ASN: Cohen realizes his Champions League dream as Maccabi Haifa face Benfica

Maccabi Haifa goalkeeper Josh Cohen is one in all 11 People on Champions League group stage rosters and his rise to the highest ranges of the sport has taken him by way of uncommon twists and turns. ASN’s Brian Sciaretta spoke with the Mountian View native about his outstanding rise. 

BY

Brian Sciaretta

Posted
September 06, 2022
4:00 AM

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THE UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGE group levels get beneath means on Tuesday and American goalkeeper Josh Cohen is aware of that his Maccabi Haifa crew is taken into account a deep underdog. The Israeli champions have been drawn into Group H together with Paris St. Germain, Juventus, and Benfica – which it would go to within the opening sport.

For Cohen, not a lot is anticipated of him or his crew however the reality is that the tough draw is what he and his crew hoped. For a lot of gamers on the crew, together with Cohen, that is the possibility for them to get observed by scouts and followers outdoors of Israel. That is additionally an opportunity for them to expertise the sport on the highest of ranges.

“I’m extremely excited for the draw,” Cohen instructed American Soccer Now. “I wanted to play against some of the best teams in the world, some of the best players in the world. And with this draw, we get that. We want the best. We want to play against the highest level. Bring on all the top teams. We want the group of death.”

When trying on the listing of American gamers concerned within the Champions League group levels, Cohen stands out. Christian Pulisic, Gio Reyna, Weston McKennie, Sergino Dest, John Brooks, Cameron Carter-Vickers, Malik Tillman, James Sands, John Brooks, and Owen Otasowie make up the 11 different American gamers. Everybody has been capped by the U.S. nationwide crew and most of them have been thought-about prime prospects who’ve performed in youth World Cups.

Cohen, nonetheless, is way completely different. He’s the one participant on that listing over 30 and he has by no means performed for america at any degree. Actually, when he was popping out of faculty at UC San Diego, he toiled away in USL earlier than shifting to Israel. Throughout that point, he hoped for an MLS gig – which by no means got here.

— USL Championship (@USLChampionship) October 1, 2017

“I kind of expected my path to be something like – I’m playing in USL, if I do really well the MLS opportunity will come,” Cohen recalled. “I’ll get in contact with some teams and things will fall into place. That really just didn’t happen.”

Rising up in Mountain View, California, Cohen shouldn’t be significantly nicely related with the very best ranges of American soccer and the one participant he is aware of within the larger nationwide crew pool is Sebastian Lletget who was his teammate on the Santa Clara Sporting from the U-13 by way of U-16 ranges.

Within the Champions League, Cohen appears ahead to assembly Weston McKennie and presumably John Brooks who’re additionally in Group H. He additionally hopes that the expertise permits him to construct up his identify recognition again in his dwelling nation.

“I’m honored at this point to be even on the list of Americans in the Champions League with these great names,” Cohen stated. “A lot of them represent the country and are some of the strongest players on the national team. That is just amazing.”

Whereas Cohen’s rise to the Champions League may look like one thing out of the blue, the reality is that it had been constructing impressively for the final a number of years.

In 2013, Cohen graduated UC San Diego after a powerful faculty profession. With no preliminary MLS curiosity, he moved to the Burlingame Dragons of the USL PDL. He then moved to the Orange County Blues, Phoenix Rising, after which to the Sacramento Republic – all the USL Championship. By 2019, he was the USL Goalkeeper of the Yr however there have been nonetheless no MLS groups .

— Republic FC (@SacRepublicFC) June 13, 2019

In the summertime of 2019, Maccabi Haifa moved in a short time: “it just fell into my lap at the last hour out of the blue.” On a Tuesday in July, Cohen received phrase Maccabi Haifa was and by Friday, he was on a airplane.

“I saw it really is just an opportunity that I couldn’t pass up,” Cohen stated. “It was very unknown but it was something where I thought in 10 or 20 years, if I looked back and I didn’t do it, I would regret it.  In hindsight, things worked out amazingly well.”

Whereas Cohen was already in strong kind when he moved to Israeli, it was with Maccabi Haifa the place he took his sport to a good greater degree. Maccabi Haifa wasn’t a typical Israeli membership however as a substitute was one of many nation’s most traditionally highly effective groups having gained fourteen league titles, six State Cups, and holding the Israeli membership report for probably the most Champions League group stage {qualifications}.

For Cohen, the silverware began to come back in spectacular numbers at Haifa. He helped the membership win the Premier League in each 2020/21 and 2021/22, the Toto Cup in 2021/22, and the Tremendous Cup in 2021

Probably the most spectacular trophy got here when Cohen was named the Israeli Footballer of the Yr for the 2020/21 season – an award not usually given to goalkeepers.

American GK Josh Cohen got here up BIG for Maccabi Haifa of their 3-2 win over Crimson Star Belgrade and are one sport away from the #UCL group stage. ???? pic.twitter.com/OyBqBugSDJ

— UCL on Paramount+ ?? (@CBSSportsGolazo) August 17, 2022

“The biggest part was kind of the sink or swim mentality of being tossed into a much larger pond and then having to deal with it,” Cohen recalled of shifting to Israel. “When I first arrived in Israel in terms of my shot stopping – I did pretty well. One thing I struggled with for the first month was reading the game and the speed of play. In training we were playing small-sided games and the players are making decisions much quicker than I was used to and were demanding me to make my decisions much quicker than I was used to.”

“That environment helped lift me up to a place where I never tried to push myself to read the game at that speed because it never really was asked for me,” he added. “With some of the coaches I’ve worked with here have been very demanding. They expect a lot.  How you respond and those things together works to help you improve quickly.”

Now Cohen may have the chance to showcase himself outdoors of Israel and the trail in the direction of qualifying for the group levels was extraordinarily spectacular, and tough.

Maccabi Haifa started its marketing campaign within the second qualifying spherical towards Greek champions Olympiacos. After a tricky 1-1 attract Israel, Maccabi Haifa put in a surprising efficiency in a shocking 4-0 away win in Greece. Then within the second spherical, Haifa received previous Apollon of Cyprus 4-2 on combination.

The ultimate playoff spherical over Crimson Star Belgrade was probably the most dramatic. Maccabi Haifa gained the primary leg at dwelling 3-2. Within the second leg, it fell behind 2-0 however rallied for 2 targets for a 2-2 draw and a 5-4 combination win. The winner got here within the ninetieth minute off an personal aim.

“We knew after winning 3-2 a home that it would be a lot more difficult in Belgrade,” Cohen stated. “Last year, the team we lost to in qualifying, Kairat Almaty, went on to play Red Star after us. They beat Red Star 2-1 at home and then went to Belgrade and lost 5-0. We knew there was kind of this balance for that game of knowing you have a one goal advantage, but also not being complacent or just trying to defend. That that won’t work. And I think in the first half, we were a little bit torn between those two options. We took a couple of punches, but we scored right at the end of the half gained some momentum back, gave us the confidence we needed to just go out and go for it in the second half. It worked out quite well.”

Regardless that he’s now 30, Cohen believes he has loads of extra to perform within the sport. Within the years forward, he’s conserving the door open in the direction of shifting to Europe or presumably following his unique skilled of aim of enjoying in MLS.

There may be additionally the difficulty of the nationwide crew. Proper now, he’s solely eligible for america however within the years forward, given his Jewish heritage, he might turn out to be eligible for the Israeli nationwide crew. However for now, if Gregg Berhalter was to name him with a shock invitation, he wouldn’t hesitate.

“I definitely would not have to think about it,” Cohen stated about enjoying for america.  “I do, a little bit, want to keep both paths open to see what opportunities may come up. But when I was growing up, I never thought that I would play in Israel, let alone be eligible to play for the national team. It was always the US team that I was thinking about or watching or wearing the jersey.”

It’s all thrilling for Cohen as he has by no means been within the dialogue for the U.S. nationwide crew earlier than and nobody but is aware of if he’s in Berhalter’s plans. However for the primary time, Cohen feels extra snug to dream about it in a practical means.

“It definitely does feel like and I am closer now,” he added. “I think it’s just an inevitable feeling of being in Champions League or playing at a high-level club team. Even though our club team isn’t a name brand club outside of Israel, it’s definitely something where when you’re playing at this level, you get the sense that it’s not that far away.”