I:  Eli Ohana (38).
L:  -.

GOAL PASSES:  Israel     - Yossi Abuksis;
              Luxembourg - NONE.



The marks today are mine.


I:  Itzhak Korenfein    5      L:  Paul Koch           4.5
    ---------------------          -----------------------
    David Amsalem       6          Jean Wank           5.5
    Nir Klinger       5.5          Franc Deville         6
    Amir Shelakh      5.5          Marc Bersaunce        5
    Alon Hazan          5          (Luc Holtz, 29 -      6)          
    ---------------------          Jeff Strasser         6
    Avi Nimni           5          -----------------------
    Yossi Abuksis     6.5          Guy Hellers         5.5
    Tal Banin           6          Carlo Weiss         5.5
    Eyal Berkovich      6          Robert Laungers       5
    ---------------------          Jeff Sauvinet         5
    Eli Ohana         5.5          -----------------------
    (Itzhak Zohar, 83)             Manuel Caudronier   5.5
    Haim Revivo       5.5          (Claude Gauncer, 79)
    (Alon Brumer, 90)              Patrick Poussing      5



THE BEST:  Yossi Abuksis, midfielder, Israel.

AUDIENCE:  Approximately 14.000 spectators, Ramat-Gan, Israel.

REFEREE:   John Ashman (Wales).       HIS MARK:       7.

CORNERS:   Israel   9,  Luxembourg   8.

YELLOWS:   Israel     - NONE;
           Luxembourg - Carlo Weiss (20).

REDS:      Israel     - NONE;
           Luxembourg - NONE.

After the disastrous game in Cyprus, Shlomo Sherf declared that the next rival would be taken seriously; unfortunately, both he and the Israeli newspapers made the atmosphere around the game victorious again. "We must win!", "Not everything is lost!", and so on. And then the game came; Israel indeed won, but as my former girlfriend would've said, "Unfortunately, it's a reason for joy..." In the game in which Israel was better (because you should try really hard in order to be worse that Luxembourg), it still needed an awful mistake of the guests' goalkeeper to score a winner, with Haim Revivo not scoring into an empty frame later on; and if this victory still gives us 3 points and a reason for joy, it's pretty unfortunate. "Another victory like this - and lost we are!"

The festival around the return of Eli Ohana to the National team turned to be justified - the star of Beitar Jerusalem was mostly offside, but once he was there to exploit fully the miserable mistake of Paul Koch. Nir Klinger and Amir Shelakh were quite stable, and David Amsalem started a lot of Israeli attacks from the left wing. The most pleasant surprise was the secret weapon of Shlomo Sherf, Yossi Abuksis, who was very active in the midline and also made a goal pass, if you can call it that way; he's our "Man Of The Game". And of course, Tal Banin did a lot of midline routine job, as he usually does. But as for the rest, they were really disappointing. Alon Hazan and Avi Nimni were very slow and imprecise, and both Eyal Berkovich and Haim Revivo were taken very seriously by the guests' defenders and found too many difficulties before them in penetrations. And it was the worst game of Itzhak Korenfein this season, though he stood before no potential threat; it seems like Rafi Cohen has much more experience and self-confidence.

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

  Beitar Jerusalem   5  (Korenfein 90, Amsalem 90, Abuksis 90, Ohana 89, Zohar 7);
  Maccabee Tel-Aviv  4  (Nimni 90, Shelakh 90, Klinger 90, Alon Brumer 1);
  Hapoel Haifa       1  (Banin 90);
  Hapoel Tel-Aviv    1  (Hazan 90);
  Southampton        1  (Berkovich 90);
  Celta Vigo         1  (Revivo 83).

THE FIRST HALF

The first two minutes were probably of Luxembourg, but then the Israeli team recovered and started to attack. At that moment you could see that the guests were guarding personally the best of Israeli players - Wank was pressing on Revivo, Strasser didn't give Ohana any space, and Deville was seeing to Berkovich. This tactics actually brought Luxembourg a loss, but a minimal one, which is considered there as quite an achievement - the Israeli players with European past and present suddenly felt a lack of air supply.

Abuksis was the first to shoot at the guests' net; the ball hit the defender and arched over the bar, just a corner (5). After just a moment, it was a great penetration of Berkovich who swang two defenders and managed to shoot in a turn, just to the hands of Koch. And then (11), Revivo managed to shoot from a hard angle after a magnificent pass of Berkovich, but Koch was there again to take the ball tight.

The first attempt of the guests was made after 12 minutes of play, with an awful shot of Sauvinet. But in another 4 minutes, it was way too dangerous, when the guests managed to shoot twice from inside the box, and twice their shots were blocked; a corner was performed, and Korenfein got out awfully to grasp the air, but the ball went to just another corner. And finally, the 3rd consecutive corner was performed, to see an imprecise flying header.

After 20 minutes of play, the guests' free kick from 30 meters was blocked by Tal Banin from inside the wall. Abuksis took the ball and passed it greatly to Revivo to the left wing; Revivo threw the ball above Carlo Weiss to try to run towards the net with no disturbance, and Weiss fouled him rudely. The referee, David Ashman from Wales, was there with the only yellow card of the game; later it turned out to be a mistake not to give to Weiss another yellow card, and even later Weiss managed to save his net. Complicated, isn't it?

The next interesting moment was after 33 minutes of play, and this was exactly what I was talking about. Berkovich was knocked down brutally by Weiss 20 meters diagonally from the net, and the Welsh referee awarded a free kick, but refrained from showing a 2nd yellow card to Weiss! The loud objections of Berkovich didn't help, and finally Revivo shot a free kick, curving above the wall and centimeters from the left post of Koch.

So, it seemed to be another scoreless half of the Israeli team. But then, after 38 minutes of play, the winner was scored. Yossi Abuksis got a great ball from Amsalem and bounced the ball wide, with Koch and Nimni raising for the ball and Eli Ohana staying on the ground. Koch took the ball first, but then he suddenly slipped it and fell down. Ohana was surprised, but just for a second, to turn around and to shoot the ball under the stomach of Koch who tried to fix his own mistake. 1:0 to Israel, a promising beginning that was also to be a disappointing end.

The last opportunity of the first half was of Avi Nimni, after a great penetration of Berkovich and Hazan; however, Nimni shot high from 5 meters.

THE SECOND HALF

The best and the only real opportunity of the dull second half was 3 minutes after the break. The defender of Luxembourg lost a sight of a ball for a moment, and this was enough for Haim Revivo to kidnap the ball and to rush forward. Nobody separated between Revivo and the net, but the keeper Koch. Haim entered the box after a sprint of 40 meters, misled the keeper, cut to his left and shot with his left to an empty net; however, the sprint was obviously too quick, no force was left for the shot, and Carlo Weiss was quick enough to clear the ball from the line. Still 1:0, and what a miss of Revivo!

There were just 2 other opportunities of Israel during those 45 minutes. Ohana (50) lost the ball to Strasser in the guests' box, and the shot of Banin (71) from 17 meters was quite imprecise. On the other hand, the guests had several opportunities, but you can hardly call them real. Korenfein stayed stuck in his net (53), but the header of Luxembourg from 6 meters went above the bar. And there were also the two trials of Strasser, a shot from 30 meters near the left post of Korenfein (81), and then the header from inside the box (83) that missed the frame.

Zoheir Bahalul, the well-known Israeli sportive journalist, asked the coach of Luxembourg after the game: "What can you say now after you've finally lost any chance of making it to WC'98?" Calm down, Zoheir, and think about the chances of your own country. With this quality of play, the chances are lost as well.