Introduction
[Stub]- World Cup Appearances: 1
- Best World Cup Result: Group Stage (Asian Cup I)
- World Cup Appearances: 0
- Best World Cup Result: Did Not Qualify
Early World Cups
Israel was not an original team in WE8 and thus did not participate in the early World Cups. They were eventually created following
World Cup V and participated for the first time in
World Cup VI qualifying.
World Cup Qualifying in UEFA
Isreal was drawn into UEFA Group F for their first ever qualifying campaign, in
World Cup VI. Their very first match was against
Switzerland, in which they managed a 1-1 draw as
Golan scored their first ever goal. Other teams in the group included
France,
Sweden,
Romania, and
Poland. Despite the positive start, Israel would struggle throughout qualifying, failing to win any of their first seven games. Finally, in their eighth match, Israel shocked
France with a goal by
Benayoun to pick up a 1-0 victory over the former champions. It would be Israel's only win of the campaign, as they drew and then lost their last two matches to finish the group with 8 points from 1 win, 5 draws, and 4 losses. Israel were last place in the group, although they were only three points behind both
Sweden and
Switzerland. Their sole victory ended up impacting the final standings too, as it caused France to finish two points behind
Romania. Both teams still qualified to the World Cup though.
For
World Cup VII, Israel were drawn into UEFA Group C against
Russia,
Denmark, and
Wales. Israel failed to win a single game in this group, only managing two draws against
Denmark while losing both games against each other opponent. Obviously Israel again finished in last place with just two points and failed to qualify yet again.
In
World Cup VIII, Israel were again drawn into UEFA Group F, although this time against
Turkey,
Ukraine, and
Finland. Israel started strong, a 2-2 draw against Ukraine followed by a shocking 2-1 win over Turkey propelled the Israelis into an early tie for first. Everything fell apart during the next two matches, both against Finland, as Israel lost both to fall out of the top spot. Another draw with Ukraine sealed both nations' fate as they had each needed a win to remain in the hunt for the qualification spot. Both ended up losing their last match anyways, and Israel narrowly avoided last place by virtue of goal difference since they were tied with Ukraine on 5 points apiece.
Move to Asia
World Cup VIII was originally slated to begin with 86 nations, but at the very last minute
New Zealand submitted a bid to participate. This happened after the qualifying groups had already been drawn, but WEFA decided to let them participate, and since most of the
AFC groups included first time teams, New Zealand was just drawn into a random group and it was made a group of five while the rest of Asia used groups of four.
Uneven qualifying groups are generally frowned upon by WEFA though, so following
World Cup VIII they declared that Asia needed to balance itself. That meant they would need to add a member to get to an even 18, which would allow them to use three groups of six in the next campaign.
Indonesia submitted a bid to become the 18th member, but had only 12 players included in their bid, including a few that had already been capped by
Netherlands. This may have been accepted in the "Winning Eleven era", but not for PES10. Instead, with no other Asian nations having a serious bid, the
AFC invited
Israel to join. Since Israel is located in the Middle East, along with many other AFC nations, the move was approved by WEFA.
Indonesia eventually put together a full squad and joined as the 19th member. However, rather than have Israel move back to UEFA,
Georgia joined the confederation to increase membership to 20 teams.
Roster
[Stub]Competitions
Honors
Competitive Matches
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Australia: 0 W 0 D 1 L 0 GF 3 GA
Israel 0 - 3 Australia (Asian Cup I Group Stage)
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Denmark: 0 W 2 D 0 L 2 GF 2 GA
Israel 1 - 1 Denmark (World Cup VII Qualifying)
Denmark 1 - 1 Israel (World Cup VII Qualifying)
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Finland: 0 W 0 D 1 L 1 GF 4 GA
Israel 1 - 3 Finland (World Cup VIII Qualifying)
Finland 1 - 0 Israel (World Cup VIII Qualifying)
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France: 1 W 0 D 1 L 2 GF 4 GA
Israel 1 - 4 France (World Cup VI Qualifying)
France 0 - 1 Israel (World Cup VI Qualifying)
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Iran: 0 W 0 D 2 L 2 GF 6 GA
Iran 2 - 0 Israel (Asian Cup I Qualifying)
Israel 2 - 4 Iran (Asian Cup I Qualifying)
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Iraq: 1 W 0 D 1 L 2 GF 4 GA
Iraq 0 - 1 Israel (Asian Cup I Qualifying)
Israel 1 - 4 Iraq (Asian Cup I Qualifying)
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Japan: 1 W 0 D 0 L 3 GF 1 GA
Israel 3 - 1 Japan (Asian Cup I Group Stage)
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Poland: 0 W 1 D 1 L 2 GF 3 GA
Poland 1 - 1 Israel (World Cup VI Qualifying)
Israel 1 - 2 Poland (World Cup VI Qualifying)
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Qatar: 1 W 2 D 0 L 6 GF 3 GA
Israel 3 - 0 Qatar (Asian Cup I Qualifying)
Qatar 1 - 1 Israel (Asian Cup I Qualifying)
Qatar 2 - 2 Israel (Asian Cup I Group Stage)
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Romania: 0 W 2 D 0 L 0 GF 0 GA
Israel 0 - 0 Romania (World Cup VI Qualifying)
Romania 0 - 0 Israel (World Cup VI Qualifying)
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Russia: 0 W 0 D 2 L 0 GF 5 GA
Russia 2 - 0 Israel (World Cup VII Qualifying)
Israel 0 - 3 Russia (World Cup VII Qualifying)
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South Korea: 0 W 0 D 1 L 1 GF 2 GA
Israel 1 - 2 South Korea (Asian Cup I Group Stage)
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Sweden: 0 W 1 D 1 L 2 GF 3 GA
Sweden 2 - 1 Israel (World Cup VI Qualifying)
Israel 1 - 1 Sweden (World Cup VI Qualifying)
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Switzerland: 0 W 1 D 1 L 1 GF 3 GA
Switzerland 1 - 1 Israel (World Cup VI Qualifying)
Israel 0 - 2 Switzerland (World Cup VI Qualifying)
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Syria: 1 W 0 D 1 L 4 GF 3 GA
Israel 2 - 0 Syria (Asian Cup I Qualifying)
Syria 3 - 2 Israel (Asian Cup I Qualifying)
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Turkey: 1 W 0 D 1 L 4 GF 5 GA
Israel 2 - 1 Turkey (World Cup VIII Qualifying)
Turkey 4 - 2 Israel (World Cup VIII Qualifying)
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Ukraine: 0 W 2 D 0 L 4 GF 4 GA
Ukraine 2 - 2 Israel (World Cup VIII Qualifying)
Israel 2 - 2 Ukraine (World Cup VIII Qualifying)
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Wales: 0 W 0 D 2 L 0 GF 4 GA
Israel 0 - 3 Wales (World Cup VII Qualifying)
Wales 1 - 0 Israel (World Cup VII Qualifying)