Israel national handball team

Israel
Information
Association	Israel Handball Assosiation
Coach	Per Carlén
Most caps	Idan Maimon (168)
Most goals	Idan Maimon (636)
Colours
Home Away
Results
European Championship
Appearances	1 (First in Sweden 2002)
Best result	Prelimanary Round
Last updated on Unknown.

The Israel national handball team represents the Israeli Handball in the different international competitions such as the World Handball Championship that are held every two years. The team is managed by the Israeli Handball Association, and is built by players from the Israeli Handball League and handball leagues in Europe.

Best achievement

The team's biggest achievement was a performance in the European Handball Championship that was held in Sweden in 2002, where it didn't manage to go through the first group stage. In the qualifying playoff games the Israel beat the Republic of Macedonia . Israel's coach in the Championship was Shlomo Hoffman, and its leading players were Idan Maimon, Vladimir Zaikman, Leonid Durashenko, Dudi Balsar and Dovi Yeshua. Ever since the historic participation at the 2002 championship, the team hasn't managed to pass the preliminary round of qualifications.

Previous Campaigns

World 2007 Qualifiers

In the winter of 2006 the team had failed to qualify to the 2007 world championship after finishing third at the qualifications – behind Austria and Finland.

Euro 2008 Qualifiers

In the winter of 2007 Israel again failed to qualify, this time to the 2008 European Championships. Despite an impressive home win 30:29 against the very strong team of Serbia, Israel lost twice to Macedonia, and finished again finished third, behind Serbia and Republic of Mecedonia and ahead of Luxembourg.

Date	Opponent	H/A	Venue	Spectators	Result	H.T	Top scorer
4 January 2007	Serbia	Away	Belgrad	2,000	Lost – 37:27	16:11	Tom Matalon, Avishay Smoler (6)
6 January 2007	Serbia	Home	Raanana	2,000	Win – 30:29	16:12	Gal Avraham (7)
10 January 2007	Mecedonia	Home	Raanana	2,000	Lost – 28:30	15:19	Idan Maimon (7)
13 January 2007	Mecedonia	Away	Scopia	1,500	Lost – 27:26	12:10	Gal Avraham, Avishay Smoler (5)
17 January 2007	Luxembourg	Away	Luxembourg	500	Win – 25:26	11:13	Idan Maimon
21 January 2007	Luxembourg	Home	Raanana	500	Win – 35:26	17:10	Idan Maimon (9)

World 2009 Qualifiers

In the following winter Israel met Serbian again, at the 2009 World Championships Qualifying. This time it lost both games to Serbia, and finished second (out of three) after beating The Faroe Islands at both games.

Date	Opponent	H/A	Venue	Spectators	Result	H.T	Top scorer
9 January 2008	Faroe Islands	Away	Torshaven	800	Win – 21:26	8:15	Avishay Smoler (6)
12 January 2008	Faroe Islands	Home	Raanana	1,000	Win – 31:21	17:11	Gal Avraham (6)
16 January 2008	Serbia	Home	Raanana	1,600	Lost – 31:34	15:17	Avishay Smoler (10)
19 January 2008	Serbia	Away	Belgrad	2,000	Lost – 44:36	20:15	Avishay Smoler, Chen Pomeranz (10)

Euro 2010 Qualifiers

In the 2010 European Championships Qualifying, held in 2008 and 2009, Israel was drawn into group 5, together with the world champions, Germany, Slovenia, Belarus and Bulgaria.

Israel lost both games to Slovenia, Belarus and Germany, and only won both games against Bulgaria.

The team's captain was Idan Maimon, and its leading players were Avishay Smoler of German team TBV Lemgo, Chen Pomerantz, Tom Matalon, Gal Avraham and Goalkeeper Leonid Durashenko.

Date	Opponent	H/A	Venue	Spectators	Result	H.T	Top scorer
29 October 2008	Slovenia	Home	Rishon LeZion	800	Lost – 28:36	16:21	Avishay Smoler (10)
2 November 2008	Bulgaria	Away	Blagoevgrad	400	Won – 28:34	15–20	Avishay Smoler (9)
26 November 2008	Belarus	Away	Berst	3,700	Lost – 38:31	21:14	Gal Avraham (7)
29 November 2008	Belarus	Home	Rishon LeZion	1,000	Lost – 28:31	11:19	Tom Matalon (6)
18 March 2009	Bulgaria	Home	Kiryat Motzkin	900	Won – 29:20	16:10	Chen Pomernz (6), Avishay Smoler (6)
22 March 2009	Germany	Away	Ashafenburg	4,500	Lost – 24:36	15:17	Gal Avraham (12)
17 June 2009	Slovenia	Away	Ljubljana	3,000	Lost – 27:40	17:20	Chen Pomeranz (6)
21 June 2009	Germany	Home	Rishon LeZion	1,000	Lost – 40:21	17:12	Chen Pomeranz (6)

Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Germany 8 8 0 0 300 191 +109 16 Slovenia 8 6 0 2 293 221 +72 12 Belarus 8 4 0 4 253 233 +20 8 Israel 8 2 0 6 222 269 −47 4 Bulgaria 8 0 0 8 168 322 −154 0

Germany – 38 : 30 38 : 27 36 : 24 42 : 11 Slovenia 26 : 27 – 38 : 26 40 : 27 47 : 20 Belarus 23 : 25 32 : 36 – 38 : 31 36 : 18 Israel 21 : 40 28 : 36 28 : 31 – 29 : 20 Bulgaria 29 : 54 23 : 40 19 : 40 28 : 34 –

Staff

In the 2008 summer coach Shlomo Hoffman left his job after many years, and his successor was his assistant, Gilad Maor, also coaches Maccabi Rishon Le Zion. The assistant coach is Amitay Dayan, And the Manager is Benny Marko.

On May 2009, Due to internal politics in the Israeli Handball Association, and against the decision made by its professional committee (twice), Shlomo Hoffman was reanounced as the coach.

Squad

No.	Name	Position	Club	Birth Date	Height	Weight	Caps	Goals	Caps	Goals
2	Ofer Luzon	Line Player	Maccabi Rishon Le Zion	27 November 1984	1.85	80	39	27	5	6
3	Yoav Neeman	Right Wing	Maccabi Rishon Le Zion	5 January 1980	1.85	80	66	161	6	17
4	Shir Tuerl	Left Wing	ASA Tel Aviv	24 June 1985	1.80	80	14	15	8	6
5	Avishay Smoler	Right Wing	TBV Lemgo	31 October 1985	1.80	78	66	194	6	36
6	Eran Abrmovich	Right Wing	Octavio Pilotes Posada	16 April 1982	1.81	89	12	19	3	8
7	Chen Pomeranz	Back Player	HSG Wetzlar	28 May 1984	1.85	84	42	167	4	20
10	Chen Birnbaum	Line Player	Maccabi Rishon Le Zion	20 July 1980	1.87	82	11	22	5	11
11	Tom Matalon	Left Back	Maccabi Rishon Le Zion	30 June 1983	1.89	88	37	86	8	25
12	Zvika Gross	Goal Keeper	Maccabi Tel Aviv	1 October 1977	1.87	83	33	0	5	0
13	Gal Avraham	Left Wing	Maccabi Rishon Le Zion	15 August 1981	1.79	80	28	106	8	43
14	Dan Mircus	Line Player	ASA Tel Aviv	18 January 1983	1.88	90	56	95	6	13
15	Itzik Halifi	Right Back	ASA Tel Aviv	1 April 1983	1.75	74	11	24	5	10
16	Modi Sordo	Goal Keeper	Maccabi Rishon Le Zion	18 August 1981	1.80	82	7	0	5	0
17	Ido Lavie	Line Player	ASA Tel Aviv	8 March 1982	1.92	95	11	3	8	2
21	Omer Davda	Line Player	Maccabi Tel Aviv	4 November 1987	1.87	104	15	11	3	1
24	Amir Langlib	Center Back	Hapoel Rishon Le Zion	14 July 1982	1.72	72	49	54	4	7
25	Gil Yaakov	Goal Keeper	Bnei Herzelia	26 June 1987	1.85	89	8	0	2	0
39	Elad Kapon	Left Back/Line Player	Maccabi Qiryat Motzkin	11 May 1989	1.95	97	1	1	1	1

• Caps and goals updated by 16 July 2009

Former coaches

• Eugen Trofin
• Shlomo Hoffman