New defender offensive?

Danish media are reporting we're buying Israeli defender Yoav David Ziv from Beitar Jerusalem, the club we eliminated to play European football this year. Price is supposedly around 500,000€. [Danish sources: forza.dk / FCK lun på israeler, bold.k / Israeler koster FCK 3,7 millioner kroner] As far as I remember from our games against the Israelis, he's pretty good.

I have tried to find an English language source for the story with no luck. What I did find however, was a Jerusalem Post story about Zionist settlers doing illegal construction work on "historic Israel" territory aka Palestinian territory occupied by Israel. As the land is the subject of ongoing peace negotiations the Israeli authorities work to stop these activities. And here is what - quite frankly - stuns me:

According to Yitzhaki, the settlement drive also has the support of seven players from the Betar Jerusalem soccer team.

Strikers Totu Tamuz and Amit Ben-Shushan, defenders Arik Benado, Yoav Ziv and David Amsalem, and midfielders Aviram Bruchian and Idan Tal did not plan to participate in Sunday's events, but had signed pledges of support, Yitzhaki said.

Hmmm... that's pretty extreme. Gee, I'm happy they don't "plan to participate"! Looks like we're getting a Zionist on the offense for our defense. I wonder if we'd buy a public Hamas-supporter? I guess we would.

But someone needs to scholar this guy about the only West Bank he's allowed to attack as long as he's with us: Brøndby IF aka "Vestegnen" ;-)

Preview(s): Benfica away

It’s a case of déjà vu in the Portuguese capital as Benfica attempt to bring home the bacon with a win against the great Danes.

Goal.com - Match Preview - CL Qualifying Preview: SL Benfica - FC Copenhagen

There is no denying that Benfica looks to be more formidable of the two and with the advantage of the home ground and above all the partisan fans, we can expect a better showing with the need to chalk up a huge win to take to Copenhagen for the return leg.

Source: AsianHandicap.com – Benfica v. Copenhagen

Approximate outcome probabilities: home win: 70%, draw: 20%, away win: 10%.

Newsvine / Champions League qualification: 3rd round, 1st leg - Tuesday games

[Manuel Fernandes] had been named in the Benfica squad for their Champions League qualifying match against FC Copenhagen tonight, but he did not join up with the squad once confirmation of Everton's offer arrived. The midfielder would be ineligible to play for Everton in the Uefa Cup should he play against the Danes

Belfast Telegraph / Everton close to securing £6m Fernandes deal

"I do not know a lot about Benfica's current situation, but I still consider them favourites to qualify for the group stage," [Copenhagen coach Ståle Solbakken] said. "However, they may not be much stronger than Beitar Jerusalem were at this moment in time."

UEFA.com / København test for new-look Benfica

Expected (aka "wild guesses at") lineups

Benfica

Bergessio - Ó Cardozo - R Costa
Petit - F Coentrão - Katsouranis
Miguelito - Luisão - D Luiz - L Filipe
Quim

København

M Allbäck
A Hutchinson
J Grønkjær - R Würtz - H Nørregaard - L Sionko
N Jensen - B Hangeland - M Gravgaard - W Kvist
J Christiansen

The linups depend a lot on Benfica's transfers and issues with individual players, the choices of coach Solbakken and today's form of the players. The above could very well be wrong at about six positions total. And actually, as much as "wild guesses" I admit to a bit of "wishful thinking" as well.

Reactions to the Jerusalem elimination

Kale, for the second time in a week, found only air, and Allback silenced about 20,000 Beitar fans at Teddy with an easy touch into the net.

Source: Haaretz / Great Danes top Beitar at Teddy

A fabulous pass by Idan Tal sent in Alvarez on the right who pushed into the penalty area and passed to Itzhaki to slot home on the hour mark.

Source: Soccer: Jerusalem Post / Betar Jerusalem's European dream ended

"It is matches like those ones that you live for as a football player. It's always great fun measuring yourself against the greatest teams in Europe and now we have another chance to do that." - Hjate Bo Nørregaard

Source: UEFA.com / Relieved København target Benfica

No new signings are planned for the Benfica challenge but Libor Sionko will have his permit to play by then. Anyway, first it's Esbjerg at home Saturday.

Update: It's getting better!

Man, those Israelis are a bitter lot...

"If I were one of their fans, I wouldn't pay a shekel to see [FC København]. The truth is I wouldn't go for free because they're a disgusting team, and they played old-fashioned soccer, which was just enough to get by us. I didn't come to Beitar just for Europe, but there's no doubt it was a part I looked forward to." - Idan Tal

Source: Haaretz / Shum 'The best team doesn't always win'

[...] the truth is that Beitar isn't a team worthy of even coming close to the Champions League. Neither is FC Copenhagen for that matter - if that consoles anyone.

Source: Haaretz / Postmortem / Beitar's troubles have yet to begin

Don Ø: "I am one of the three most famous people in Denmark"

'Don't forget, we beat Man. United'

"In Canada nobody knows me." - Atiba Hutchinson.

Schum: I'm certain we will progress

"I'm certain that if we play at our regular level we will progress" - Jerusalem coach Itzhak Schum

Plus The Last Word: Schum-Spiegel effect could make it happen if you really need it all. (But I'm beginning to think they are horribly naive. They talk about getting past us and the 3^rd round opponent to qualify for the Champions League, not the UEFA Cup. And they are still traumatized about losing to Dinamo Bucuresti - boasting an UEFA coefficient of 34.255, 5½ times higer than Beitar Jerusalem.)

Jerusalem warm-up: Ståle and Grønkjær talks

"We spoke a lot about the Beitar fans' fanaticism, but this is soccer and we are professionals. An enthusiastic crowd is good for the home team, but we will be focusing on the match. I am more worried about the heat and the weather than I am about the crowd." - Ståle Solbakken.

"We need to score in the away match, that is the key. The moment that we score, Beitar will have to get three." - Jesper Grønkjær.

Looking to the nine bookies currently offering bets on the game the approximate outcome probabilities at 40% for a home win, 25% for a draw and 35% for another Copenhagen win. Since any draw and win will do our chance of an aggregate win is larger than 60%. Looking at 733 double encounter knock-outs with first game 1-0 home wins in 412 instances the first game home team advanced to next round. That's 56%.

The only major wild card in the equation is whether or not Rasmus Würtz gets fit for the match. But honestly, I'm not really worried either way.

Related: UEFA.com / Beitar target København conquest

"København are a good side yet we can still beat them and reach the next stage, where Benfica are waiting." - Beitar coach Itzhak Shum.

Champions Legaue qualification 3rd round opponent: Benfica

If we make it past Beitar Jerusalem.


The Benfica guys, I think?


Everyone hurrying out the door as soon as the show was over.

An interesting detail about Benfica is they just signed US wonderboy Freddy Adu: AP / U.S. Teen Star Adu Joins Benfica.

See all match-ups at UEFA.com.

Yesterday's game

UEFA.com / Allbäck keeps København afloat

Haaretz.com / Narrow loss in Copenhagen for Beitar

Also, I posted an article about the demonstration at my Newsvine column: Boycott Israel demonstration at UEFA Champions League qualifier.

Expected lineups: FC København vs Beitar Jerusalem

Wild guesses could be more like it, but here we go:

Beitar Jerusalem (4-5-1):

T Tamuz
M Zandberg - D Boateng - I Tal - G Alberman - B Itzhaki
Y Ziv - A Benado - S Gershon - C Alvarez
T Kale

FC København (4-4-2):

M Allbäck - M Nordstrand
J Grønkjær - M Silberbauer - R Würtz - A Hutchinson
N Jensen - M Gravgaard - B Hangeland - W Kvist
J Christiansen

Kick-off in six hours. It has rained a bit during the night and morning, so expect a fast pitch.

In related news, someone appears to be staging a demonstration with the slogan "Kick Israel apartheid out of International Football!" at Trianglen which is the square closest to stadium - that one will pass through if walking from the train station closest to stadium. I hope people will take it easy.

Champions League starts tomorrow

Tomorrow, Tuesday the 31^st of July, we play our first European game of this season. And may it be the first of many.

I did a quick run over of all Champions League 2nd round qualifying match-ups and posted it to Newsvine. Here's what I put down on FC København vs Beitar Jerusalem:

FC København (DEN) v Beitar Jerusalem FC (ISR): Drawing each other is just not a very good feeling for either team as they both expected to make it beyond this round. Beitar Jerusalem's owner, Arcadi Gaydamak has invested heavily in strengthening his team and expects a return on that investment. Both teams are full of national team players of Scandinavian countries and Israel respectively - and Israel has done very well so far in the European Championship qualification group E where they are currently ranked second three points ahead of England. ... Approximate outcome probabilities: Home win 60%, draw 25%, away win 15%.

Unfortunately, our new man, Libor Sionko, will not get to play the games against Beitar Jerusalem. Like all good fans I was informed of the deadline for signing players for this round, and knew it had passed. But strangely, in their news section UEFA.com suggest he could play (UEFA.com / København seek hangover remedy). This is not the case. But actually, our sports director has asked UEFA for some disambiguating of related football law paragraphs with the expected result that he can't play (Tipsbladet.dk / FCK-indkøb bliver ikke klar til Beitar-kampene). Don't know if it'd be such a smart thing to field a newcomer in this type of game anyway.

A guy we do expect to see - and perhaps boo a little? - is Cristian Álvarez. Having considered the offers from both Beitar Jerusalem and FC København this summer, Álvarez chose Jerusalem. And has handed the presentation DVD of FC København to his new club for use in preparations. Quite unfortunate.

In the department of the curious but irrelevant: FC København have given free tickets to all players and team leaders of the 5^th Homeless World Cup that is currently taking place in Copenhagen (fck.dk).

Update - just saw this one: Back from the dead and ready to face Beitar. It's Ståle's near death experience over again and a few words on tomorrow's game:

While he may not fear death, Solbakken is apprehensive about the encounter with Beitar, especially about having to travel to Jerusalem for the return, he says. "After three games we finally won in the league, but we still haven't reached the point where we need to be as far as our game is concerned. After all, we won against a weak team and Beitar is a lot more dangerous."

Is there any player in particular that worries you at Beitar?

Solbakken: "No, but Beitar is a good team that could easily fit among the top teams in Denmark. Beitar has a strong defense and in our first matches this season we have found it hard to create chances. In our last match we created chances, but still found it hard to score."

Beitar Jerusalem squad update: Rômulo Marques Antoneli

Romulo Marques Antoneli, aka Romulo, who yesterday completed his move to Beitar Jerusalem, is described by the Brazilian press as a "physical striker who knows how to seize his chance."

However, his previous opportunity on the European stage started in similar cicrumstances to those that brought him to Beitar, and ended in misery.

A Brazilian 2^nd division player... who coudn't get on the team in Mainz... whose strength supposedly is being 1 cm taller than our smallest central defender. And get this: forget about match fitness, Romulo haven't even done personal training lately due to knee injury.

"He's a good guy, and maybe he'll be good in the Israeli league. But the Champions League? Only if he has really developed over the past two years in Brazil. I hope for Beitar's sake that he has." - Rudiga Vogel, German sports journalist.

Developed in Brazil?

"He couldn;t take the pressure from the fans who would curse him all the time, and that really deflated him. But he's a real professional with a very strong right foot and an excellent game in the air. He's also a really cool guy that everyone likes. We're all pleased that he has been given a chance to play in the Champions League." - Cruzeiro goalkeeper Fabio.

Verdict: Not scared.

Also see Rômulo Marques Antoneli's Wikipedia entry.

Ståle raus: Beitar loss a poor consolation

Beitar Jerusalem lost 3-1 to Levski Sofia of Bulgaria in a pre-season friendly in Austria last night, but there was good news for Itzhak Shum's team when its Champions League qualifying round opponent FC Copenhagen lost its opening Danish league match 1-0 to FC Nordsjaelland.

[...]

The Danish champion was criticized by the local media after its performance last night, with television commentators saying the team looked as if it hadn't returned from its summer recess.

On a side note, the Swedes crowned Allbäck 'king of Copenhagen' prior to yesterday's game (Aftonbladet / Allbäck kung i FCK) - but he was actually sidelined at kick-off.

Jerusalem and Beitars considering the challenge

Two articles from the Jerusalem Post. The Last Word: European hopes for Israel's teams:

[...] to be pitted against Danish champion FC Copenhagen has made the light at the end of the qualifying tunnel seem even further than before.

Copenhagen is not just the biggest team in Denmark, but it has recently become one of the powerhouses of Scandanavian soccer. [...]

It's not going to be easy for Betar on July 31, with the first game in Denmark, but with good preparation the Israelis could produce a shock result, which would incidentally only take them through to a second qualifying game against even higher quality oppositoin.

Betar drawn with FC Copenhagen in Champions League qualifier

"The draw is difficult, but reasonable," Betar coach Yitzhak Schum said. "We must advance no matter who we face. I hope that after the tie is over we'll be able to say that the draw was good."

[...]

"The draw could have been better and it could have been worse," Betar midfielder Michael Zandberg said. "Copenhagen is a strong side with European experience and we can't afford to underestimate any team."

[...]

"I think this is a good draw, we could have been drawn against better sides," veteran defender David Amsalem said. "It's always better to play the first leg away from home. They don't know what Teddy's like and our main goal will be to settle the tie in Jerusalem."