I:  Najouan Grayib (63), Haim Revivo (82).
A:  Diego Cagna (76).

GOAL PASSES:  Israel	- Eyal Berkovich (63);
              Argentina	- Marcelo Gallardo (76).

On the 16th minute, Alon Mizrahi (Israel) missed a penalty kick - the ball
hit the bar.


I:  Rafi Cohen          7               A:  German Burgos          5
    ---------------------                   ------------------------
    Alon Harazi       5.5                   Lombardi               6
    (Idan Tal, 79)                          (Sergio Berti, 72)
    Ran Ben-Shimon      6                   Pablo Paz            5.5
    Amir Shelakh        6                   Nestor Sensini       5.5
    Arik Benado       6.5                   Pablo Pineda           6
    Najouan Grayib      7                   ------------------------
    ---------------------                   Mattias Almeyda        6
    Jean Talesnikov     7                   Diego Cagna            6
    Yossi Abuksis (RED, 66)                 Marcelo Gallardo       7
    Eyal Berkovich    7.5                   Mauricio Cardoso     5.5
    (Walid Badir, 67)                       (Ariel Ortega, 46 -  6.5)
    Haim Revivo       7.5                   ------------------------
    ---------------------                   Gabriel Batistuta    5.5
    Alon Mizrahi      5.5                   Claudio Lopez          6
    (Ronen Harazi, 46 - 6)


THE BEST:  Eyal Berkovich, midfielder, Israel.
           Haim Revivo   , midfielder, Israel.

AUDIENCE:  14.000 spectators, Teddy Stadium, Jerusalem, Israel.

REFEREE:   Costas Capitanis (Cyprus).	HIS MARK:	8.

YELLOWS:   ISR - Alon Harazi (24), Yossi Abuksis (43), Jean Talesnikov (66);
           ARG - NONE.

REDS:      ISR - Yossi Abuksis (66);
           ARG - NONE.

Around 4 years ago, in the game between Romania and Colombia in the World Cup in 1994, Gheorghi Hagi spotted the keeper Cordova outside the net and from 30 meters near the left border of the field bounced a perfect ball into the net, one of the most beautiful goals of the Championship that invented a new thing in Soccer called "Hagi point". Yesterday, along with the fantastic goal of Alessandro Del Piero in the Champions' League, CNN Sports were delighted to show us once again the goal of Haim Revivo, the one and only, scored also from "Hagi point". The Israeli star of the world scale used an awful position of the Argentinian keeper German Burgos and misled him with a brilliantly taken free kick, bringing Israel an historic victory over Argentina and stunning the whole world of Soccer... This is the 4th Israeli National victory in a row, and it was incredible to hear Shlomo Sherf giving advice to Daniel Passarella after the game. What a game of Israel!

Before the game that was celebrating the 50th anniversary of the State of Israel, a short ceremony took place in which Israel honored its 5 best Soccer players of all times - the legendary keeper Yaacov Hodorov (5th); a fabulous scorer of Maccabee Tel-Aviv Shiya Glaser (4th); a great Nakhum Stelmakh of Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa who headed an unforgettable goal in 1956 into Lev Yashin's net (3rd); Eli Ohana who became the symbol of Beitar Jerusalem and made a goal pass in 1988 that won the Cup Winners' Cup for Mechelen (2nd); and finally, the legendary Mordechai Spiegler who scored the only Israeli goal ever in the World Cups (in 1970, against Sweden) and played later on in the American team Cosmos altogether with Pele... And the commentators said: "This is indeed the choice of the best Israeli players ever, and it's held between the players of the past [excluding Eli Ohana. - M.M.]; however, if the team wins the game of today, we can openly talk about it as the best Israeli National team ever". And indeed, the performance was unforgettable... The game drew a huge interest all over the planet, and the soccer fans were delighted to see the sparkles of Rafi Cohen, Haim Revivo, Eyal Berkovich, Najouan Grayib...

Indeed, the game was a friendly one, but for Israel it was a matter of pride, and for the Argentinians it was one of the last preparation games before the World Cup - therefore, both teams took the game with the utter seriosity, and there was even a red card and just 3 substitutions allowed for each side. And this was the game full of events, in which Israel had all the "reasons" for losing the points - the huge prestige of the Argentinians, the early missed penalty of Alon Mizrahi, the unjustified red card shown to Yossi Abuksis and the Argentinian equalizer while the Israelis were reduced to 10 men. However, it seems lastly the Israeli National team finally found its way of victories and glory, as they don't break up, they don't leave the defence exposed, and their counterattacks can be lethal, performed by the extraordinary legionaries, Eyal Berkovich and Haim Revivo. Shlomo Sherf can finally be very satisfied with everything, and the Israeli Soccer fans can be very glad about his services. Let us just hope that the team preserves this wonderful spirit and skill for the really important games, those of the preliminary cycle of Euro'2000...

The refereeing of the Cypriote Costas Capitanis was awful, though two-sided. Sending Yossi Abuksis off for no crime and upsetting the Israelis very much, he overlooked several moments later a clear handplay of Arik Benado inside the Israeli box. But what disappointed the spectators most was the Argentinian National team, leaving lots of hard thoughts to its "iron-disciplined" coach, Daniel Passarella. Indeed, Javier Zanetti, Diego Simeone and Fernando Redondo stayed with their teams for the European Cup games of utter importance, but it's always a situation that the not playing players are the best - Argentina still played with one of its best opening squads, and what was seen led Shlomo Sherf to say at the press-conference: "If Argentina plays this way during the World Cup, they have no chances to go far". It was a great creative game of Marcelo Gallardo, and Ariel Ortega entered in the 2nd half and made a huge difference in the Argentinian midfield; but those players, together with several sparkles of the generally disappointing stars Gabriel Batistuta and Claudio Lopez, were the only positive points of the South Americans. Cardoso was badly disappointing, as well as Almeyda and Pineda; Pablo Paz wasn't able to stop the Israeli counterattacks, and Roberto Sensini failed in everything concerning Haim Revivo. And finally, giving a deserved credit to the extraordinary beauty of Revivo's goal, a huge question mark stands near the activities of German Burgos around this ball - how can a keeper of such a class in such a top National team make such an awful blunder? Nobody has an answer.

And now - to the Israelis. The defence conceded its 1st goal during the last 4 games, and there indeed were some mistakes in the defensive line - Ran Ben-Shimon nearly scored an own goal, Amir Shelakh was clearly overplayed a couple of times by Gabriel Batistuta, and Alon Harazi didn't support the attacks much and let the numerous Argentinian attacks pass through his wing. In addition, Alon Mizrahi in the attacking line wasn't very concentrated (and the peak was his missed penalty), and his substitute Ronen Harazi failed to revive his fantastic skill of the late times in our League. And the defence, including Rafi Cohen, was quite to blame about the equalizer of Diego Cagna. But isn't it enough to talk about the bad sides after such an historic victory? Let's turn now to the good sides, and they were numerous.

Struggling with his bottom team for the National League place, Rafi Cohen proved once more Israel could fully rely on him between the posts - his secure game left nearly no chances for the guests to perform any headers (but one that brought an equalizer), and altogether with the great saves of Bodo Illgner (Real Madrid) and Angelo Peruzzi (Juventus), CNN showed repeatedly the saves of Cohen; the most incredible one happened 2 minutes from time, when an acrobatic flight of the experienced keeper denied an unwarranted own goal... Yossi Abuksis made a very important job in the mid-line and started a combination that led to the opening goal of Israel; his red card was totally unjustified, and though it spoiled the impression from his game, we'd still pay tribute to him. Arik Benado was, as usual, very reliable in the defensive line, and Jean Talesnikov, "The National Team Discovery", saved a certain goal and made an important job as a defensive midfielder. But when talking about the real stars, we should talk about Hapoel Haifa's defender Najouan Grayib and the legionaries Eyal Berkovich of Westham and Haim Revivo of Celta Vigo. The best opportunities of Israel resulted in 2 goals and a missed penalty kick; each one of the 3 participated in creating 2 of the chances, and their activities during the other moments left the Argentinians stunned for numerous times. In addition, it was the first goal of Grayib in the National uniform...

And finally, the teams that supplied the players for this really historic victory were (in brackets you can see the number of minutes each man played):

  Hapoel Haifa           3  (Ben-Shimon 90, Grayib 90, R. Harazi 45);
  Beitar Jerusalem       3  (Talesnikov 90, A. Harazi 78, Abuksis 65);
  Maccabee Haifa         2  (Benado 90, Mizrahi 45);
  Maccabee Tel-Aviv      1  (Shelakh 90);
  Bnei-Yehuda Tel-Aviv   1  (Cohen 90);
  Celta Vigo             1  (Revivo 90);
  Westham                1  (Berkovich 66);
  Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa    1  (Badir 24);
  Maccabee Petakh-Tikwa  1  (Tal 12).

THE FIRST HALF

The game started with some moves from the side of both teams, when they wanted to check the rivals out. The first shot was of Haim Revivo (3), but his diagonal effort from 23 meters went too high. A wonderful attack was registered after another 2 minutes, when Alon Harazi got the ball from Yossi Abuksis and immediately sent the ball forward to Alon Mizrahi in one-to-one position; Mizrahi rushed forward and entered the box, but the angle wasn't really perfect, and so his mighty shot missed the frame... Mizrahi was quite lacking concentration throughout the game and had later on some other chances missed as well - for example, it was a timely dive of Burgos who denied Mizrahi from getting a ball after Yossi Abuksis' pass (14).

Argentina wasn't a cannon meat, and therefore answered with the attacks of its own. The referee made his first mistake when he didn't see the clear offside of Lopez (5); the forward penetrated at the left wing and centered the ball greatly to Batistuta, but Batigol was pressed by Rafi Cohen and therefore only missed the frame. The same Batistuta (9) gave a great heel pass to Cardoso, but the latter's shot from 17 meters was wide. And finally, in another 2 minutes we saw a true sparkle of the best Argentinian forward of 90-ies as he got the ball near the box, passed Amir Shelakh as if the latter never existed, and managed to shoot a bomb while being pressed by the defender; Rafi Cohen was well placed and parried Batistuta's shot to a corner.

The next Israeli attack (15) gave Israel a real opportunity to score - a very quick move of one-touches, Abuksis - Revivo - Grayib - Revivo - Berkovich - Revivo, resulted in Haim's quick entrance into the box where he was rudely blocked by both Sensini and Pineda. Sensini was the one who made an actual foul, and a penalty kick was awarded; the Argentinian media think it was unjustified. The National coach Shlomo Sherf wanted Revivo himself to take the kick, but his message hasn't reached the box; in the absence of Tal Banin, the permanent penalty taker of the Israelis, Alon Mizrahi took the responsibility. However, his mighty shot nearly broke the bar and went outside nearly to the edge of the box; Haim Revivo launched himself into an acrobatic flight, but his header went over the bar, still 0:0.

Gallardo failed to produce a good shot (20), and the Argentinian defence managed to stop an Israeli attack of Grayib and Revivo (22). After 24 minutes of play, it was a wonderful attack of the Israelis that only by bad luck didn't find the guests' net - a fantastic penetration of Najouan Grayib at the left wing found Alon Mizrahi entering the box, the latter centered the ball, and the diving Haim Revivo missed the ball by centimeters. Alon Harazi sped at the right wing and tried to kidnap the ball from the keeper Burgos who rushed there, but it resulted just in a redundant foul over the keeper and the justified booking, quite a pity.

It has to be said that from that moment on, all the opportunities before the break were of Argentina. It was Rafi Cohen, helped immensely by Arik Benado, who managed to stop Batistuta, hungry for the ball, 5 meters from the net (26); Rafi Cohen also stopped a bad shot of Cardoso (28), and Cagna's header went wide (30). The 36th minute found Rafi Cohen helpless, but Grayib and Talesnikov managed to block the 2 superb and very dangerous Argentinian shots of Gallardo and Batistuta; and a wonderful curved shot of Lopez from the edge of the box passed centimeters above the flying keeper, but centimeters above his right crossbar as well (38). An acrobatic and quite a risky flight of Cohen denied the ball from the head of jumping and frustrated Batistuta (42). And finally, Yossi Abuksis got his first yellow card (43) for standing closer than 9 meters before the ball during the Argentinian free kick; this booking became crucial later on. And then the break came.

THE SECOND HALF

During the break, both coaches reprimanded their teams and made one substitution each; Ariel Ortega came instead of Mauricio Cardoso, and Ronen Harazi substituted the unfortunate Alon Mizrahi. Indeed, the first minute belonged to the fresh substitutes. Ortega made a fairy penetration at the left wing, only to make a wide pass that nobody from Argentina thought of rushing to; in an immediate Israeli counterattack, Ronen Harazi rushed into the ball but shot too high.

A penetration of Grayib at the left wing, after the pass of Eyal Berkovich, resulted in a cross that Burgos denied from Revivo (50). And still, the man of those moments was Ariel Ortega. His move during the next minute couldn't help reminding me of Ronaldo's winner vs Spartak Moscow only a day before, when the young Argentinian used a double-pass to rush into the box between the helpless defenders; however, unlike Ronaldo, Ortega tried to bounce the ball above the advancing keeper, and Rafi Cohen sent it coolly to the corner, a great save.

Most of the attacks of those opening moments were of the guests', and Israel went for some rare counterattacks. Another breathtaking attack of Lopez and Ortega resulted in the latter's imprecise shot (53), and Rafi Cohen stood well to grab the cannon free kick of Batistuta from 25 meters (58). Another acrobatic jump of Rafi Cohen found his stretched hands above the head of Ortega, taking the ball tight (59). And on the other side, Alon Harazi got the ball from Abuksis and tried to lob it immediately over Burgos (61), but the ball went too high.

What happened in another 2 minutes was a brilliant Israeli move that any team in the world would be proud of. Getting the ball from the line by Alon Harazi, Yossi Abuksis made a short pass to Eyal Berkovich on the right wing, and "the young devil from Westham" made a slight fint to leave Lombardi lying on the ground and entered the box undisturbed. Drawing the 2 Argentinian defenders to himself, he still managed to raise his head, evaluate the situation and release back a brilliant diagonal pass between all the legs. Haim Revivo and Ronen Harazi, being in the vicinity as well, sprang into the different sides and let the ball pass, and Najouan Grayib came undisturbed and without stopping, shot from 17 meters a whipping killer that went under the right crossbar of the guests. Burgos threw his hands up, but was miserably helpless against the first goal of Grayib for the National team. Half of the stadium erupted with the cries of joy; the Israeli Argentinian-born Jews, who came in thousands wearing white-and-blue and not blue-and-white, couldn't hide their frustration. And there was nobody happier than Grayib during this moment: "I felt like my dream came true..." 1:0 to Israel!

However, just another 3 minutes have passed, and the unfortunate for Israel happened - a wonderful Gallardo got the ball and tried to free himself from the grip of Abuksis and Talesnikov, both made a tackle on him, and the foul of Talesnikov finally brought the threatening Argentinian down. The referee was decisive and showed a yellow card to ... Abuksis, sending him off therefore! An awful mess took place, in which the stadium roared in dismay, and the Israelis tried in vain to point the referee on his mistake. Talesnikov was very insistent in claiming that it was him who deserved a yellow card for the foul, if any - and he indeed got one, for arguing with the referee. The Cypriote "compensated" Israel 2 minutes afterwards, when Benado handplayed the ball of Lopez from the left wing, but the penalty foul was overlooked, to the Argentinian shouts.

Alon Harazi still managed to head the ball away after Grayib's pass (72), but then the Argentinian pressure finally resulted in an equalizer (76). Marcelo Gallardo (who if not him?) raised the free kick from 26 meters into the box, and Diego Cagna overjumped the dreaming defence and headed the ball from 10 meters. Rafi Cohen reacted an instant later than he should've had, and therefore, his stretched left hand met the ball in a desperate dive not with the fingers but with the back side of the wrist; the ball jumped under it, and the right hand of the keeper, trying to improve the situation, just kicked the ball deeper in. 1:1.

In 10 men and with an equalizer, the Israelis started to bend under the continuous pressure of the guests; however, then came a counterattack that astonished the world. Haim Revivo penetrated at the left wing and was knocked down by Berti at "Hagi point", 30 meters from the net near the left edge of the pitch. A wall of 2 players was built, and Burgos advanced 5 meters from the goal-line in order to wait for the bounce to come - indeed, Ronen Harazi and Walid Badir were waiting there for a header. "I indeed wanted to pass the ball to Harazi, but then I saw that we were 3 and they were 7", said Revivo in an interview to CNN later on; his English was much worse than his soccer skill (here I fixed his mistakes), as Spanish and Hebrew are the languages he has to speak mostly. And so, Revivo decided to score a goal "with an eye" - he took a short run and shot a curved flat ball that has passed the wall from the left side and started bending towards the net. Burgos was taken totally by surprise as he saw the ball very late - he turned back sharply, made a step, slipped and gave up his attempts to reach the ball. And the ball indeed passed near the right post of Burgos and kissed the net from inside, what a magic goal! 2:1!

The Argentinians couldn't believe Israel managed to return to the game and to regain the lead; their furious pressure during the last minutes of play was, still, futile, as it showed once more the wonderful skill of Rafi Cohen. A good shot of Gallardo (84) was stopped by a beautiful flight of Cohen, and a minute from time, it was a far-away shot of Ortega that Cohen managed to parry as well, with Benado diving and denying Batistuta from reaching the rebound. However, the peak was reached 2 minutes from time - Ran Ben-Shimon, trying to clear the ball away, suddenly produced a great volley shot from 8 meters under the left crossbar of his own net, but Rafi Cohen reacted with a beautiful instinct and raised himself into an acrobatic flight to parry the ball away, what a magnificent save!

When the referee added 2 minutes, the stadium was standing excitedly, partly waiting for the miracle to come and partly praying for the game to end. Several seconds from the very end, Gabriel Batistuta took a responsibility and launched a free kick from 20 meters, but the wall managed to block it well. And then the awaited final whistle came at least! 2:1 to Israel! Daniel Passarella was very nervous during the after-match press-conference and said: "We were bad, very bad. We know how to play soccer, but today we were in the dark". It's indeed right, but we still shouldn't diminish the might of the extraordinary Israeli achievement. Let the guys continue with the trend. Congratulations!