Israel lose 2-0 to Ukraine in friendly match

Israel midfielder Biram Kayal (right) battles for the ball with Oleh Husyev

Football:
The Israel National Team were defeated last night (Wednesday) 2-0 by Ukraine for their first loss of 2013 in a match that was played in a waterlogged Olimpiyskiy Stadium in Kiev. Israel started the game poorly as they rarely managed to string more than two attacking passes together in the whole of the first half and it was in that half that Israel's failure to keep the ball made them pay when in the 29th minute Israel's Biram Kayal slipped and lost the ball on the halfway line to the Ukrainians and their play-maker Edmar picked out a pass to fellow midfielder Ruslan Rotan who placed the ball into the bottom corner of Israeli goalkeeper Dudu Aouate's net. Russia's second goal came in the 72nd minute when once again Edmar found himself with enough space to play a perfect pass to Yevhen Seleznyov who managed to slot the ball home from the edge of the box. "It was a very bad game", said Israel's manager Eli Guttman after the defeat, "We were playing with the ball in defense for too long. Our opponents took advantage of a mistake that we made and they started a counter attack that ended up with them scoring. We have pointed this out to the players and we must make sure that nothing like that ever happens again. In the second half we played better but still not good enough to keep up with our opponents and that really annoyed me. Every move that they did with one touch we did with with two touches". The only positive point of the game from Israel's point of view was when captain Yossi Benayoun was subbed into the game in the 73rd minute to make his 94th appearance for the National Team tying him with Arik Benado at the top of the Israel National Team appearance leaderboard. Israel host Azerbaijan on the 7th of September and play against Russia three days after that in Group F of the World Cup Qualifying and for Israel to take points in both of those games could be vital in their fight to get into the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil. When Guttman was asked about these two important games he said: "The matches next month are very different. If we want to beat Azerbaijan we will have to control the ball like the Ukrainians did today. If we manage to do that, and we have players who can do that, then we can win. As for the Russia game I don't really want to talk about it until after the Azerbaijan match".