Toto causes Israeli downfall

[Lato]

Originally Posted By: Rhodes

Lato - You are no doubt aware that Toto was all set to go to Bayern Munich at the start of this season following previous interest shown in him by a list of Club's as long as your arm including Chelsea, Tottenham, Everton, Bolton, Portsmouth and Rangers, unfortunately the deal fell through otherwise he could well have been the biggest overseas success story in Germany since Kevin Keegan at Hamburg:

No I didn't know that. But I see they like the list of clubs you mentioned didn't sign him. Well I guess he still has time on his side as he isn't yet 21.

Incidentally Lucio, Tony Woodcock, Allan Simonsen, Mark von Bommel, Ebi Smolarek, Franck Ribery, Bixente Lizarazu, Tony Yeboah and Ailton to name a few might question your remark about foreign players impacting on the Bundesliga since Kevin Keegan. That list is probably as long as your arm!

[Rhodes]

Originally Posted By: samuelsmiles

Looks like a talented player to me. Look at the move about 9 seconds in to the video.

Samuelsmiles - Occasionally you can post sensibly and this is one of those rare occasions, talented is a huge understatement though and he is a chip off the old block that's for sure.

[Horace]

Toto is presumably still stateless, with no passport. This will make him very difficult to sign by any non-Israeli team. As a non-EU national, work permit wise, he's not an established enough senior international anyway.

[Rhodes]

Horace - With all the immigrants swarming our shores like flies at present from far and wide, taking our jobs in construction and the restaurant business for example despite being here illegally with the Government not lifting a finger, I'm sure Toto will find employment with a British Club one way or another if one were to come in for him.

[Hookey]

You can add Owen Hargreaves to the list.

[Rhodes]

Hookey - Hargreaves was at Bayern Munich for years before anybody in England had ever heard of him, you can't mention him in the same breath as the likes of Keegan and Woodcock for example who had already had successful careers in England before they went out to Germany to make their mark at Hamburg and Cologne respectively.

[Lato]

but Hargreaves was still an overseas (i.e non-German) success story in German football.

[Rhodes]

LATO - I see where you are coming from but Bayern Munich weren't a one man team like Hamburg and Cologne were with Keegan and Woodcock. Anyway most people, me included, don't class Hargreaves as British and he's in that Greg Rusedski and Lennox Lewis category.

[Lato]

Lennox Lewis was born in England but he did box under "flags of convenience"

 

I wouldn't call the Hamburg and Cologne teams of the late 1970s/early 80s as one man teams although I forget you define this seasons Royston Town as a one man team of course.

[Rhodes]

Lato - Well how do you account for Hamburg's unprecedented success when Keegan went there taking them to a Championship and a European Cup Final single handed and narrowly losing to a Shilton inspired Nottingham Forest.

[Rhodes]

LATO - I note that you haven't commented on Israel's excellent draw with Greece yesterday putting them very much in the driving seat to qualify for South Africa.

[Lato]

to be honest I hadn't noticed it as I was still trying to comprehend the complete nightmare of a defence that was Polska in Northern Ireland.

 

I see that Israel are well placed but they face away games against their two most realistic rivals Switzerland and Greece. If they can avoid defeat in at least one of them and take maximum points from their three home games v Luxembourg, Moldova and Lativa (which given the fact they have only lost one competitive international in the Ramat-Gan this century) then they must have a chance. Mind you I see Toto Tamuz is still missing from the line up making this post a bit pointless as far as any connection you may have with Israel is concerned.

[Lato]

that's a disappointing defeat for Israel in Greece. With LAtiva winning that pushs Israel down to 4th place.

 

As for Polska well you can't complain at 10-0 but it could easily have been double that!

[Lato]

rhodes, I'm very disappointed that you haven't commented on Polska's magnificent 10-0 win over San Marino. I watched the game and it really was 'men against boys' as you would say. We could have doubled that score easily as we had two goals disallowed, hit the crossbar and missed at least seven or eight other great chances....just a shame we couldn't have done it v Northern Ireland but then Boruc was in goal then!!

 

I'm less surprised you haven't commented on Israels defeat though!

[Rhodes]

LATO - Obviously any 10-0 victory is worthy of a pat on the back but particularly at International level so I would be the first to heap praise on Poland for the win over San Marino who are notorious for putting ten men behind the ball hoping to get a 0-0 draw. I really wonder what the point is of having Countries such as San Marino, Liechtenstein, Andorra, Malta, Armenia, Moldova and Azerbaijan competing at World Cup and European Championship level but no doubt you will have a different view just to be opposite.

[Lato]

its interesting that the arguement about the inclusion of one of these teams only appears after one of them has lost heavily. I notice that there were no such calls after the Faroes beat Austria, after Armenia (bit harsh to mention them in your list) beat Poland and drew with Portugal. After England only won 1-0 in Azerbaijan we were told it was a tough place to get a result. I also seem to recall Liechtenstein beat Luxemboutrg was it 4-1 and you of course with your Israeli connections will know that perennial whipping boys Luxembourg upset the Swiss recently. An Cyprus for so long a 'push over' have recently had excellent results against Ireland and Wales (would you include them in your list?)

 

So upsets can happen and the gulf between the smaller nations and the bigger ones is closing. However I think UEFA had a problem by admitting these countries although of course it couldn't do much else given the geo-political changes that occurred in Europe. Maybe there is a case for some form of pre-qulifying tournamnent between the lesser nations but how would that be determined?

 

Personally I am actually in favour of World based qualifying groups for the World Cup so for example England might be in a group of six with say Belgium, Venezuela, Honudura, Ghana and the Solomon Islands. I know this will never happen because the various continental associations want their slice of the cake at the finals by having representation there.

 

 

[Rhodes]

Originally Posted By: Lato

Personally I am actually in favour of World based qualifying groups for the World Cup so for example England might be in a group of six with say Belgium, Venezuela, Honudura, Ghana and the Solomon Islands. I know this will never happen because the various continental associations want their slice of the cake at the finals by having representation there.

LATO - You make some good points in your post however wouldn't this involve too much travelling, Club Managers would be even more up in arms than they are now with their players not getting back from a Wednesday game in the Solomon Islands for example or the great Kenny Dyer's Montserrat until Friday with a game to prepare for the following day on on a Sunday.

[Lato]

yes you are right the clubs would never go for it because they are too greedy.

 

 

[sjj2112]

Sorry to do a bit of a Rhodes and trawl up old postings! Interesting exchange from a couple of years ago......

 

Did anybody happen to notice Israel's qualifying draw for the 2010 World Cup. We play Greece, Switzerland, Moldova, Latvia and Luxembourg which must surely make us favourites to qualify particularly with Toto a year older and back to full fitness.

 

 

Switzerland to win the group. Greece in the play offs.

 

 

Originally Posted By: Football Man Switzerland to win the group. Greece in the play offs

 

How can you say that!

[Horace]

Sorry to do a bit of a Rhodes and trawl up old postings! Interesting exchange from a couple of years ago......

 

Did anybody happen to notice Israel's qualifying draw for the 2010 World Cup. We play Greece, Switzerland, Moldova, Latvia and Luxembourg which must surely make us favourites to qualify particularly with Toto a year older and back to full fitness.

 

 

Switzerland to win the group. Greece in the play offs.

 

 

Originally Posted By: Football Man Switzerland to win the group. Greece in the play offs

 

How can you say that!

 

Spot on Football Man!

Rhodes can always switch his (fickle) allegience to DENMARK!