Soccer / No goals here

TBLISI - Israel's national soccer team walked away relatively satisfied from its 0-0 draw against host Georgia in its second European Group F qualifier. The players carried out coach Luis Fernandez's game plan almost perfectly, even if they did not perform at their best.

Fernandez said Monday he wanted to prevent Georgia from scoring in the first half and then insert Gil Vermouth in the second half to try to steal a quick away goal. In that sense, the team finished half the job.

"Few teams have come out of Georgia with points," said Fernandez after the game. "The pitch was not in good condition, and that kept our guys from playing like they know how. They could have played better, but the pitch complicated matters." He said it was an important point that Israel did not yield a goal, adding that Israel has lost similar matches in previous qualifiers.

Overall, Israel played better defense than it did against Malta, and the theme of the game was defense. Only when Eran Zehavi and Vermouth entered did we see Israel on the attack.

The backfield of Tal Ben Haim, Dekel Keinan and Dedi Ben Dayan did not look confident and spent too much time trying to clear the ball away from the penalty area. It was hard to tell who had more body guards last night, the Georgia's President Mikheil Saakashvili or Israeli goalkeeper Dudu Aouate.

In contrast, Dani Bondar did just fine for his second start with the squad.