Israel coach Avraham Grant is set to drop goalkeeper Dudu Awat after his erratic performance in Saturday night's 2-2 draw with Ireland in Dublin. Maccabi Haifa's Nir Davidovich is favored to regain his first choice spot for Israel's next World Cup qualifier against Switzerland in December. Davidovich missed much of last season due to injury, but was outstanding in Israel's training camp in England before the qualifier in Dublin.
Although Awat blocked at least two certain goals on Saturday, the Racing Santander man's performance was criticized by Israel's professional staff. "Awat lacks confidence. He looks like Goliath between the posts, but he isn't capable of taking the ball. Every high ball threatens a goal. Luckily for him [against Ireland], the ball kept hitting him and didn't go into the net. Otherwise, instead of dreaming of the World Cup finals, we would have been heading back in shame to Israel. He'll ruin the campaign for us in the end," a source on the staff said.
Awat's teammates aren't happy with his performance, either. "When Davidovich is in goal, we are a lot more confident. Awat may play his game in Spain, but his mistakes are colossal. We never know what he's up to. In Ireland's first goal, he should have come out to take the ball off Robbie Keane, and not let the striker get a clean shot," one of Israel defenders said.
When Awat injured his elbow in training ahead of the Ireland game, Grant considered replacing him with Davidovich, but decided not to make a drastic last-minute change to the squad.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/585123.html
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Israel Coach set to drop Awat after his performance
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