I:  Eli Ohana (3, 72).
C:  -.

GOAL PASSES:  Israel - Alon Mizrahi (72);
              Cyprus - NONE.



I:  Rafi Cohen          6      C:  Nikos Panaiotu       5.5
    ---------------------          ------------------------
    Alon Harazi         5          Theodotu               6
    Amir Shelakh        6          Larco                4.5
    Arik Benado         6          (Ioanis Ioanu, 46 -  5.5)
    Moshe Glam        5.5          Marius Charalambous    5          
    ---------------------          Charalambous Pittas  5.5
    Alon Hazan          6          ------------------------
    Itzhak Zohar        5          Timotheu               5
    (Reuven Attar, 86)             Missos               4.5
    Tal Banin           6          Andreu               4.5
    Eyal Berkovich    5.5          Papavassiliu           5
    ---------------------          (Panaiotis Engomitis, 72)
    Alon Mizrahi        6          ------------------------
    (Avishai Zhano, 82)            Malakos              4.5
    Eli Ohana           7          (Ioanis Okkas, 46 -  5.5)
                                   Sinica Gogic         5.5


THE BEST:  Eli Ohana, forward, Israel.

AUDIENCE:  32.000 spectators, Ramat-Gan, Israel.

REFEREE:   Vassili Melinchuk (Ukraine).       HIS MARK:       9.

CORNERS:   Israel   10, Cyprus    3.

YELLOWS:   ISR - Tal Banin, Amir Shelakh;
           CYP - Sinica Gogic.

REDS:      ISR - NONE;
           CYP - NONE.

Before the game, 12 players broke the strict regime dictated by Shlomo Sherf and spent their time outside the hotel - some went to grab something to eat, and some went to see Eddie Murphy's new movie, "Metro". The fact of their absence was revealed by Sherf, and he threw a bomb the day before the game: "5 players behaving in that outrageous way won't take part in the game!" The ones to be hurt were the key players of the team (Felix Halfon, David Amsalem, Nir Klinger, and especially Avi Nimni and Haim Revivo!), and therefore, all the football fans in the country were parted - some thought the discipline should be the most important value, but the others (myself included) cursed the National coach for his decision and were sure about the bad influence of this fact on the game.

After 71 minutes of play, my fears nearly came true... However, the stereotype "they who do not score concede" was shown yesterday beyond any doubt once more. Rafi Cohen proved his skill by making a superb save, and this gave way to one of the most brilliant counterattacks Israel had performed during the last years. The man to finish it and to calm the Israelis down was the wonderful Eli Ohana, "The Man Of The Game". Shlomo Sherf's vision proved right again - he got all the points, leaving Israel in the picture of WC'98 up to the very end, and he also managed to educate his capriceful stars. Now, a night before the game vs Russia away on June 8th, the Israeli players won't visit the History Museum or the Lenin's Mausoleum, that's for sure.

The game vs Russia will be much more important and clearly much more complicated, especially without the Captain Tal Banin, suspended for 2 yellow cards. And probably, the hegemony of Maccabee Haifa will end, after the return of Halfon, Amsalem, Brumer, Revivo and Nimni - yesterday the defending line of Alon Harazi, Moshe Glam, Arik Benado and Amir Shelakh wasn't sparkling at all and let the guests create several dangerous moments, which fortunately were not converted into goals. Zohar and Hazan can play better in the midline, and the same can be said about Eyal Berkovich, despite one of his magnificent passes. But 4 players were just great - Tal Banin (whom we'll really lack in Moscow), Rafi Cohen (with a lovely save to leave the team in the game and to start the winning attack), Alon Mizrahi (if only he could score from all the situations he created to himself!) and especially Eli Ohana. The bright star of Beitar Jerusalem scored both goals, taking a sweet revenge over the pair of Gogic in Limassol. If only Israel had collected all the points there! Then the way to Paris would've been widely open...

As for the teams that supplied the players for this "historic" victory (in brackets you can see the number of minutes each man played) - Maccabee Haifa's dominance is back again, ladies and gentlemen:

  Maccabee Haifa        5  (A. Harazi 90, Benado 90, Glam 90, Zhano 8, Attar 4);
  Hapoel Haifa          2  (Cohen 90, Banin 90);
  Beitar Jerusalem      2  (Ohana 90, Zohar 86);
  Maccabee Tel-Aviv     1  (Shelakh 90);
  Hapoel Tel-Aviv       1  (Hazan 90);
  Southampton           1  (Berkovich 90);
  Bnei-Yehuda Tel-Aviv  1  (Mizrahi 82).

THE FIRST HALF

If the start vs Bulgaria was disastrous for Israel, the one vs Cyprus was marked by a huge present. In the very first attack of Israel, Tal Banin sent a far-ranger from the midcircle into the guests' box. The ball seemed to be unaddressed, and Panaiotu (in quite a good performance) advanced to the box edge to get hold of it; however, the defender Larco interfered and jumped into the keeper's way. The ball deflected from his shoulder to Eli Ohana, who was waiting at the right place at the right time; the forward shot it flatly into virtually an empty net from 18 meters, diagonally. The stadium was equally excited and shocked - this development was pleasant, but totally unexpected.

This early goal made Israel calm and made the guests nervous. The hosts went on pressing, and the next 2 opportunities were of Alon Mizrahi, who started homing his shots - after 13 minutes, his wonderful turn produced a mighty shot that went higher than needed, and the same happened in another 2 minutes. However, the guests managed still to perform a very dangerous counterattack - Gogic shot it dangerously and flatly from 18 meters (17), and Rafi Cohen fell well to parry the ball to the corner from his left corner. The corner kick was shot, and Malakos headed it well, but Cohen was well-placed.

Two other dangerous moments happened in the next 10 minutes, one for each side. Hazan (21) shot the ball high from outside the box, as for Israel. And as for Cyprus, a magnificent personal skill of Theodotu let him pass between the defenders and center the ball (27); Malakos was there with a header to beat Rafi Cohen, but Harazi was on the goal-line to clear the ball away, and besides, the referee marked that Cohen had been fouled in the air.

From that moment on, those were the opportunities of Mizrahi and the bright saves of Nikos Panaiotu. The corner of Zohar (29) found the head of Alon Hazan who slipped the ball down, and Mizrahi was there with a great back scissors kick; Panaiotu stretched and stopped the ball on the goal-line. A shot of Mizrahi (42) from inside the box after a turn was taken by Panaiotu again. In just another minute, a wonderful penetration of Zohar at the left wing and a no less wonderful pass was interrupted by Panaiotu - the magnificent and perfectly timed diving of the keeper made him grasp the ball seconds before Mizrahi. And the last effort was of Tal Banin (44), who shot high from 18 meters, with no disturbance. A break.

THE SECOND HALF

Indeed, the half was started by the high shot of Theodotu (47), but the following chances were of Israel. A great shot of Hazan (50) was met by a spectacular flight of Panaiotu who seized the ball in the air. Zohar's free kick missed the frame (55), and the same was the destiny of Ohana's shot in another minute - a wonderful turn of Eli left the defender behind, but the finish could've been much-much better.

The guests performed a very dangerous counterattack (64) - the defending line failed to clear the ball away, and finally Cyprus earned a free kick, shot badly by Gogic. And the Israeli attacks continued again - Ohana centered the ball to the head of Mizrahi who headed it high (66), and Zohar shot a surprising bomb of wonderful quality from 25 meters (69), only to miss the left crossbar of a flying Panaiotu by centimeters.

And here a certain nonchalance of the Israeli defence and the whole team nearly cost it an equalizer. Again, it was a continuous attack of Cyprus that lasted for a minute and a half; the defence failed to clear the ball away properly, and the new attempts were made waves by waves. Finally, it was a pass of Gogic to find a killing flat shot of the substitute Ioanis Ioanu from 10 meters. Rafi Cohen, tired from the absence of work, woke up in time to go down immediately - his well-stretched hands made the impossible to deny the ball from going in. What a wonderful save!

No replay of this beauty could've been seen by us for another minute, after which all the Israeli players ran to thank their keeper. However, the score was already different. Alon Harazi took hold of the ball after a save and managed finally to clear it away, to Eli Ohana; Ohana found Berkovich near the midcircle and rushed forward. Berkovich, in just one touch of genius, sent the ball to Alon Mizrahi into a dangerous centered penetration, when Cyprus had no men in its defence. Mizrahi advanced, waited for a moment, passed the defender, entered the box and made a wonderful goal pass between the two returning defenders to Eli Ohana who managed to reach the box by then. Ohana, totally free, did the right thing by bouncing the ball over the rushing Panaiotu who could do nothing this time. 2:0, and what a joy in the Israeli camp!

The rest of the game brought nothing new to the result. Cyprus had just one more opportunity; Papavassiliu shot the free kick too high (82). Ohana had 2 more chances - the first one was denied by Panaiotu (77), and his second shot was extremely bad (84). The two other chances were of Itzhak Zohar (86) and his substitute Reuven Attar (remember him?..) after 89 minutes; both missed the frame. And so, Israel won at home even without its key players. Now, the examinations of Moscow and Sofia are left. Good luck!