I:  Jean Talesnikov (11), Ronen Harazi (23), Alon Mizrahi (52, 61).
T:  NONE.

GOAL PASSES:  Israel - Eyal Berkovich (11), Haim Revivo (23, 52),
                         David Amsalem (61);
              Turkey - NONE.



I:  Nir Davidovich    6.5                T: Rustu             4.5
    (Sagi Strauss, 86)                      (Angin, 85)
    ---------------------                   ---------------------
    Alon Harazi         6                   Ogun                5
    Ran Ben-Shimon    6.5                   Fatih               5
    Arik Benado       6.5                   Salim             4.5
    (Moti Ohayon, 84)                       (Fatih Teka, 46 - 4.5)
    Amir Shelakh        7                   ---------------------
    David Amsalem     6.5                   Alpay               5
    ---------------------                   Tayfur              5
    Jean Talesnikov     7                   Abdullah          5.5
    Yossi Abuksis       6                   Tayfun              5
    (Idan Tal, 70)                          (Altan, 46 -        4)
    Eyal Berkovich    7.5                   Saffet              4
    (Nir Sevilla, 75)                       (Hakan, 46 -        4)
    Haim Revivo         8                   ---------------------
    (Haim Silbas, 81)                       Ayhan               4
    ---------------------                   (Awwaz, 46 -      4.5)
    Ronen Harazi      6.5                   Tulonay             5
    (Alon Mizrahi, 46 - 7)


THE BEST:  Haim Revivo, midfielder, Israel.

AUDIENCE:  10.000 spectators, Ramat-Gan, Israel.

REFEREE:   Rene Harrelt (France).       HIS MARK:       9.

CORNERS:   Israel   3, Turkey  6.

YELLOWS:   Israel  -  NONE;
           Turkey  -  Tulonay (16), Alpay (78).

REDS:      Israel  -  NONE;
           Turkey  -  NONE.

The first game of the Israeli National team in the new era of Euro'2000 surprised everybody with its result. Indeed, the Turkish National team was awful beyond any description, and indeed, this was only a friendly game - still, the Israelis were extremely impressive, and their victory was stunning. On the other hand, the coach Shlomo Sherf has now a problem - as far as the history teaches us, those were the painful friendly losses that brought later on the great performances in the official games, and vice-versa. One thing is sure - nobody in the official games will play as weakly as the National Team of Turkey did.

45 and 64 - those were the only minutes when any dangerous Turkish shots went into the Israeli frame. The rest of the time, excluding the good 5 opening minutes of the game, the Turks made an impression of the people totally lost on the pitch. The first goal was the full responsibility of the experienced keeper Recber Rustu - the person who stood nearly alone against the desperate attacks of Croatia and Portugal during Euro'96, can hardly make such a mistake in any game. The 4th goal was a total comedy, as it seemed that Alon Mizrahi didn't even want to humiliate the guests even more, but the courtesy of Fatih had no reasonable bounds. And finally, all the 4 Israeli goals came from the left wing; the Turkish coach spotted the problem and substituted Salim with Fatih Teka during the break, but it didn't help. After the game thousands of Turkish workers who watched the game, called towards the coach Mustafa Denizli: "Resign! Resign!"

And now - to the Israeli team, where just everything worked. The two starting debutants, Nir Davidovich and Jean Talesnikov, couldn't dream about the better start - Davidovich was quite secure and even stopped in a beautiful flight a shot of Taifun before the break, and Jean Talesnikov needed just 11 minutes to score a surprising somehow goal; there were also 5 other debutants whose skill still can't be fully appreciated because of their few minutes on the pitch - Sagi Strauss, Moti Ohayon, Idan Tal, Nir Sevilla and Haim Silbas. And back to the veterans. The defending line was secure and reliable as usual, and Amir Shelakh, watched closely by Sheffield United representatives, registered probably one of his best games in the National team; David Amsalem was also very active and even made a goal pass. Jean Talesnikov proved himself as a perfect substitute for Tal Banin, whenever Brescia's midfielder can't play; his opening goal, however much with Rustu's help, was a delight. Ronen Harazi returned to the scoring route, and his substitute Alon Mizrahi was in his best as well, despite the stupid miss at the end. And one thing should be mentioned most - all the goals of Israel were scored after the combinations of multiple moves, cutting the Turkish defence, and the two Europeans were the most responsible for that. Eyal Berkovich made us forget his temporary English problems with a great game, a goal pass of an utter cleverness, a lot of movement... But the best performance was undoubtedly registered by Haim Revivo, the one and only; the left wing was the most active of the Israeli team, and Revivo with a magnificent skill left no chance to any defender standing in front of him. 2 goal passes and several other dangerous moments - those were the evidences that this time, the skill also brought the results.

As for the teams that supplied the players for this "historic" victory (in brackets you can see the number of minutes each man played) - an overwhelming influence belonged to the top Israeli clubs (Beitar Jerusalem and the 2 Haifa teams), but the Europeans made most of the difference:

  Beitar Jerusalem       5  (A. Harazi 90, Amsalem 90, Talesnikov 90, Abuksis 69, Sevilla 16);
  Maccabee Haifa         3  (Davidovich 85, Benado 83, Mizrahi 45);
  Hapoel Haifa           2  (Ben-Shimon 90, R. Harazi 45);
  Maccabee Petakh-Tikwa  2  (Idan Tal 21, Haim Silbas 10);
  Maccabee Tel-Aviv      1  (Shelakh 90);
  Celta Vigo             1  (Revivo 80);
  Westham                1  (Berkovich 74);
  Hapoel Jerusalem       1  (Moti Ohayon 7);
  Hapoel Rishon le-Zion  1  (Sagi Strauss 5).

THE FIRST HALF

The opening moments belonged to the Turkish team. After 5 minutes of play, Jean Talesnikov managed to block the dangerous Turkish shot, and the corner wasn't exploited. And on the other hand, Haim Revivo started showing his multiple skills after 8 minutes of play - his penetration at the left wing resulted in passing the ball into the box, but Rustu was there first.

The 11th minute opened the score, and it was the first multiple-moves Israeli attack that showed the tendency. Amir Shelakh sent a long ball to Haim Revivo, and the latter ran away from his personal guard and entered the box. The situation for the shot wasn't the best, and we saw in Revivo the utter responsibility - even being aware of his great personal skill, he didn't try to finish the attack alone, but rolled the ball to his right. Eyal Berkovich was there and managed under pressure to pass the ball back to Jean Talesnikov, and the latter shot a surprising ball from 20 meters. The ball went straight into Rustu's hands, but suddenly slipped out of them! The desperate rush of Rustu after the ball resulted finally in saving the ball after the line. 1:0.

Alon Harazi could shock the guests even more with his shot from the right wing that hit ... the back of Ronen Harazi (15)! Tulonay made a disgusting foul on Amir Shelakh in the midfield and got booked for this (16), and Abdullah shot the ball from 40 meters, but naturally failed to find the Israeli net. And finally, the goal came on the other side. Talesnikov rolled the ball to Eyal Berkovich not far away from the box, and here the best Israeli attack of that game was produced. Berkovich advanced and rolled the ball to Revivo at the left wing, the latter one-touched it with a brilliant left-footer into the box, and there stood Ronen Harazi with his usual touch at the right place at the right time, 2:0 from 5 meters.

Before the end, those were the keeper's saves from both sides. Another wonderful penetration of Revivo resulted in the save of Rustu (29), as well as the surprising scissors shot of Ronen Harazi from inside the box (32). Alon Harazi registered another surprising shot of his from the right wing (44), and Rustu slipped the ball again, but managed to take hold of it immediately. And several seconds from the end, it was finally the Turkish shot - Taifun produced a wonderful bomb from 22 meters, and Nir Davidovich produced a fantastic save.

THE SECOND HALF

During the break, Ronen Harazi was substituted with his city-mate Alon Mizrahi, and the first serious attack of Israel showed the good skill of the Green forward translated into the result. A magnificent pass of Amir Shelakh to the right wing found there Haim Revivo, and Celta Vigo star jumped over his desperate guard, advanced slightly and rolled the ball into the box. Just the late Niko Kudritskiy missed on the pitch to revive fully the most skillful and productive ever trio of Bnei-Yehuda Tel-Aviv and Israel at the whole. Mizrahi had no problems to roll the ball past the helpless Rustu to make a score 3:0, and this goal could remind us of Shearer's 2nd goal against Holland in EC'96.

Hakan's effort registered in the corner (54), David Amsalem managed to clear the dangerous ball to the corner (59), and a brilliant volley (64) of Abdullah from 20 meters found the right post of the helpless Davidovich. But in between, there came the last goal of this game. Eyal Berkovich rolled the ball to David Amsalem, and this time it was the turn of Beitar's defender to make a goal pass from the left wing. The ball hit the defender Fatih and returned to Alon Mizrahi, the latter slightly touched the ball from 5 meters, Rustu seemed to be in charge, but Fatih touched the ball again and misled his keeper. 4:0!

And there were the rest of the events. Revivo's penetration at the right wing (68) resulted in a great pass, but Alon Mizrahi failed to reach the ball; nobody knows for sure whether he dived or was knocked down. A double pass between Yossi Abuksis and Eyal Berkovich resulted in the former's flat shot, but that time Rustu was well-prepared and dived well to deny Beitar's midfielder. Another goal of Alon Mizrahi from Alon Harazi's pass was rightly disallowed because of the offside, and Idan Tal's shot from 18 meters (85) was too high. The last great miss was of Alon Mizrahi - a brilliant pass of Jean Talesnikov left the Haifa forward in one-to-one against the substitute Turkish keeper Angin, but Mizrahi tried to pass the keeper, failed, had to cope with the 2 defenders later on, and finally missed the frame.

A good start, and let it not be the only good moment. The next friendly exam takes place in Ramat-Gan this Wednesday, against Poland.