Israel U-20s come 3rd in World Cup

Another victory completed the participation of Israel’s national Under-20 football team in the World Cup when they secured third place by beating South Korea 3-1 on Sunday. They recovered from their loss to tournament winners Uruguay to put on another excellent performance.

Here is the i24 News report on the match against South Korea:

In the semi-final, despite dominating possession, they conceded the only goal of the match in the second half, giving Uruguay a 1-0 victory. Nevertheless, Israel’s president hailed the team as an inspiration for their country.

Previously, they had continued amazing success in the World Cup competition on Saturday 3rd June, beating Brazil 3-2 after going behind twice to the tournament favourites.

That third successive win put the team through to the U-20 World Cup semi-finals where it came up against Uruguay on Thursday 8th June.

Particularly worthy of note is that two of Israel’s three goals against Brazil were scored by Hamza Shibli, a Bedouin Israeli, and Anan Khalaili, an Arab Israeli, before Dor Turgeman, a Jewish Israeli, scored the winner.

This is yet more evidence that accusations of apartheid policies in Israel are false.

That win followed a 1-0 victory over Uzbekistan which, in turn, followed Israel’s first-ever win in a FIFA World Cup, a 2-1 victory over Japan in which they came from behind to win in stoppage time.

So now, these young Israelis look to continue making history in future tournaments.