reside in Division C for the UEFA Nations League and finished in 2nd place, behind Scotland, in their group for the 2018-19 cycle. They should be in Division B for the 2020-21 cycle which has yet to be generated by Football Manager.
The short term goals for the team is to improve the ranking from it’s lowly 93rd place. This is a country that was ranked as high as 15th in FIFA’s ham-fisted rankings despite not ever qualifying for a continental competition or World Cup.
This is the Israeli roster that I was handed for their June 18, 2019 friendly against England which should be fun considering the game starts on June 17, 2019. I’ll, basically, be throwing a team out there and seeing what happens before moving into the fall European Championship qualifying matches where I will putting the “Van Gaal Ball” stamp on this team as well.