The Blogs: Memories of the 1970 World Cup

The upcoming FIFA World Cup will be a record third time Mexico is hosting the showpiece event. The first time it hosted in 1970 coincides with the only time Israel has qualified for the World Cup.

It was a different world back then. Israel were still in the Asian conference and between them and Oceania there was one spot at the World Cup up for grabs.

Israel received a first round bye and in the second round found itself in a group with New Zealand and North Korea. North Korea refused to play Israel so withdrew leaving Israel to play two games against New Zealand.

Israel National Team in 1970 (Wikimedia Commons)

Israel won the first 4-0 in Ramat Gan and the second 2-0 which was also in Ramat Gan.

The final round was a two-legged tie against Australia. Israel hosted the first leg which it won 1-0 and 10 days later, drew the second match in Sydney 1-1 to make it to the World Cup. It was December 1969 and a historic occasion for the young country just 21 years old.

Israel found itself in an extremely difficult group containing Uruguay, Sweden and Italy. Uruguay would go on to finish 3rd, Italy were runners up and Sweden were back for their first World Cup since finishing runners up in 1958.

First game jitters were on display as Israel lost the opening match 2-0 to Uruguay but then it found its feet and drew 1-1 against Sweden and 0-0 against Italy.

Mordechai Spiegler, still Israel’s only scorer at a World Cup (Wikimedia Commons)

With 2 points, Israel was by the far the best performing of the teams that came last in its group and to do so in a group of death is even more admirable.

Israel would have 2 more attempts to qualify for the World Cup via Asia before it was kicked out of the confederation and would have to do so via Europe.

This has been part of the reason why Israel has struggled to get back to the World Cup. Having to get past the likes of England, Germany, Italy, Spain and France is a different proposition from Japan, Thailand and Singapore.

Saying this, teams such as Iceland, Slovenia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina have qualified via Europe.

Obviously, this last qualification campaign was hit hard by world events with the team unable to host matches in Israel but if go back four years to 2022, they had no such excuses. Then they were in a group with Denmark, Scotland, Austria, Faroe Islands and Moldova. Denmark topped the group and Scotland finished second to advance to a playoff. Taking only one point from 12 in the four matches against Denmark and Scotland is what cost them.

The talent is in Israel to make it, for whatever reason it just hasn’t clicked when it’s counted.

When the World Cup gets underway in summer, there will be plenty of reason for nostalgia as we think back 56 years to the only time Israel was there.