From Israel come signs of soccer maturity. The country’s national team is doing well in the qualifying games for next year’s European Championship (for political reasons, Israel plays its soccer in Europe, not in Asia, as geography would require).

On Saturday, Israel played Macedonia in Skopje and won 2–1. The victory means that Israel (14 points from seven games) now shares second place in qualifying group E with Russia (14 points from six games) — both teams being two points behind leader Croatia, which has 16 points from six games.

Defeating Macedonia may not sound like a big deal — it is hardly one of soccer’s powerhouses — but the achievement is a doubly encouraging one for the Israelis.

Firstly, because it maintains the team’s position among the leaders, giving Israel a realistic chance of capturing at least second place in the final standings — which would mean qualification for next year’s finals to be staged jointly by Austria and Switzerland.

Secondly, because Israel has traditionally found it difficult to win away from home. The victory in Skopje confirms that the team is overcoming that block: in qualifying so far, it has also won 1–0 in Estonia and tied Russia 1–1 in Moscow.

Also helping coach Dror Kashtan is the fact that a growing number of his players now have experience playing outside of Israel. Goalkeeper Dudu Awat plays for Deportivo La Coruna of the Spanish league. In the English Premier League, Yossi Benayoun plays for West Ham United, Tal Ben Haim and Idan Tal are at Bolton Wanderers, while seventeen-year-old forward Ben Sahar is with Chelsea. Walid Badir, an Israeli Arab, played the 2000-2001 season with Wimbledon, while David Ben Dayan spent the 2005 season in America with the Colorado Rapids.

Maybe it is also another sign of soccer maturity that the Israeli team now includes naturalized players. This has long been a practice throughout the soccer world — Croatia, for instance, had a 1–0 victory over Estonia at the weekend on a goal scored by Eduardo Da Silva, a naturalized Brazilian. Israel’s winning goal against Macedonia also had a South American flavor to it — the scorer was a naturalized Argentine, Roberto Colautti.

Another foreign-born player is 19-year-old Toto Tamuz, whose family came to Israel from Nigeria when he was two years old. After he began the formal naturalization process earlier this year, he was granted the right to play for Israel and has so far made three appearances for the team. Despite rumored interest from Everton of England and Glasgow Rangers, Tamuz is still with Beitar Jerusalem.

Like Ben Sahar, Tamuz is a goalscoring forward. Both are also members of the Israeli under-21 team that is, arguably, the most significant element in the growth of Israeli soccer. It is one of eight teams that has qualified for the final round of the European under-21 championship. A youth tournament, yes, but an important one, and Israel’s presence marks the first time that it has qualified for the final round of a major soccer event since the 1976 Olympic Games.

The championship begins this weekend — which means a busy week for Tamuz. Tomorrow he is part of the adult Israeli team that plays in Andorra — another away game on the European championship qualifying trail and one that Israel must feel totally confident of winning. Andorra, something of a joke at this level, has so far lost all six of its games.

After the game, to be played in Andorras’s 1,800-capacity Estadio Comunal, Tamuz — along with Barak Itzhaki, another under-21 player on the senior team — will leave for the Netherlands, where Israel opens the under-21 tournament on Saturday with a tough game against the host Dutch team.

While newcomer Israel is beginning to flex its muscle on the European scene, at least one traditional power is suffering a severe loss of confidence. England is in the same qualifying group as Israel — it lies in fourth position, with 11 points from six games. Its performances so far have been, to put it mildly, feeble. Coach Steve McClaren is under great pressure to ensure a win in England’s next game, in Estonia tomorrow.

The idea that mighty England should be worrying about a game against Estonia (another team that has lost all six of its games so far) seems far fetched, but that is the situation. McClaren’s first move when he took over the team last year was to drop captain David Beckham. The “new era” that was supposed to arrive has failed to materialize … and Beckham is back in the team.

Last Friday, he played for England in an exhibition game against Brazil — an insipid game that ended as a 1–1 tie. Beckham did little that was exceptional, but he did swing in one of his trademark, pinpoint free kicks to set up England’s lone goal. His performance received hysterical reviews in the English press, with Reuters’ reporting that Beckham was “acclaimed as the savior of a nation.”

All this on top of speculation that Beckham is under consideration for a knighthood, presumably for “services to soccer.” But for one newspaper, the Daily Mail, the very idea of “Sir David” was preposterous. Granting such an honor, it said, would sum up outgoing prime minister Tony Blair’s decade in power, “years that have been characterized by … the cult of vacuous celebrity.”

Yes, Beckham played well against Brazil, but that achievement merely highlights the mediocrity of the team. Lately there has been an anxious, crabbed atmosphere to England’s games, leading to the situation where a game against Estonia has become a vital test for the strength of the team.

Assuming that McClaren includes him in the team — and it is now almost unthinkable that he will not — Beckham should help England to a comfortable victory. England desperately needs the win, but the doubts about the team will persist — beating Estonia is hardly a valid yardstick.

And, demonstrating that soccer maturity brings its own problems, Israel now faces the same sort of criticism. Beating Andorra should be no big deal. But even the win in Macedonia did not please everyone. The defensive, unenterprising style adopted by coach Kashtan did not sit well with the newspaper Ha’aretz, which slammed it as “effective but revolting.”

pgardner@nysun.com