C:  Panaiotis Engomitis (27), Milenko Spoliaric (54, 87 pen).
I:  Walid Badir (33), Yossi Benayoun (82).

GOAL PASSES:  Cyprus - NONE;
              Israel - Alon Hazan (33).



C:  Nikos Panaiotu           7        I:  Nir Davidovich          4
    --------------------------            -------------------------
    Costas Costakis        5.5            Alon Hazan            5.5
    Charalambous Pittas      6            Alon Harazi             4
    Marius Charalambous      5            Amir Shelakh            5
    --------------------------            (Nir Sevilla, 64 -      5)
    Vassos Melanarkitis    5.5            Arik Benado           5.5
    Kaippas                5.5            Najouan Grayib          4
    (Aristoclaus, 81)                     -------------------------
    Panaiotis Engomitis      6            Yossi Abuksis           5
    Milenko Spoliaric      6.5            (Yossi Benayoun, 55 - 5.5)
    Nikos Papavassiliou      5            Eyal Berkovich    injured
    (G. Christodolou, 64 - 5.5)           (Walid Badir, 16 -    5.5)
    --------------------------            Tal Banin             4.5
    Sinica Gogic             5            -------------------------
    (Mikhail Constantinou, 74)            Haim Revivo             6
    Okkas                    6            Alon Mizrahi            5


THE BEST:  Nikos Panaiotu, keeper, Cyprus.

AUDIENCE:  12.000 spectators, Tsirion Stadium, Limassol, Cyprus.

REFEREE:   David Barber (England).            HIS MARK:       7.

FOULS:     Cyprus  11 (4),  Israel  12 (6).

YELLOWS:   CYP - Panaiotis Engomitis (30), Milenko Spoliaric (42);
           ISR - Yossi Abuksis (11), Najouan Grayib (14), Walid Badir (40),
                 Haim Revivo (68), Nir Davidovich (87).

REDS:      CYP - NONE;
           ISR - NONE.

Nearly 3 years ago, the vain Israeli team went to Cyprus after a sensational home victory over Bulgaria and a decent home draw with Russia. 3,000 Israeli spectators went to Cyprus to celebrate loudly the victory over the minnow island rival, and with there celebrations disturbed the normal team preparations very much. The result is well known to all - Israel glorilessly lost 0:2 in what became the game denying it a chance to reach the World Cup.

This week, no less than 6,000 spectators invaded the small Mediterranean island, and the festive activities were the same - this was about to become a game to promise Israel at least the play-offs. A victory was needed, but even a draw would've been enough. Indeed, the team was preparing in a different way, remembering also the history lessons, but still, the pressure was high, and the expectations raised accordingly. The result is now known to all as well. Israel still has the good chances to get into the play-off, but now it's different. We are depending on the others, and the euphory ruling here after Austria is gone.

Israel wasn't playing its usual game, and Cyprus is widely known as a really strong home team; and still, Israel was able this time to score 2 goals away. And therefore, it's even more painful that the team couldn't preserve the so precious equalizer, and disappointed so much all the fans. And as it was in Cyprus 3 years ago, as it was against Spain in Ramat-Gan less than 11 months ago, the most responsible for this is the keeper. Nir Davidovich, in probably the worst game in his career, couldn't probably help in the first goal and could definitely do nothing in the second - but for God's sake, how do you cause the penalty in a critical time in the situation with no danger at all? After a terrible scandal and the elimination of Rafi Cohen from the National team, now it was proved without any doubt that his successor still had to learn.

So, the Israeli keeper wasn't fully the man to rely upon, but he was by far not the only person responsible for the loss. What on Earth happened to Alon Mizrahi, and how come the best Israeli forward of the last decade could fail so badly in beating Nikos Panaiotu 3 times? (Not that I want to renounce on praising the keeper). Nir Sevilla was a bit better, but it's still not enough. And I can't help mentioning all the rest who sucked in this game. Alon Harazi was completely awful and was directly or indirectly responsible for all the 3 goals. Najouan Grayib and Tal Banin, hardly getting any minutes in their foreign teams, were awful accordingly. Amir Shelakh and Yossi Abuksis were quite mediocre as well. Walid Badir and Yossi Benayoun scored the goals and gave Israel a lot of hope - but those substitutions of Shlomo Sherf were quite mediocre in all the rest of their moves.

Eyal Berkovich was injured very early, and with the weakness of Tal Banin, Haim Revivo was suffering from playing a playmaker all on his own; still, he was the only really bright spot of the team in this unfortunate game, and without sparkling, he still set the scene for the 2 goals. The other positive words can be said about Alon Hazan and Arik Benado. Indeed, Benado caused a penalty on Gogic, but the referee overlooked this foul; as for all the rest of the game, Gogic did completely nothing and was finally substituted. But this was only half a task. How could Shlomo Sherf overlook the potential of Spoliaric after his magnificent part in the victory over Spain? How?

As for Cyprus, it was a marvellous skill of Spoliaric and the game of its left wing (Pittas, Engomitis) that made the difference in the field. But the man to make the whole difference was Nikos Panaiotu in the hosts' net. This was the 4th game lastly between the 2 teams, and in all of those games Panaiotu was good, despite the losses - but yesterday it was probably the game of his life. Helpless in 2 goals, he singlehandedly denied at least 7 others, and it was doubtless he was "The Man Of The Match". I can't help citing here Shlomo Sherf: "Their keeper saved them time after time. We had no keeper to save us".

The teams which supplied the players for this shame (in brackets you can see the number of minutes each man played):

  Maccabee Haifa    4  (Davidovich 90, A. Harazi 90, Benado 90, Benayoun 36);
  Hapoel Haifa      2  (Shelakh 63, Sevilla 27);
  Aston Villa       1  (Grayib 90);
  Brescia           1  (Banin 90);
  Celta Vigo        1  (Revivo 90);
  Nice              1  (Mizrahi 90);
  SC Ashdod         1  (Hazan 90);
  Wimbledon         1  (Badir 75);
  Beitar Jerusalem  1  (Abuksis 54);
  Celtic            1  (Berkovich 15).

FIRST HALF

Although the start belonged already to the hosts, the first shot was released by Haim Revivo (3), taken easily by Panaiotu. The following 2 opportunities were of Cyprus - 2 free kicks of Milenko Spoliaric resulted in nothing but the yellow card for Yossi Abuksis, who moved in the wall (11), and in 3 minutes, Grayib was booked too, but stopped the penetration of Okkas.

15 minutes from the start, Israel suffered a terrible blow when Eyal Berkovich was injured and got out, replaced by Walid Badir. Even though all the 3 substitutions of Shlomo Sherf proved themselves in the critical moments of the game, Berkovich's absence hit the team really hard and made Haim Revivo bend under the terrible pressure of playmaking which fell on his shoulders alone. Still, Israel could've and should've taken the lead, but it was clear that Alon Mizrahi was pretty rusty - Nice is an incredible place to take a vacation there, but a real disaster in everything concerning Soccer. 17 minutes in the game, Revivo's great pass left Mizrahi alone in the box, but Nikos Panaiotu was there with a great save after Mizrahi's hesitant volley. And just 3 minutes later, it was Alon Hazan with a great pass into the box, where Mizrahi swang Pittas and found himself at one-to-one with the Cypriote in the net. Nikos Panaiotu, have I said this already?

"You don't score, you concede" - isn't it a cliche that makes us sick time after time? And still, it's right so often... A corner of the hosts was badly cleared by Alon Harazi (God, what a disastrous game of this experienced professional!), and the defenders were hesitant to press the ball holder. The latter, named Panaiotis Engomitis, had all the time to stop the ball and to release a sharp flat shot from 20 meters. Najouan Grayib interfered with the ball and hid it from the eyes of Nir Davidovich, who saw it coming to his low right corner when it was too late. 1:0, 27 minutes from the start.

The deja-vu already started appearing before the inner eye of the 6,000 Israeli fans in Limassol, and also before the inner eye of the TV watchers. But to make the final result even more painful, Israel reacted quickly, with the same actors partly that were involved in the opener. Engomitis cut the penetration of Grayib at the Hagi point and got booked for this (32), and Haim Revivo raised the free kick into the box. Alon Mizrahi sent a leg and volleyed the ball to the left crossbar of Panaiotu, and the Israelis moaned in frustration. Not for long, though. The ball was cleared away badly and landed into the legs of Alon Hazan, who immediately raised it into the box - and there the fresh substitute Walid Badir, playing now in Wimbledon, raised over Pittas and headed a typical mighty English header to his right corner from 8 meters. Panaiotu dived into the stretching of his life, but could only deflect the ball home. 1:1.

Spoliaric was booked after the brutal foul on Revivo (42), which set the easier scene for Spain on Wednesday (the 2nd yellow card for the wonderful Cypriote forward) but made Israel feel Milenko's wrath after the break. Davidovich dived to collect a dangerous ball of Pittas (44), in one of his only positive deeds in the game. And just before the break, the bad referee David Barber started compensating Israel for his mild reaction towards the Cypriote brutal fouls at the beginning (see: Berkovich). A high ball was raised into the box, and Arik Benado hugged the threatening Sinica Gogic from behind and threw him onto the ground. Never had there been a more obvious penalty in the Israeli games I've seen, and never had a referee failed so badly to see the obvious in those games. Gogic went ballistic, and the break came.

SECOND HALF

The hopes of Israel for this half were high - even after the 1st half warning, the arrogant Levantines were too vain to settle for a draw. Immediately, a bomb of Yossi Abuksis was deflected to the corner. And then, a dangerous free kick of Haim Revivo found Nikos Panaiotu again in place (52).

The referee gave Israel another unbelievable present - Gogic's penetration at the left wing left Benado behind, and Abuksis hit the ball and the host's leg, but still it was just a corner! And then Cyprus went ahead despite the referee - out of the two victorious Cypriote forwards in the game against Spain, Israel learnt Gogic but left the wonderful Milenko Spoliaric unattended. 9 minutes after the break, another high ball was raised into the guests' box. Benado headed the ball high, and Alon Harazi cleared it away with another bad header. Spoliaric, whose intelligent lob over Canizares a year ago was shown again and again all over Europe, stood there 18 meters from the net and produced a volley shot from the fairy-tales. I'm sure that all the spectators shared the disbelief of Nir Davidovich when the ball kissed the net under his right crossbar, a shot that can be made perhaps once in several years. 2:1.

Cyprus still had another 2 chances to score - Davidovich saved the ball of Okkas (61), and Okkas missed a clear chance (81); Sinica Gogic was substituted by then, and all the scene was left for "The Man Of The Day", Nikos Panaiotu. 5 minutes after the goal, the frustrated Haim Revivo took the ball to pass 3 players in the wonderful slalom, but his shot hit the Cypriote leg and misled both Panaiotu and Mizrahi, just a corner. A corner of Revivo 5 minutes later on produced the only positive deed of Alon Harazi in the game - a threatening header, which Panaiotu collected in a flight. 3 minutes afterwards, Revivo sent a marvellous ball to the fresh substitute Nir Sevilla, and his flat shot was blocked by a diving Panaiotu to a corner. And when Revivo himself produced another corner, it was a tremendous shot of Tal Banin from 25 meters. Panaiotu fell backwards from the might of the shot, but fisted it away to keep the score intact. Revivo's free kick (74) produced nothing, and the Israelis started feeling like the time was going out.

Yossi Benayoun, substituting Yossi Abuksis with 36 minutes still to go, did absolutely nothing on the pitch for 27 minutes - and still, his first official game for the National team nearly became an unforgettable debute. With 8 minutes still to go, Haim Revivo produced another of his passes of genius, leaving Nir Sevilla alone near the net. As expected, Panaiotu blocked the shot at one-to-one, and Alon Mizrahi tried to get hold of the rebound. As expected, the hosts' defender was there to block his path, but there was Yossi Benayoun to whom the ball deflected. Nobody took the wonderboy into consideration, and Benayoun rolled the ball coolly from 5 meters. Panaiotu rolled back to stop it and hit the ground in frustration as the ball passed under his hand. A levelling goal that was about to promise the Israeli place in the play-off, and a bright star that was officially lit in the European sky, Yossi Benayoun. 2:2! Nobody was thinking about the victory anymore - but even the draw was giving Israel a promised place of runner-up in the group. 8 more minutes to play...

Perhaps, if the game ended after the goal of Engomitis or even after the masterpiece of Spoliaric, the pain wouldn't be that heartbreaking. Haim Revivo, the man who has grown up in Europe and hardly ever criticizes anybody harshly, expressed it in a bitter and stinging way without raising his voice: "The team that scores 2 goals away in an important official game: you can expect it at least not to lose". But those 8 minutes were obviously too long... The infamous foul of Rafi Cohen on Gogic 3 years ago returned as a deja-vu 3 minutes from time - Engomitis sent the young Constantinou into the box, Harazi was nowhere to be seen, and Davidovich got out late and hit the forward unnecessarily, far from a danger area. Even David Barber couldn't help with his blindness anymore... Panaiotu, the hero of the small and modest Mediterranean island until that moment, hugged the post of his net in order not to see the climax; Davidovich, in the other net, was standing before the impossible mission into which he dragged himself and his team. Spoliaric hit the ball hard and sent it flatly to his left corner, Davidovich guessed the direction and dived to nearly reach the ball. Nearly. The deserved Cypriote lead of 3:2, another result to frustrate millions in Israel.

Deep in the injury time, Cyprus was close to another goal - Alon Harazi lost the ball near the box, and Okkas missed the frame near an almost empty net. Cyprus caught the 2nd place, but not for long - on Wednesday, the expected victories of Israel over San-Marino and Spain over Cyprus will restore the order. But now, the decisive action will take place in October. As soon as Cyprus doesn't win in Austria, Israel can be calm. But if Cyprus does win there (and remember - this game is nothing for the Austrians who lost their chances long ago), Israel has to win in Spain - and even if Spain will need no points as it already qualified, this will be a mission impossible. Let's hope for the best, and let's wait for another month. And hope for the play-off, where the team is expected to play better. Much better.

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