Football: Akko complete signing of Eli Zizov

Eli Zizov

Hapoel Akko have completed the signing of 22-year-old Israeli attacking midfielder, Eli Zizov. The deal will see Akko pay Maccabi Tel Aviv, the club which Zizov has been at since 2011, 50,000 Shekel.
Zizov, who in the past has also been in the books of Bulgarian club Levski Sofia and Portuguese giants S.C Braga, will be available for Akko's game against Bnei Yehuda on Saturday.

 Israeli Premier League Week 10 fixtures:

Sat	23/11/13	Maccabi Petah Tikva	vs	Bnei Sakhnin        at 17:00
		Hapoel Haifa	vs	Maccabi Tel Aviv  at 17:00
		Hapoel Ra'anana	vs	Ashdod                  at 18:00
		Hapoel Akko	vs	Bnei Yehuda         at 18:00
		Beitar Jerusalem	vs	Ironi Kiryat Shmona at 19:30
Sun	24/11/13	Hapoel Tel Aviv	vs	Maccabi Haifa       at 20:10
Mon	25/11/13	Hapoel Be'er Sheva	vs	Ironi Ramat HaSharon at 20:50

Israel Premier League Table:

#		Team	MP	W	D	L	F	A	D	P	Last 5 matches
1		Maccabi Tel Aviv	9	6	2	1	18	6	+12	20	D L W W D
2		Hapoel Be'er Sheva	9	6	2	1	17	8	+9	20	W W D L D
3		Hapoel Haifa	9	5	1	3	10	9	+1	16	L W W W L
4		Hapoel Tel Aviv	9	4	3	2	16	6	+10	15	D W W L D
5		Hapoel Ra'anana	9	3	5	1	9	7	+2	14	D W D L D
6		Beitar Jerusalem	9	4	2	3	10	9	+1	14	L W D W W
7		Bnei Sakhnin	9	3	4	2	10	13	-3	13	L D L W D
8		Ashdod	9	3	3	3	11	9	+2	12	W D D L D
9		Ironi Kiryat Shmona	9	3	3	3	9	10	-1	12	D L D W D
10		Maccabi Haifa	9	3	2	4	10	9	+1	11	W L L W D
11		Hapoel Akko	9	2	3	4	8	11	-3	9	D L D W W
12		Maccabi Petah Tikva	9	1	4	4	10	16	-6	7	D D D L W
13		Bnei Yehuda	9	1	2	6	10	17	-7	5	D L D L L
14		Ironi Ramat HaSharon	9	0	2	7	4	22	-18	2	D D L L L

 

U-21's Football: Portugal edge past Israel in 7 goal thriller

Munas Dabbur celebrates after opening the scoring for Israel (ifa)

 

Israel's qualification hopes for Euro 2015 were slashed last night as they were defeated by Portugal, 4-3, in front of about 6,000 spectators at the Hamoshava Stadium in Petach Tikva. 
Israel took the lead (1-0) 9 minutes in, through a Munas Dabbur strike, but his goal was cancelled out just 7 minutes later when Ivan Cavaleiro received an aerial through ball from Luis Gustavo and slotted the ball between goalie, Barak Levi's legs.
Dia Saba on his 21st birthday returned the lead to Israel in the 55th minute (2-1) but goals from Ricardo and Bernando Silva in the 59th and 64th minute respectively handed the control back to Portugal (2-3). In the 74th minute Taleb Tawatha got on the end of an Eli Dasa cross to equalize for the Blue and White (3-3), But 4 minutes from time, a deflected Bernardo SIlva shot (4-3) handed the win to the Portuguese.
"I'm torn apart", said Israel's manager Michael Nees after the game, "On one side I am absolutely satisfied with the technical level at which we played, the pace with which we attacked and overall we played good football. On the other side we lost the game, so we only earn respect but no points".

 Group 8

	P	Pts
Portugal	4	12
Israel	5	9
FYROM	3	4
Azerbaijan	5	4
Norway	5	3

Football: Israel U-21's face Portugal tonight in a vital Euro 2015 qualifier

Israel U-21's players celebrate during Friday's 4-1 victory

Tonight (at 19:30) Israel's U-21's will take on Portugal at the Hamoshava Stadium in their 5th Euro 2015 qualifying group 8 match following their 4-1 victory over Norway on Friday. The Blue and White enter tonight's game with an amazing 3.5 goals scored per game average in the current campaign but nevertheless were defeated 3-0 when they visited Portugal last month.
"We are not scared but we are realistic and we are self-confident", said Israel U-21's manager, Michael Nees, "If we bring our performance we have a good chance".
Munas Dabbur, who scored a hat-trick in Friday's win, added: "It will be a hard and interesting game, and that doesn't mean that it was easy against Norway. Portugal are a simply amazing team. We will come focused in order do what we need to do. I believe in the team".
Israel are expected to lineup tonight in a 4-4-2 formation with just 2 changes from Friday with Tal Khila switching Edi Gotlieb in defense and Ofir Mizrachi coming in for Gil Yitzhak in attack.

Israel U-21's expected lineup:
GK: Barak Levi, DF: Eli Dasa, Tal Khila, Ben Vehava, Taleb Twatiha, MF: Gadi Kinda, Lotem Zino, Roi Kehat, Omri Altman, FW: Ofir Mizrahi, Munas Dabbur

Group 8

	P	Pts
Israel	4	9
Portugal	3	9
Azerbaijan	5	4
FYROM	3	4
Norway	5	3

(The game will be live on Sport5 from 19:30)


 

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Nir Biton makes full debut for Celtic as they crash out of Scottish League Cup

Football:

Nir Biton

Israeli midfielder Nir Biton completed his full debut for Celtic yesterday as they crashed out of the Scottish League Cup, losing 1-0 to Greenock Morton from the second tier. The 21-year-old, who played his first minutes in a Hoops shirt last Wednesday when he came on as an 89th minutes substitute against A.C Milan in the Champions League and also participated in the second half of Celtic's 2-1 win over St. Johnstone on Saturday, had one of Celtic's best goalscoring chances last-night when in the 30th minute his shot from the edge of the box went inches over the crossbar. After 90 minutes in which neither team managed to score, the match went to extra-time and in the 6th minute of the added 30, Morton took the lead through a Dougie Imrie spot-kick.
Biton left Israeli club Ashdod and joined Celtic in August in a deal that saw the Scots pay Ashdod around 1,000,000 Euros as a transfer fee.

Football: Israeli Premier League week 3 results, week 4 fixtures and League Standings

Football:
Israeli Premier League week 3 results:
Hapoel Akko 1-2 Hapoel Be'er Sheva
Hapoel Nir Ramat HaSharon 1-3 Hapoel Ra'anana
Bmei Yehuda 2-4 Bnei Sakhnin
Ironi Kiryat Shmona 1-0 Ashdod
Beitar Jerusalem 0-1 Hapoel Haifa
Hapoel Tel Aviv 3-1 Macabi Petach Tikva
Maccabi Haifa 3-0 Maccabi Tel Aviv  

Israeli Premier League week 4 fixtures:
 Bnei Sakhnin vs Maccabi Haifa (Saturday at 17:30)
Ashdod vs Hapoel Nir Ramat HaSharon (Saturday at 19:00)
Maccabi Petach Tikva vs Hapoel Akko (Saturday at 19:00)
Hapoel Haifa vs Hapoel Tel Aviv (Saturday at 19:15)
Maccabi Tel Aviv vs Ironi Kiryat Shmona (Saturday at 20:00)
Hapoel Ra'anana vs Beitar Jerusalem (Sunday at 20:10)
Hapoel Be'er Sheva vs Bnei Yehuda (Monday at 21:00)



ISRAELI PREMIER LEAGUE STANDINGS: (from Soccerway)

#   Team MP W D L F A D P Last 3 matches H2H 1 Maccabi Tel Aviv 3 3 0 0 6 0 +6 9 W W W 2 Hapoel Be'er Sheva 3 3 0 0 6 1 +5 9 W W W 3 Bnei Sakhnin 3 2 1 0 5 2 +3 7 W W D 4 Hapoel Ra'anana 3 2 1 0 5 2 +3 7 W D W 5 Hapoel Haifa 3 2 1 0 4 1 +3 7 W D W 6 Ironi Kiryat S… 3 2 0 1 6 4 +2 6 W W L 7 Hapoel Tel Aviv 3 1 1 1 3 3 +0 4 W L D 8 Ashdod 3 1 0 2 3 4 -1 3 L W L 9 Beitar Jerusalem 3 1 0 2 3 4 -1 3 L W L 10 Maccabi Haifa 3 1 0 2 5 7 -2 3 L L W 11 Bnei Yehuda 3 1 0 2 3 5 -2 3 L L W 12 Hapoel Acre 3 0 0 3 1 5 -4 0 L L L 13 Maccabi Petah … 3 0 0 3 2 7 -5 0 L L L 14 Ironi Ramat Ha… 3 0 0 3 2 9 -7 0 L L L

Haifa are shutout by AZ in Europa League opener, Maccabi T.A draw 0-0 with APOEL after 95th minute penalty miss

Football:

The Haifa players applaud their fans after the match (m haifa)

Maccabi Haifa opened their Europa League Group L last night in a disappointing manner as they were defeated 1-0 by Dutch side AZ Alkmaar at home. Actually the result was the only really disappointing part as Haifa controlled the match from start to finish, took 20 shots compared to AZ's 6 and even hit the crossbar in the 74th minute through an outside-the-box floating shot from Gustavo Boccoli. The only goal of the game came for the visitors in the 70th minute when a miss-hit Nick Viergever cross somehow reached the foot of Johann Gudmundsson who slotted the ball through goalkeeper Bojan Saranov's legs and into the back of the net.
As one would expect,  Haifa's manager, Arik Benado, was quite distraught after the game. "I have no doubt that we played very well, we destroyed them (AZ Alkmaar) in almost every aspect of the game", said Benado after the final whistle, "We played better than them from start to finish, but our finishing touches weren't good enough, and we conceded a goal from an attack that never should have happened. It is very disappointing, but the players deserve credit, they have proven that they can certainly stand up against high level opponents".

Haifa's captain, Yaniv Katan, also had what to say on the loss: "We played better, but we didn't manage to score and on this level you get punished for that. It is upsetting but that is football, we will lift our heads and move on".

Haifa's next Europa League match is on Thursday the 3rd of October when they travel to Kazakhstan where they will face Shakhter Karagandy.
Elsewhere, Maccabi Tel Aviv started their Europa League campaign on a sour note, with a goalless draw against Cypriot club APOEL FC. Maccabi had a clear chance to put the game to bed in the final minute of injury time (95th minute) when Barak Itzhaki received a penalty but the Israeli striker's effort was denied by goalkeeper Urko Pardo.
Maccabi Haifa will host Maccabi Tel Aviv on Monday (at 21:00) in an Israeli Premier League fixture.

Full list of this weekend's Israeli Premier League fixtures:
Hapoel Akko vs Hapoel Be'er Sheva (Saturday at 17:30)
Hapoel Nir Ramat HaSharon vs Hapoel Ra'anana (Saturday at 19:00)
Bmei Yehuda vs Bnei Sakhnin (Saturday at 19:00)
Ironi Kiryat Shmona vs Ashdod (Saturday at 19:00)
Beitar Jerusalem vs Hapoel Haifa (Saturday at 20:15)
Hapoel Tel Aviv vs Macabi Petach Tikva (Sunday at 20:00)
Maccabi Haifa vs Maccabi Tel Aviv  (Monday at 21:00) 

Glushko climbes up WTA rankings to career high 95th

Tennis:

Julia Glushko

After her impressive run in the U.S Open in which she reached the 3rd round and received $178,000 in prize money, 23-year-old Julia Glushko rose up to a career high 95th in the WTA rankings.
Meanwhile Israel's other player in the top 100, Shahar Pe'er, dropped 2 places in the rankings and is now 87th. Pe'er will participate this week in a WTA event in China where she will face Shuai Pang, who is currently ranked 37th, in the first round.
As for the men, Dudi Sela advanced 1 place and is now at 84th in the ATP rankings despite recording 2 defeats in Israel's recent 3-2 loss in the Davis Cup against Belgium, whilst Amir Weintraub, who actually managed to win 1 of his 2 games in the Davis Cup tie, fell 6 places to 190th. 26-year-old Weintraub is due to take part this week in a ATP challenger event in Taiwan where he will play in the first round against a qualifying player.
As for Israel's legendary doubles pair, Yoni Erlich is currently ranked 64th and Andy Ram is ranked 123rd in the doubles rankings.

Hapoel Haifa sign Israeli-Nigerian midfielder Dela Yampolsky

Football: 

Dela Yampolski (uefa)

Hapoel Haifa have signed Israeli-Nigerian midfielder Dela Yampolsky on a 1 year deal. The 25-year-old, who played the last 2 seasons at Hapoel's city rivals, Maccabi Haifa, is expected to get payed $90,000 for the season. "Dela has come to a big club where he can use his skill to help the club progress", is what the player's agent said after the deal was signed.
Yampolsky started his professional career at Maccabi Netanya in 2005, where he played for 6 seasons and then moved on to Maccabi Haifa where he had been until now. Yampolsky also played for the Israel U-17, U-18, U-19 an U-21 national team's but has never been called up to the senior squad. At Maccabi Haifa he didn't get a lot of minutes on the pitch and he will be hoping to get much more playing time at Hapoel. He may not have to wait long for his first minutes with his new team as he is 100% fit for their fixture against Beitar Jerusalem this coming Saturday (at 20:15).

Elsewhere Hapoel Akko have added Israeli defender Klemi Saban to their squad ahead of the new season. Saban, who is currently aged 33, played in the past for 6 different Israeli clubs as well as Steaua Bucuresti in Romania. He also appeared 25 times for the Israel national team between the years 2004 and 2010.

Venezuelan center-back, Andres Tunez, officially joins Beitar on a 1 year loan deal

Football:

Andres Tunez

Beitar Jerusalem have completed their squad for the 2013/2014 season by signing Venezuelan center-back, Andres Tunez, on a 1 year loan deal.  The 26-year-old, who is currently in the books of Celta Vigo from the Spanish La Liga, landed last night in Ben Gurion Airport and was taken straight to Jerusalem where this morning he completed the deal.
As a youngster Tunez rose up through the Celta youth system and in Febuary 2010 the club offered him his first senior contract. In the following two and a half seasons Tunez appeared 59 times for Celta and was also called up to the Venezuelan national team 9 times. Throughout last season Tunez was left out of the clubs squad and in August new manager Luiz Enrique decided to leave the defender out of his plans for the upcoming season.
Tunez is expected to start for Beitar already this weekend, when they face Hapoel Haifa on Saturday (at 20:15). The arrival of the Venezuelan has lit up the capital and reports suggest that in the last 24 hours Beitar season ticket sales rocketed.

Lior Levi (hapoel t.a)

Beitar also confirmed the signing of 21-year-old Israeli forward Roey Zikri on a 4 year contract. Zikri played last season for Hapoel Petach Tikva in the 2nd division where he scored 6 goals.

Meanwhile Hapoel Tel Aviv have completed the signing of right-back Lior Levi who is to play for them for the next 3 seasons. The 25-year-old Israeli was part of the Hapoel Ironi Kiryat Shmona squad that topped the Israeli Premier League in the 2011/2012 season. Levi is fit to start in Hapoel's game this weekend against Maccabi Petach Tikva (Sunday at 20:00).

Elroy Cohen joins Maccabi Petach Tikva

Football:

Elroy Cohen (uefa)

Israeli forward Elroy Cohen signed for Maccabi Petach Tikva yesterday on a 1 year deal. The 24 -year-old, who started his career at Hapoel Ironi Kiryat Shmona, was released by Hapoel Tel Aviv at the end of last season after spending two and a half seasons their in which he helped them to 2 state cups. "I am happy to say that I have signed for Maccabi Petach Tikva for the upcoming season", said Cohen after signing the contract, "I have come to a great club where I can begin to enjoy my football once again. I wish my new team lots of luck and I believe that we can play good football this season". Petach Tikva's next game is against Hapoel Tel Aviv (Cohen's former club) and after a terrible start to their season with 2 losses in 2 games, against Hapoel Ra'anana and Beitar Jerusalem, they will be hoping that that their new attacking player will be able to help them to go away from the game with at least 1 point. "It will be nice to go straight back to Bloomfield", said Cohen of the upcoming game, "but I will still want to win the game like any other".

In other football news the fixtures full fixture list for Week 3 of the 2013/2014 Israeli Premier League season, which is due to be played this weekend, has been released:
Hapoel Akko vs Hapoel Be'er Sheva (Saturday at 17:30)
Hapoel Nir Ramat HaSharon vs Hapoel Ra'anana (Saturday at 19:00)
Bmei Yehuda vs Bnei Sakhnin (Saturday at 19:00)
Ironi Kiryat Shmona vs Ashdod (Saturday at 19:00)
Beitar Jerusalem vs Hapoel Haifa (Saturday at 20:15)
Hapoel Tel Aviv vs Macabi Petach Tikva (Sunday at 20:00)
Maccabi Haifa vs Maccabi Tel Aviv  (Monday at 21:00) 

Beitar sign Brazilian striker Bryan Jones

Football:

Bryan Jones Anicezio

Following the recent arrival of Sentayehu Sallallich on loan from Maccabi Haifa, Beitar Jerusalem have added yet another player to their squad for the new season, in signing Brazilian striker Bryan Jones (Full Brazilian name: Bryan Jones Anicezio) on a 1 year deal. The 23-year-old has played for 5 different teams in Brazil during his 3 year professional career and in signing for Beitar, joined a club outside Brazil for the first time. The last team that had Jonas in its ranks was Tupi in the Brazilian 3rd tier. The signing of Jonas leaves the Jerusalemites with an almost complete squad. The only position for which the Beitar backroom staff still need to sign someone is center-back, but it looks like they may have already found their man as reports suggest that Venezuelan, Andres Tunez, who played last season for Celta Vigo in the Spanich La Liga, is due to arrive in Israel tonight in order to finish off a loan deal with Beitar.

Football: Israel drop to 69th in FIFA rankings

Football:
Following their 1-1 draw with Azerbaijan on Saturday and their 3-1 loss against Russia on Tuesday, the Israel national team dropped 5 places in the FIFA world rankings and are now at a lowly 69th. Meanwhile the blue-and-white's fellow participants in qualifying Group F, Northern Ireland and Azerbaijan climbed up to 86th and 107th respectively, with the Irish being ranked way down in 109th before the update.
Despite this major setback for Israel, the national team's manager, Eli Guttman is more than aware that a good result against Portugal in their second to last qualifying match, could restore much needed pride in the team.

Elsewhere, in Israel, the Israeli Premier League teams have been holding friendly matches due to the 19 day gap that has been formed by this past week's national team break and the coming week's inclusion of Yom Kippur. 6 such matches have taken place in the last couple of days, below are the results:
Beitar Jerusalem 0-1 Beitar Tel Aviv
Ashdod 5-1 Hapoel Ashkelon
Hapoel Be'er Sheva 1-0 Ironi Nir Ramat HaSharon
Hapoel Tel Aviv 0-0 Hapoel Akko
Hapoel Haifa 1-1 Hapoel Ra'anana
Bnei Yehuda 4-2 Hapoel Kfar Shalem