A:  Hannes Reinmayr (7).
I:  Avi Nimni (69 pen).

GOAL PASSES:  Austria - Ivica Vastic;
              Israel  - NONE.



A:  Franz Wohlfahrt       6       I:  Rafi Cohen            6
    -----------------------           -----------------------
    Wolfgang Feiersinger  6           Alon Harazi         6.5
    Andreas Pfeffer       6           Ran Ben-Shimon        6
    Peter Schoettel       5           Amir Shelakh          5
    (Christian Mayrleb, 72)           (Avi Nimni, 46 -    6.5)
    Harald Cerny        5.5           Arik Benado           6
    (Peter Stueger, 74)               David Amsalem (RED, 60)
    -----------------------           -----------------------
    Dietmar Kuhbauer      6           Walid Badir         7.5
    Roman Mahlich         6           Yossi Abuksis         5
    Hannes Reinmayr     6.5           (Alon Mizrahi, 46 -   6)
    Martin Amerhauser   5.5           Eyal Berkovich      7.5
    -----------------------           Haim Revivo         7.5
    Mario Haas          5.5           -----------------------
    (Martin Hiden, 70)                Ronen Harazi        5.5
    Ivica Vastic        6.5           (Najouan Grayib, 60 - 6)



THE BEST:  Haim Revivo, midfielder, Israel.

AUDIENCE:  20.000 spectators, Ernst Happel Stadium, Vienna, Austria.

REFEREE:   Andres Frisk (Sweden).                HIS MARK:       8.

CORNERS:   Austria  3, Israel  2.

YELLOWS:   AUS - Peter Schoettel, Dietmar Kuhbauer, Roman Mahlich;
           ISR - Alon Harazi, Walid Badir.

REDS:      AUS - NONE;
           ISR - David Amsalem (60).

6 years have passed... Then, in 1992, the first ever official Israeli game in Europe was held at the same stadium, and Israel lost with a humiliating score of 2:5. Lots of players have changed in the Austrian team since; in the Israeli squad, only Ran Ben-Shimon (and probably, Amir Shelakh, Avi Nimni or Alon Harazi) stayed as well, and of course, Shlomo Sherf is still the coach. And yesterday it was a totally different story than then... Israel suffered from a terrible pitch, an early goal which was scored after another awful defensive blunder, and a dubious red card shown to David Amsalem with 30 minutes yet to go. However, the newly bred team of Shlomo Sherf, with a decent number of "European" players in the squad, doesn't break down quickly; in addition, those were the brilliant tactical decisions of Sherf and his well-timed substitutions which caught his counterpart Herbert Prohaska fully off guard. Had not it been for the tired condition of Alon Mizrahi (quite unexplicably, I would say), Israel could've also won the game during its dying seconds.

The game didn't show us lots of really dangerous moments or shots, but still was interesting and watchable. The Austrians, with an experience of the last World Cup and some new players as well, weren't bad at all - the compliments should go first of all to Hannes Reinmayr and the magnificent Ivica Vastic who will surely find his place in one of the leading European clubs in quite a short time, but those were also Roman Mahlich and Dietmar Kuhbauer who scared the Israeli fans more than once. Cerny, Pfeffer, Feiersinger and Schoettel created a good defensive line, which left a nearly free day to Stuttgart's keeper Franz Wohlfahrt in the hosts' net. What was bad, then? Well, Amerhauser was felt to be a debutant, and Mario Haas didn't bring the home team his skill from the last friendly game against France. And besides, the Austrians weren't the proper hosts, if I can put it this way - indeed, they've completed half a task by scoring an early goal, but they didn't press afterwards and gave up all the initiative to the Israelis. And the guests were this time patient enough and skillful in the midline to develop the attacks of their own and to reach the result the Israeli fans were aspiring to - a prestigeous away draw in an opening game of Euro'2000 preliminary cycle. A great start!

As for the Israelis - there was an awful mistake after 7 minutes of play, as Amir Shelakh, Arik Benado and Ran Ben-Shimon left Reinmayr alone in a forbidden zone; still, Benado and Ben-Shimon returned later on to their usual form. Yossi Abuksis was very unconcentrated and lost a huge amount of balls, while Amir Shelakh wasn't his usual self as well - they were substituted by Sherf during the break in a daring decision which proved to be right, as Alon Mizrahi and Avi Nimni made the move that made the difference. Ronen Harazi wasn't bright, but did his job; his substitute Najouan Grayib helped to make the defensive line stable after the expulsion of David Amsalem who wasn't bad as well until that moment. Rafi Cohen was good, for a change lastly, and Alon Harazi was stable in defence and helped immensely to the attackers.

But most of all, those were 3 players. Walid Badir caused the hosts another headache with his unstoppable penetrations, and his advancement in the last months is simply incredible. And our main "Europeans", Eyal Berkovich and especially Haim Revivo, caught the eye of every single person who was watching the game. Two other stars of Celta Vigo, Alexander Mostovoi and Valeriy Karpine, changed the game of the dull and mediocre Russian National team in its game against Ukraine, coming as the substitutes; but this was nothing compared to what the quick Israeli has done in Vienna. It can be hard to believe the superlatives of the Israeli press sometimes, but yesterday it was enough to see in order to believe.

As for the teams that supplied the players for this game (in brackets you can see the number of minutes each man played):

  Maccabee Haifa       3  (Benado 90, A. Harazi 90, Mizrahi 45);
  Hapoel Haifa         2  (Ben-Shimon 90, Grayib 31);
  Beitar Jerusalem     2  (Abuksis 45, Shelakh 45);
  Celta Vigo           1  (Revivo 90);
  Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa  1  (Badir 90);
  Maccabee Tel-Aviv    1  (Cohen 90);
  WestHam United       1  (Berkovich 90);
  Bursaspor            1  (R. Harazi 59);
  Crystal Palace       1  (Amsalem 59);
  No team              1  (Nimni 45).

THE FIRST HALF

After an Israeli heat that lasts for months, it was a refreshing sight to see the skies of Vienna pouring with rain; however, playing in such the weather conditions and on such the slippery pitch was definitely a tormenting experience. In addition to all the troubles, the satellite connection could hardly ever be worse; for 10 minutes (18-28) a static picture was held, and Meir Einstein had to pass to the radio mode of commentaries, and then (and before) a picture was going mad sometimes - quick forward, quick reverse, a head apart of a body, and so on. In addition, many exciting moments were just missed, as the Austrian operators preferred to do 4-5 replays at the same time. And if this wasn't enough, the start was extremely inconvenient for the Israelis...

When Shlomo Sherf just started using his system of 3 central defenders and playing 1-5-4-1, there were lots of questions "Why?"; 7 minutes into the yesterday's game, those converted into "Where?" Ivica Vastic, a huge gift given to the Austrians by Croatia due to the Austrian origins of his mother, sent himself into a sprint at the left wing and crossed the ball into the box under the pressure of Alon Harazi and Arik Benado. Mario Haas and Amir Shelakh missed the ball in the air, but then it reached Hannes Reinmayr, 8 meters from the net, with nobody to stop him. Ran Ben-Shimon was far away, Benado and Shelakh lost themselves completely, and David Amsalem who rushed to close the forward was too far as well. Reinmayr stopped the ball and shot a cannon shot under the right crossbar of Rafi Cohen. The keeper froze in place, but he (as well as any other keeper in the world) could've done nothing anyway. 1:0.

Strangely enough, this early goal gave the hosts a feeling of a well-done job, and they did not press to humiliate the rival even more (this was, by the way, what Ukraine did, playing against Russia; the result is well-known to all of us, 3:2 to the yellow-and-blue); on the contrary, the Israelis took the initiative and started with the attacks of their own. It was Berkovich (14) who found Alon Harazi inside the box with a great pass, and the attacking defender headed the ball to Ronen Harazi; however, Pfeffer could block the forward with a maybe-penalty-maybe-not operation. The referee marked to continue playing. Later on, his linesman made two rude mistakes in showing the offsides which never happened, of David Amsalem (17) and Ronen Harazi (34).

In a satellite deadtime, Mario Haas (23) missed a great opportunity to beat Rafi Cohen in one-to-one; in another 10 minutes, it was a great curved shot of Kuhbauer from 16 meters, kissing the left post of Rafi and deflecting away. On the other hand, a sparkling move of Berkovich left 2 players behind and gave the ball to Yossi Abuksis, totally free 17 meters from the net; however, the shot of the latter was ridiculous (36). Berkovich's shot from 25 meters (39) was too high, and in another couple of minutes he missed the ball in a huge puddle, after a preparation of Revivo. And another ball of Berkovich found Walid Badir (44) who rushed into the box between the 2 players, the ball running away from him but finding Ronen Harazi; however, Schoettel and Wohlfahrt managed to stop the forward of Bursaspor.

THE SECOND HALF

Gambling is officially forbidden in Israel, but altogether with that the country has a licensed official gambler of its own - Shlomo Sherf. With 45 minutes to go in an away game and a deficit of one goal, Shlomo Sherf took out Amir Shelakh and Yossi Abuksis and threw into the battle Alon Mizrahi and Avi Nimni; indeed, Abuksis and Shelakh weren't in their best, but such an attacking trend was a huge risk. And a risk that finally proved itself. In an after-match interview to the Austrian TV, the hosts' coach Herbert Prohaska confessed those substitutions of Sherf had caught him totally off guard.

A brilliant volley shot of Berkovich from 8 meters was blocked and earned the Israelis their first corner (52); on the other hand, it was a great shot of Reinmayr (54) that again kissed tenderly the left post of Rafi Cohen. In another 2 minutes, Rafi Cohen finally showed some of his skills - Kuhbauer shot a mighty ball from 16 meters, but Cohen flew and caught it tight in the air. Still, it was just 1:0 to the hosts, a very liquid score.

The moment which could've broken the Israeli team came 14 minutes in the 2nd half. Haim Revivo was kicked down by Kuhbauer who was booked for that, and a free kick was given from nearly the edge of the box. The Austrians started building a wall, arguing with the referee in between; Alon Mizrahi and David Amsalem tried to interfere with the wall in order to give Ran Ben-Shimon a better position for a shot. As usual, the Austrian operator chose to sleep instead of being concentrated; the next thing we've seen was Roman Mahlich, lying on the ground and holding his intimate places. The referee consulted with his linesmen, separated the crowd of players pushing and pulling each other, and said his decisive word. Mahlich has seen a yellow card, and David Amsalem - a red one.

However, Shlomo Sherf reacted as quickly as a lightning - number 10 was shown by the 4th referee, and Ronen Harazi gave his place to Najouan Grayib, a left defender that can compete with Amsalem in everything. Grayib took the chance in both hands and gave the Israelis a needed security; in the central line, those were Berkovich, Revivo, Badir and Nimni, who took an additional burden on their wide shoulders. However, the next opportunity was still of the Austrians - Vastic registered a huge penetration through the center of defence, but was frightened all of a sudden at the sight of Rafi Cohen and shot it wide (67).

Had the great Niko Kudritskiy been alive, he would've definitely been satisfied with the Ukrainean victory over Russia the same day. But he could've also been proud of his two pupils from Bnei-Yehuda Tel-Aviv, who became the truly bright stars in the Israeli soccer skies. Haim Revivo (69), getting the ball near the midline, rushed forward, passed Pfeffer as if he was an air, and released a magic ball to Alon Mizrahi who found himself on his undisturbed way to the box. The best active Israeli forward, in a very mediocre game of his otherwise, made a single move that would forever mark his participation as justified - screwing himself between Schoettel and Feiersinger, he was kicked down by Schoettel and fell convincingly as well. Schoettel stated after the game: "It definitely was my foul on an Israeli forward, and I deserved to be sent off with a 2nd yellow card; however, the foul has never happened inside the box". The referee thought otherwise - he left Schoettel on the pitch, but pointed at the penalty spot. Avi Nimni (another gamble of Sherf - Revivo or Mizrahi are the better penalty takers, and besides, Nimni terribly lacks the playing practice lastly) took a shot to his left at half a height, and Wohlfahrt dived into an opposite direction. The unbelievable happened. 1:1!

From that moment on, those were the Austrians who pressed and pressed on the Israeli net - but all they reached were the shots of Vastic (73) and Kuhbauer (80), and those missed the frame as usual. On the other hand, Revivo and Berkovich gave Alon Mizrahi 2 wonderful chances to finish the game in the counterattacks during the dying seconds; however, the scorer seemed to be surprisingly tired and wasted those opportunities in a merciless way.

Do you remember the World Cup? 3 goals have the Austrians scored, and each of those came in the injury time! Yesterday it nearly happened again, as a substitute Peter Stueger shot a flat ball from inside the box; however, Rafi Cohen dived and saved it. 1:1, and the game ended! Great, boys!

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