C:  Sinica Gogic (8, 14 pen).
I:  -.

GOAL PASSES:  Cyprus - Georgi Christodolou (8);
              Israel - NONE.



C:  Nikos Panaiotu        6.5      I:  Rafi Cohen          4.5
    -------------------------          -----------------------
    Aristocleus           5.5          Felix Halfon          4
    Panai                 5.5          (Arik Benado, 34 -  5.5)
    Charalambous Pittas   6.5          Gadi Brumer         4.5
    Andreu                5.5          Amir Shelakh        4.5
    -------------------------          David Amsalem         4
    Georgi Christodolou   5.5          (Ronen Harazi, 34 - 4.5)
    Donis Ioanu           6.5          -----------------------
    (Missos, 70)                       Alon Hazan            5
    Ioanis Ioanu          5.5          Eyal Berkovich        6
    (Timotheu, 58         - 5)         Avi Nimni             5
    Marius Christodolou     6          Haim Revivo         4.5
    Alexandrou            5.5          Tal Banin             5
    (Kostas Malakos, 78)               -----------------------
    -------------------------          Ronnie Rosenthal      5
    Sinica Gogic          7.5          (Eli Driks, 70)


THE BEST:  Sinica Gogic, forward, Cyprus.

AUDIENCE:  15.000 spectators, Limassol, Cyprus.

REFEREE:   Constantinou (Romania).          HIS MARK:       6.

CORNERS:   Cyprus    8, Israel   12.

YELLOWS:   CYP - Andreu;
           ISR - Eyal Berkovich, Tal Banin, Alon Hazan.

REDS:      CYP - NONE;
           ISR - NONE.

A wonderful game against Bulgaria, and quite a game of quality against Russia - this was enough for the crowds of Israelis to conquer Limassol, in order to see the Israeli team eating its easy prey... But what was planned as a festival of a victorious and truly European team, turned out to be a disaster. Israel lost to a rival not taken seriously, and in my opinion, lost also its chances of reaching the Mondial in France'98. This was the most disastrous performance of the team I've seen during the last years.

Just two players deserve a little bit of appreciation - Arik Benado and Eyal Berkovich, though the latter knew some better days. Maybe, the bottom struggles in their teams influenced Alon Hazan and Tal Banin a little bit, so they weren't hard and precise as usual, and it was known Ronen Harazi was severely injured before the game and put as a substitute because Sherf had no other cards to play. But what happened to the rest is simply unexplicable. Rafi Cohen was responsible for the 2nd goal again, and it seems he never learns. Felix Halfon and David Amsalem were just awful, especially Halfon, and Gadi Brumer altogether with Amir Shelakh - every word is redundant. And what happened to the superstars, Haim Revivo and Avi Nimni? God knows.

There were two players still to catch my eye on the pitch - the keeper Nikos Panaiotu and the forward Sinica Gogic. The former didn't make any extraordinary deeds but was reliable and secure when needed; and as for the latter, it still remains a great question how could he laugh that way at the defence that stopped Kolyvanov, Kostadinov, Radchenko and Letchkov. A wonderful game for this 33-years-old forward of Cyprus.

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

  Maccabee Tel-Aviv   4  (Nimni 90, Shelakh 90, Brumer 90, Driks 20);
  Beitar Jerusalem    2  (Harazi 56, Amsalem 34);
  Hapoel Haifa        2  (Cohen 90, Banin 90);
  Hapoel Tel-Aviv     2  (Hazan 90, Halfon 34);
  Celta Vigo          1  (Revivo 90);
  Southampton         1  (Berkovich 90);
  Tottehnam Hotspurs  1  (Rosenthal 70);
  Maccabee Haifa      1  (Benado 56).

THE FIRST HALF

From the very first minutes, the Cypriotes started to press, and the Israeli team had all of a sudden no answers. After 7 minutes, Ioanu headed it to the hands of Rafi Cohen, while Halfon was sleeping. And in another minute, it was in - Georgi Christodolou passed David Amsalem and bounced the ball into the box, above the head of a dreaming Halfon, and Gogic was there with a precise header from 9 meters to his close corner, 1:0. A surprise.

The first shot of Israel came after 11 minutes of play, but the shot of Hazan was high and very imprecise. And then, in another 3 minutes, the second shock came, the most awful defensive work that I've seen from the team during the last years. Gogic got a ball in the midcircle, passed Brumer and Banin, overran Shelakh and entered the box where there was Rafi Cohen, with exactly the same foul he performed on Kostadinov two games before. It was a justified penalty, and Gogic shot wholeheartedly into his left high corner. 2:0.

The Israeli team was knocked out totally. Gogic could've completed a hat-trick (21), but his curved shot from the box edge went near the left post of Rafi Cohen. Berkovich, usually quite a polite player, was booked for a dirty foul (25), and in another 2 minutes, just the great reaction of Alon Hazan (after another great mistake of Halfon) prevented Ioanu from scoring. The first considerable Israeli attack was registered just after 33 minutes - Rosenthal entered greatly the box from the right wing and in front of the two players gave a wonderful pass to Nimni, but the latter managed to produce just a weak curved shot near the left post of Panaiotu, from 6 meters.

Before the break, both teams had one chance to score each. Both shots were made from 20 meters, but if the shot of Berkovich (39) went high, the shot of Aristocleus needed the reaction of Rafi Cohen. A break.

THE SECOND HALF

It seems like during the break Shlomo Sherf had a lot to tell to his players, and so it was quite a different Israeli team - it attacked all the time and tried to create the chances. Unfortunately, the keeper was there, or the players were just imprecise.

The shots of Revivo (49, 54), Banin (61), Nimni (62) and Berkovich (83) went high or to the sides; Rosenthal shot wide after the great pass of Revivo (69), and so was immediately substituted by Eli Driks, who didn't help much. A wonderful pass of Nimni to Revivo (77) was interrupted by ... the referee, who pretended to try to escape the ball. And the wide shot of Hazan after a great pass by Berkovich (74) was deflected by the hosts' defender, to the post. The last chance was of Ronen Harazi (88), who managed to produce a good shot after a pass of Berkovich, but it went just to the external net.

There were also three chances of Israel denied by Panaiotu. Alon Hazan (60) couldn't overplay the keeper after a wonderful pass of Berkovich, more a miss than a save. Revivo was found by Nimni inside the box (65) and managed to shoot between 3 players, but it was too weak, and the keeper had no problems to catch it. And the best moment of Israel was after 56 minutes. In exactly the same situation that had produced a goal of Gadi Brumer against Russia, the roles were now changed - Brumer made a threatening run, and Revivo took a curved shot over the wall. The keeper parried it, and Berkovich had an empty net before him, but managed to find somehow the lying keeper again, just a corner.

And it ended in this humiliated way. Next time, even before Luxembourg, the preparations should be done, and the rival team should be taken seriously.