A new campaign always brings new hopes, as did last night (Thursday) when the Israeli team opened the 2022 World Cup qualifying campaign, but at the end of the 90 minutes those hopes were hit, with a painful 2-0 home loss to Denmark. Willy Rotensteiner’s second campaign as the team’s coach in blue and white was launched and at ONE we followed closely the Austrian’s conduct on the lines during the game.
The Israeli national team bus arrived at Bloomfield Stadium around 5.40pm, the players got off one by one and so did the professional team, while the Austrian coach maintained his courteous manners and greeted passersby with a smile. Nearly an hour later, at 6:55 p.m., on the way up to the turf of both teams, Rotensteiner wounded himself from the locker room, along with his crew, carefully dressed and immediately positioned himself in the technical area, looking alert and ready to whistle.
The coach, as usual, kept strict about the details when he turned to his team and called them to stand up next to him, as happens in every game while playing the anthems. It was hard to miss the tension on his face, he moved in sharp, fast and heavy movements as he waited for the opening whistle. The Austrian remained true to the three-brake line-up, dating back to the days when it was Andy Herzog on the lines, who served the team time and time again in the last campaign, which ended in the penultimate place at home.
In December, the Football Association announced that Willy was continuing in his role for another campaign, with surely one of his goals being to convince the Israeli public that it was not for nothing that they put the national team in his hands. Three months later, after a slight glance at the note kept in the inside pocket of the jacket, which we will return to later, a light kick in the air to relieve tension and at exactly 19:00, the English referee set the game in motion. The campaign officially started in front of about 5,000 fans, who returned to the football stands after over a year and the general atmosphere was very exciting for all present in the stadium.
It was not long before the opening whistle and an occurrence on the lawn managed to get the Austrian coach out of the internal tension that had accumulated inside, when already in the sixth minute, he jumped in instead of complaining to the referee, in the face of Martin Braithwaite’s entry into Mons Dabour. While the Hoffenheim striker tried to recover from the injury and received treatment on the pitch, the coach called on him Hatem ‘Abd al-Hamid and Eli Desa, in order to sharpen a few more highlights that he managed to see in the first minutes. At the same time he called on his team to set up Sean Weissman off the bench to warm up in light of Dabour’s condition. The game resumed and the coach returned to his starting position with his hands on his hips.
Just 13 minutes from the start, Denmark was already on the scoreboard from an advantage goal by the Barcelona striker, who minutes before had hit the Israeli striker. While scoring the goal, the national team coach did not respond and continued to look at his trainees, but pretty quickly recovered and angered the coverage of the defensive game, while trying to signal to Eitan Tibi and the other players how they were supposed to stand to prevent the Danes’ advantage. He also turned to Ophir Marciano and asked him according to the hand movements to deploy his brakes on the sides of the extension, before kicking the ball to the middle of the field, in order to make a move from the wings. Immediately afterwards, he turned to the bench and waved his hands to the sides and filtered a few words at them.
A few minutes after Denmark’s goal, Austrian assistant coach Rupert Marco is seen getting up from the bench with a drawing binder in his hand, approaching Rotensteiner and explaining a few things to him, while nodding back, before the assistant coach signals to the midfielders what to do, while the head coach was Busy getting annoyed with another inaccurate dedication. The Austrian returned to the starting position and was seen walking from side to side on the line of the technical area, indicating restlessness and dissatisfaction. Rotensteiner occasionally gave up his position in favor of waving his hands to the sides, turning to the bench in frustration and in between trying to cheer his players on the grass with applause.
In the 30th minute, the coach is seen pulling the note in question from the inside pocket of the jacket and glancing at it once more, reading and looking at the lawn and reading again until he brought it back close to his chest. Seven minutes later, while again with his hands on his hips, the coach took advantage for the second time in the game of another injury to Dabour, in order to call the players to him and brief them closely. The team’s star, Eran Zehavi, also took advantage of this time to approach the Austrian coach, who put a hand on his shoulder and seemed to mark points on the pitch. The coach nodded and patted Zahavi on the back as a sign of agreement. Dabour recovered and Rotensteiner approached him, checked with him that he could go ahead and sent him back to the grass when at the same time, PSV Eindhoven striker approached the defensive players and explained to them one by one what they should do after getting the Austrian approval.
Ten minutes from the second time it was taken out of the pocket and about 40 minutes from the opening whistle, Willie’s note was again visible in front of his face as he read its contents again, looking back at the grass and reading again before returning it to the inside pocket. The coach returned to the starting position, watched what was happening during the opponent’s radiations, crossed his hands and released them only after the ball was sent away from the 16th floor. Before the half-time whistle was enough, the Austrian expressed his anger at the English referee for the offense committed on Joel Abu Hanna and calmed down quite easily. Willie seemed very tense until the whistle, with very little movement, but with the whistle turned sharply to the dressing room, went down first in the tunnel and looked rather frustrated as he filtered a few words among himself.
Rotensteiner went up after his trainees back to the pitch, went to the substitution position and provided a number of final briefings to Neta Lavie, before coming up as the first substitution and in fact was the signal that the Austrian, who left the jacket along with the locker room note, changed the lineup he insists on in every game. The second half opened differently for the Israelis, the team looked better, played better and moved balls like it did not move the entire first half.
The Austrian looked pleased, encouraged his players to keep going and pushed them to attack further with hand signals. Contrary to what we Israelis may be accustomed to in the local football scene, it seems that Rotensteiner did not succumb to the quick hand gestures that are supposed to convey the message to players and his own catcher, even though he sometimes seems unresponsive to the pace or pressure of the game.
What does that mean? The Austrian continues on his own even in dangerous situations for both teams, his hands do not move from the waist until the end of the move, and also a little after, when there are cases where he continues to stand in this way and walks again and again on the technical area line. Throughout most of the minutes of the second half, the Austrian was mostly observed this way – hands on waist, looking forward and occasionally turning to his team while swinging his hands to the sides. He seemed to want to change but was undecided where, it was impossible to hide the restlessness that took place in him during the game, both in behavior that sometimes seemed a bit disconnected, when his assistant coach tried to contact him and he nodded again and doubted whether he responded accordingly, while continuing to stand with his hands on The waist.
In addition, while he wanted to bring Eyal Golsa into the game, asked him to get dressed after the warm-up and after a few minutes, while the contact was getting ready to enter, the coach turned to the warm-up area and looked for Golsa, as if forgetting he had already called him to get dressed. At the same time, the team also absorbed the Danes’ second goal, in very good minutes for them. Rotensteiner continued on his own, hands remained on his waist, the slow walk in the technical area continued. The coach looked for solutions and after going a few miles from side to side in the technical area, he stopped, looked towards the midline and seemed to doubt grab his head, doubt straightening his hair, but a few minutes later he turned to the bench and called Dolev Haziza to enter.
While the player was already ready from the 80th minute in the substitution position, the Austrian seemed to be debating again, talking to national team manager Guy Portniagin, who held the substitution sign and after three minutes, was sent to call Maor Kandil as well. The two finally got in after Haziza stood on the line for over five minutes. After the criticism of Willie from his coach at Vista Arnheim, Eli Desa came out and received a very significant pat on the back from the Austrian.
Until the end, there is not much left to do in light of the double advantage of the Danes. Rotensteiner occasionally complained to the fourth official about the opponent’s waste of time as well as sometimes aggressive play, but other than that, the walk that accompanied him throughout the game remained the same while the hands, they occasionally went into pockets and returned to the waist and so on. The Austrian did not leave the technical area throughout the game even when he looked lost, remained standing and continued to encourage his trainees as much as possible knowing that he must maintain confidence ahead of the upcoming game on Sunday against Scotland. At 20:55 and here the final whistle came, Rotensteiner shook the hand of the Danish coach, the two exchanged a few words with a smile and the Austrian coach quickly went down to the dressing room.
21:40. Keeping his players in the game both in the applause and perhaps in a calm that did not end even in bad actions, was also reflected in the post-game press conference. Rotensteiner arrived with the captain, Beavers Natcho, and the two still had time to speak in front of me in the elevator door with the knot nodding according to his coach. The Austrian was calm as usual, but the authoritative speech that characterized him was replaced by a very quiet tone, even immediately.
The coach tried to convey confidence with statements such as, “Dabour’s injury hurt us”, “I am proud of my players” and “I am not happy with the result but it was a great performance of ours”, but if there is one thing that managed to take him out of his composure, even for a moment , Was the question about the array with the three brakes, which he insists on again and again. “I do not understand the criticism of the method,” the Austrian wondered to reporters, raising his voice. While finishing his part at the press conference and receiving the signal that he could continue his pursuits, while it was Natcho’s turn to speak, Rotensteiner found it difficult to clear the stage before complimenting his captain on his own initiative, on the ability he displayed in the game.