I:  Jean Talesnikov (28), Alon Harazi (83).
P:  NONE.

GOAL PASSES:  Israel  - Alon Mizrahi (28, 83);
              Poland  - NONE.


I:  Rafi Cohen          6               P:  Adam Matyczek       5.5
    ---------------------                   (Jerzy Dudek, 46 - 5.5)
    Alon Harazi       6.5                   -----------------------
    (Haim Silbas, 90)                       Bogdan Ujebyak      5.5
    Ran Ben-Shimon    6.5                   (Kruger, 73)
    Amir Shelakh      6.5                   Zhilinski             6
    Arik Benado         7                   Reticzek            5.5
    David Amsalem       6                   (Tomasz Haito, 52 -   5)
    ---------------------                   -----------------------
    Walid Badir       5.5                   Tomasz Waldoch        6
    (Felix Halfon, 63 - 6)                  Janusz Dembinski    4.5
    Jean Talesnikov   6.5                   (Saganovski, 46 -   5.5)
    Yossi Abuksis       6                   Ivan                5.5
    ---------------------                   Ledvon                5
    Alon Mizrahi      6.5                   Andrzej Rudi        4.5
    (Nir Sevilla, 83)                       (Swirczevski, 62 -    6)
    Ronen Harazi      5.5                   -----------------------
    (Eli Abrabanel, 76)                     Andrzej Juskowiak   4.5
                                            (Mayek, 76)
                                            Jerzy Brzeczek      5.5


THE BEST:  Arik Benado, defender, Israel.

AUDIENCE:  Approximately 12.000 spectators, Ramat-Gan, Israel.

REFEREE:   Cesare Graziani (Italy).       HIS MARK:       9.

YELLOWS:   Israel  -  David Amsalem (45), Alon Mizrahi (81);
           Poland  -  Bogdan Ujebyak (19), Tomasz Waldoch (67).

REDS:      Israel  -  NONE;
           Poland  -  NONE.

The Israeli spectators, watching the friendly game between Israel and Poland, had some mixed feelings after it. Those who were looking for a show like the last week against Turkey, were definitely disappointed - without the virtuosity of Haim Revivo and the brilliance of Eyal Berkovich, as well as without Alon Hazan and Tal Banin, Israel wasn't impressive at all and made just 3 or 4 threats to the Polish net throughout the game. However, the other side is surely bright - even in a dull game, Israel gave Poland no real opportunity to score either, and used fully its opporunities for scoring two beautiful goals. Shlomo Sherf can be quite optimistic for the continuation therefore, but he shouldn't be euphoric - the following friendly game will be against Romania, the WC'98 participant and the team which registered the most impressive qualification results on its way there. Romania, against which Israel has even played 2 official games in Europe, is no Poland and definitely no Turkey.

The Polish team was extremely disappointing. Indeed, it was faster than the Turks, it tried to make some pressure, and it even managed to shoot several times towards the net; however, Rafi Cohen in the Israeli net had to fly just 3 times, twice watching the balls going outside without his help. The keepers, Matyczek of Groningen (I'm not sure) and Dudek of Feyenoord, faced no special threat throughout the game, but still managed to concede one goal each, even though I would renounce on blaming them. And from the big shots (Andrzej Rudi of Ajax, Andrzej Juskowiak of Borussia Moenchengladbach and Janusz Dembinski of Hamburg) we could've expected much more than they actually produced. It's incredibly sad for Soccer that after the golden era of Poland in 1974-82 there came no generation equal to or even slightly reminding us of the world-class Polish stars of that time - Mlynarczik, Boniek, Szarmach, Lato, Deyna, Smoliarek, Kovalszik... Andrzej Rudi stated sadly after the game: "Probably, in another 5 years we'd look better".

As for the Israelis, they deserve again the warm words. It was quite an acceptable debut of Walid Badir in the National team, as well as of the substitute Eli Abrabanel (both - Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa, nice for a change); Ronen Harazi also had an acceptable game, though he could have done better. David Amsalem was good at the left wing, and Rafi Cohen in the net was reliable as he usually is in the National team, though not challenged much. Ran Ben-Shimon and Amir Shelakh presented another piece of unpenetratable central defence, and Yossi Abuksis started both of the two goal attacks. But the warmest words go to the following 4 players. In the absence of Revivo and Berkovich, the task of making the goal passes was accomplished perfectly by ... Alon Mizrahi - seeking no personal glory but the benefit of his team, Alon produced two sparkles of a real genius, resulting in the winners. Jean Talesnikov, surprised as he was after 28 minutes of play, still managed to calm down and to open the score; his calm game in the midline, in addition to the incredible National average of 2 goals in 2 games, gave Shlomo Sherf a great defending midfielder, somebody who couldn't even be thought to be in the National team yet a couple of years ago. Alon Harazi, giving us his usual contribution in the defence and more than that, scored a goal that can be shown in Europe again and again, as well as the whole move that led to it. And finally, it was the defender Arik Benado, "The Best Of The Game", who was the true leader of the defence and made it do the maximum, as well as he himself did. Besides, Benado managed to neutralize totally Andrzej Juskowiak, the most dangerous Polish attacker, and to leave Rafi Cohen nearly workless.

As for the teams that supplied the players for this "historic" victory (in brackets you can see the number of minutes each man played) - this time the victory was fully blue-and-white, with no legionaries involved:

  Beitar Jerusalem       5  (Amsalem 90, Abuksis 90, Talesnikov 90, A. Harazi 89, Sevilla 8);
  Maccabee Haifa         2  (Benado 90, Mizrahi 82);
  Hapoel Haifa           2  (Ben-Shimon 90, R. Harazi 75);
  Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa    2  (Badir 62, Abrabanel 15);
  Maccabee Tel-Aviv      1  (Shelakh 90);
  Bnei-Yehuda Tel-Aviv   1  (Cohen 90);
  Hapoel Tel-Aviv        1  (Halfon 28);
  Maccabee Petakh-Tikwa  1  (Silbas 1).

THE FIRST HALF

The first minutes belonged to the guests - after 3 minutes of play, they achieved their first corner, and in another 4 minutes, a great trap of the Israeli defence caught Juskowiak offside, after Rudi's pass. Ledvon tried his luck with a flat shot from 18 meters that missed the frame (8), and Juskowiak failed to score after having been left in one-to-one with Rafi Cohen (17); this was the only mistake of Ran Ben-Shimon throughout the game, but Benado was placed well to close the Polish forward.

The first Israeli trial came after 18 minutes of play, and wasn't dangerous - Alon Mizrahi tried to shoot from outside the box, but his shot was blocked and produced nothing but a corner. Ujebyak (19) was booked for a brutal entrance into Ronen Harazi's leg near the Israeli box; Harazi himself recovered quickly and tried to head it home from 15 meters (27), with no real threat to the keeper Matyczek. And a minute before Harazi's effort, Janusz Dembinski managed to enter the Israeli box and to shoot it mightily, but the ball went near Rafi Cohen's right post.

The next minute brought Israel an opener - after the game Alon Mizrahi found nothing more modest than the following description: "The first goal was a result of a fantastic football move", but the spectators found a certain justification to his modesty :-) Yossi Abuksis got the ball past the mid-circle and immediately passed it to Mizrahi who started his rush at the right wing. A controversial moment followed, as Mizrahi and Ujebyak reached the ball at the same moment, and then Ujebyak found himself on a ground; even the replays couldn't prove the full innocence of Mizrahi in that case, but the referee saw this incident as a collision in the frontiers of rules. Mizrahi advanced and saw Ronen Harazi entering the box; however, he also saw Jean Talesnikov rushing into the box through its center, and gave him a brilliant pass between the two Polish defenders. Talesnikov, surprised to get such a precise ball, stopped cold at the penalty spot and seemed to lose any insight of what to do, pushing his weight from foot to foot for a moment; however, that finally served him a good service. Matyczek, trying to get out, stopped cold as well seeing Talesnikov's dance, the other Polish defenders were too far to reach Beitar's midfielder, and Talesnikov finally sent the ball with his right to the left Polish corner over the diving keeper to open the score. 1:0, and the second goal of Talesnikov in his 2 National games. What a start!

The rest of the chances during the first half were Polish again, but none of them came from inside the box, and the far-rangers were imprecise. A great shot of Brzeczek from the box edge (30) forced Rafi Cohen to send himself into a beautiful flight, but the ball whistled close to Rafi's left shot without his involvement. A curved shot of Ivan (42) from 20 meters went from right to left, and again near the post. Finally, the last event of the first half was a yellow card shown to David Amsalem for an elbow towards Ledvon, and then a break came.

THE SECOND HALF

If the first half was short of events and we hoped that the second half would be much better, a bitter mistake laid in our hands. Saganovski indeed tried his luck from 20 meters (47), 2 minutes after his entrance as a substitute, but the ball was again imprecise. Walid Badir, in his first game for the National team, made a huge mistake and lost the ball to Reticzek near the midcircle; however, the Polish defender preferred not to enter the box and shot it high from 20 meters (57). On the other hand, Alon Harazi penetrated at the right wing and shot a surprising ball from nearly the corner flag; however, Dudek, substituting Matyczek during the break, was well-placed and collected the ball (60). There was also a quick attack of Yossi Abuksis - Ronen Harazi - Alon Mizrahi, but the latter found himself in a deep offside (61).

Two other yellow cards were shown, this time to Waldoch (67) and Alon Mizrahi (81). In between, Mizrahi swang away brilliantly his guard (70) and produced a good flat shot from 20 meters; Dudek dived and closed the corner, but the ball slipped near his right post even without his involvement. A dangerous Israeli attack (72) brought a corner kick, and an exercise of Beitar Jerusalem was tried - Talesnikov performed a corner kick in a bounce outside the box, and Yossi Abuksis produced his usual volley from 25 meters; however, this time the ball was awful and went weak and wide. Ledvon, on the other hand, tried his luck with a free kick (78) from 30 meters, earning just a corner.

And then the 83rd minute came, reminding us of a brilliant counterattack with the 2nd goal vs Cyprus during the WC'98 preliminaries; Alon Mizrahi registered a great goal pass there as well. Stopping cold another Polish attack, Alon Harazi started a quick Israeli counterattack with passing the ball to Yossi Abuksis in the midcircle and rushing forward himself. Abuksis quickly one-touched it to Mizrahi, and the latter, being pressed by a defender and standing with his back to the Polish net, made another touch of genius in a turn to send Alon Harazi undisturbed towards the net; the defence was caught off guard, and that gave Beitar's defender the necessary fractures of a second to have an advantage. However, the road from there to a goal was still long, and the finish was even better than the preparation. Harazi cut it a bit to the right and approached the right corner of the box; the defender seemed to reach him, but a second before that, Harazi produced a weak and flat shot towards his close corner. Feyenoord's keeper Dudek, staying alert near the goal center, seemed unprepared for that. The ball, adventurous as it was while having been shot under the defender's pressure and during the run, turned to be utterly precise, and the desperate left hand of the diving keeper was short of reaching it; it went in, nearly kissing the post, and left the spectators totally stunned in disbelief, either joyous or frustrated. 2:0, born from both skill and luck, and what a goal, after all!

Waldoch managed yet to produce a dangerous header (88); this was the only time when Rafi Cohen had to dive and to save his net in reality. And then the game ended. And probably, the best finish of this report would be the citation from Panikus Georgiu's words towards his colleague Shlomo Sherf after the game. "Are you laughing at me?" demanded the Cypriote coach. "The night before you tell me you're afraid as all of your worthy players are in Europe, and then you present such a game. What's your story? You have a great team."