I:  Alon Hazan (65).
S:  Fernando Hierro (66), Joseba Etxeberria (78).

GOAL PASSES:  Israel - Haim Revivo (65);
              Spain  - Luis Enrique (78).

In squared brackets - the marks of the Spanish newspaper SPORT.
The usual marks are of the Israeli newspaper YEDIOTH AHRONOTH.


I:  Rafi Cohen          3.5 [3]      S:  Santiago Canizares      5.5 [5]
    ---------------------------          -------------------------------
    Alon Hazan            6 [5]          Michel Salgado            6 [5]
    (Tal Banin, 75          [4])         Fernando Hierro           7 [6]
    Ran Ben-Shimon      5.5 [5]          Rafael Alkorta          5.5 [5]
    Arik Benado           6 [5]          Aranzabal               5.5 [5]
    Alon Harazi         5.5 [5]          (Marcos Vales, 90)
    Najouan Grayib        6 [5]          -------------------------------
    ---------------------------          Vicente Engonga           6 [6]
    Walid Badir         6.5 [5]          Luis Enrique              6 [5]
    Jean Talesnikov       6 [5]          Rafael Alkiza             6 [5]
    (Alon Mizrahi, 60 - 5.5 [5])         Juan De Pedro           5.5 [5]
    Eyal Berkovich        6 [6]          (Joseba Etxeberria, 73      [6])
    Avi Nimni             6 [5]          -------------------------------
    ---------------------------          Raul Gonzales           5.5 [5]
    Haim Revivo	     6.5 [6]          (Ismail Urzaiz, 85)
                                         Kiko Gonzales             6 [6]


THE BEST:  Fernando Hierro, defender, Spain.

AUDIENCE:  44.000 spectators, National Stadium, Ramat-Gan, Israel.

REFEREE:   David Elleray (England).        HIS MARK:    9.

CORNERS:   Israel  3, Spain  4.

YELLOWS:   ISR - Alon Hazan (49), Alon Mizrahi (79);
           SPN - Vicente Engonga (4), Fernando Hierro (12),
                 Juan De Pedro (20), Kiko Gonzales (90).

REDS:      ISR - NONE;
           SPN - NONE.

Unfortunately, I don't understand Spanish, but I understand the intonations well, and some of the words are international. And so, lying on the couch in the Barcelona hotel and watching the game despite the silent accusation of my wonderful girlfriend, I could feel the Spanish relief after the game. The next day, the front pages of all the leading Spanish newspapers contained the picture from the game and some words, and the SPORT magazine dedicated to this game no less than 8 pages, including the statistical comparison, the comparative data about Haim Revivo and Luis Enrique, and so on. This can show two things. One is that the Spanish National team is not what it used to be, that the real stars lost their confidence after the disasters of Nigeria, Paraguay, Cyprus and Spartak Moscow, and that even the victory over Israel is seen as a great success. The other thing is a slightly different interpretation - that the Israeli team became a real competitor in Europe, that even the Spanish grands referred to the team of Shlomo Sherf with all the due respect, and that the victory over Israel in Ramat-Gan (the first official International home loss of Israel since November 1993!) is considered sort of a National holiday. This is a compliment, but in the light of the results it's so frustrating!

The sensational victories over Feyenoord, Torpedo Moscow and Parma, the victory over Bulgaria, the Championship with Maccabee Haifa without losing even one game... All of those happened due to Rafi Cohen in his best games. Unfortunately, the game against Spain became the last International game of Rafi Cohen, in which he continued his, to put it mildly, BAD performances from Maccabee Tel-Aviv lastly. Israel managed to take a lead through a fantastic in its beauty goal of Alon Hazan, but two crucial mistakes of Cohen caused a loss and an unprecedental attack of the National coach Shlomo Sherf on one of his players. Putting the harsh words aside, Sherf was right in the contents of those. This is not the way to build a wall and to react to a free kick from 30 meters, however superbly it was taken by Fernando Hierro. This is also not the way to handle the weak header to a close corner.

However, Shlomo Sherf himself is also considerably guilty. First of all, this wasn't the place to put Rafi Cohen in the net after his scandalous mistakes in the League (the two goals of Shlomi Danino come immediately to mind); but then again, however wonderful Nir Davidovich was in the games against PSG and in the League, he could've been considered too young to be in the net in so crucial a game. However, the hesitancy of Sherf is something that's hard to forgive him for. It's impossible to play at home with no natural forward; Haim Revivo gave another superb game of his, but he would've been even more dangerous had he played slightly backwards, altogether with Berkovich, in order to feed Alon Mizrahi with the balls. Jean Talesnikov and Walid Badir altogether are too defensive for a home game, and probably it was not the place for Alon Hazan to start as well, however hard it's to say that because of his incredible opener. Besides, it was a slow reaction of Sherf to all the changes that his rival Jose Antonio Camacho created on the pitch - the entrance of the tall Joseba Etxeberria, or the transfer of Luis Enrique to the left wing. The result is known to all.

Camacho, on the other hand, made several brilliant tactical decisions like the mentioned above, but most of all, it was his daring decision to try the new players in so crucial a game - I loved especially Michel Salgado and Vicente Engonga. [The presence of Celta Vigo was quite intense and meaningful, with Haim Revivo building the Israeli attacks time after time, and Michel Salgado destroying them time after time]. Besides, Spain had a huge moral factor of a very quick and powerful equalizer which paralyzed the stadium for a moment after the seconds of ecstasy. The Israelis never recovered from such a shock, and the Spaniards went on pressing and searching for a mistake until they found one.

To finish the preface, it's impossible to skip a word about the refereeing. Do you remember the disastrous refereeing of Euro'96, and a scandalous one sometimes in WC'98? In the light of those, it was a real pleasure to see the flawless performance of David Elleray. A precise referee who was always close to the ball, used the authority when needed and a smile and a warning gesture when needed, and who got a high respect from all of the players on the field. Hopefully, more like him will appear in the World Soccer.

And finally, here come the teams that supplied the players for this game (in brackets you can see the number of minutes each man played):

  Maccabee Haifa       3  (A. Harazi 90, Benado 90, Mizrahi 31);
  Hapoel Haifa         2  (Ben-Shimon 90, Grayib 90);
  Maccabee Tel-Aviv    2  (Cohen 90, Nimni 90);
  Celta Vigo           1  (Revivo 90);
  Westham              1  (Berkovich 90);
  Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa  1  (Badir 90);
  Watford              1  (Hazan 74);
  Beitar Jerusalem     1  (Talesnikov 59);
  Brescia              1  (Banin 16).

THE FIRST HALF

Most of the first half was hesitant, and it brought no goals. Israel was definitely aware of the new team of Camacho, unknown tactics and unknown players; Spain, on the other hand, did not want to consider Israelis with contempt and took its time to get accustomed to the field. Still, the Spanish hesitancy after the last failures was well seen - the first yellow card was shown to Engonga already after 4 minutes, for a foul on Nimni.

9 minutes later on, it was a brilliant pass of Berkovich to Revivo; Haim turned around to leave Hierro behind, and the latter caught his shirt and got deservedly booked. Berkovich tried his luck with a free kick, and his curved ball passed shortly over the bar of Canizares. The shot of Avi Nimni was too high (39), and in between, there came the most wonderful opportunity of Israel (26). Talesnikov passed a ball to Avi Nimni at the left wing, and Nimni sent a long diagonal ball into the box. It seemed to get lost but Haim Revivo penetrated between the two defenders and touched the ball before Canizares. The keeper of Valencia was beaten, but the ball was too weak, and Fernando Hierro had no problem to throw the ball away from the line.

The impression of the Israeli attacks all over would be wrong, as the Spanish squad produced two extremely dangerous attacks of its own. First (17), it was Raul who sent Kiko inside the box; Rafi Cohen got out of the net and threw himself under the legs of the forward, but Kiko managed somehow to produce a shot from under the keeper's stomach which only by miracle missed the frame near the far post. And 2 minutes from the break, it was Kiko's header that Rafi Cohen managed to stop, arguably after the line. David Elleray marked to go on playing, and then the break came.

THE SECOND HALF

The Israelis spent a lot of forces during the 1st half, and therefore, the 2nd half started with a real pressing of the Spaniards. They even produced one dangerous attack, during which Engonga found Raul inside the Israeli box, but the latter wasted his opportunity with a bad roll into Rafi Cohen's hands.

Shlomo Sherf substituted Jean Talesnikov with Alon Mizrahi, and Israel started getting out of the Spanish press. However, those were mostly the counterattacks to be developed. During one of those, Israel opened the score with arguably the most magnificent goal of this whole cycle up to now. Grayib sent the ball to Eyal Berkovich at the left wing, and the latter managed to throw Aranzabal away and to pass a short ball to Haim Revivo before another defender took his time to arrive at the scene. Revivo advanced to the edge of the box, raised his head, saw Alon Mizrahi surrounded by 2 defenders, and sent a ball of a sparkling genius to Alon Hazan who stood completely alone near the opposite edge of the box. Hazan got the ball, advanced one step into the box, raised his right leg and produced a diagonal shot of an unusual might and precision, the one that entered diagonally under the right Spanish crossbar. Santiago Canizares, not hot enough from the lack of the Israeli attacks, indeed threw himself into an impressive flight with a stretched right hand, but it was an instant too late. 1:0 to Israel.

The stadium roared in an orgasmic ecstasy, and it cost the team a goal, as the players refused to descend to the sinful Earth. Luis Enrique was kicked down 30 meters from the Israeli net, and Hierro took the shot. The wall consisted of 3 players, and Berkovich bent down as if another leg of Hartson was threatening his life or health. Rafi Cohen reacted too late, and another magnificent in its precision free kick of Hierro found the net, the right corner of the hosts. The condolences of Andoni Zubizarreta after the game ("I used to concede those goals from Hierro as well, in the trainings") weren't too helpful for the Israeli mood.

From there, the Israeli skill diminished drastically. Hierro performed a powerful header after the corner and hit the bar of Cohen, and several other opportunities were created by the Spaniards as well. Finally, the full comeback came after 78 minutes of play. Luis Enrique was left free at the left wing and produced a precise arched pass to the fresh substitute Joseba Etxeberria. The latter was higher than Grayib and headed the ball weakly home near his close post. This was also the close post of Rafi Cohen, but the Israeli keeper tried to get out, regretted it afterwards and finally failed to react properly and to reach the ball. 2:1 to the guests.

Israel indeed tried to attack with its back to the wall, but all it managed to produce was a pitiful fall of Alon Mizrahi inside the box; I should be fair, he tried, and some of the referees would've given Israel a penalty kick under the roaring tribunes. Not David Elleray, who slightly before the injury time saw Kiko wasting time while being substituted, and wholeheartedly showed him the yellow card. Who knows, probably it will help Israel in the game in Spain. By now, the chances still exist, but it's a real pity that the Spaniards got their chance to return to be their usual confident selves.

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