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Preview
First Round
Second Round
Third Round
Play-Off
The CupThe League system had been changed into 3 rounds without play-offs; the only play-off to be held was the one at the end of the season, when the 11th team had to play a "make or break" series of 2 games, home and away, with the 4th team of the Country League. Beitar Jerusalem repeated a glorious achievement of Hapoel Ramat-Gan at the season of 1963-64, winning the Championship the very season it was promoted to the National League; it was very hard to stop the lethal attacking line of Ronen Harazi, Vladimir Greshnev and Eli Ohana. Another great attack, Alon Mizrahi, Niko Kudritskiy and Haim Revivo, played to Bnei-Yehuda Tel-Aviv, but a shaky defence and an unexperienced keeper Sharon Cohen caused whatever they caused. This was also the 1st season of Giora Spiegel and Andrei Bal as Maccabee Haifa's coaches, and though the team finished only the 5th, they took the Cup and turned into a forged and united squad that showed itself fully in its following, truly golden season. It was also a nice start of Hapoel Haifa trained by Ronnie Dora; his nephew, Tal Banin, played there for a first season after his era in Maccabee Haifa and scored a goal to become "The Goal Of The Season", the one which could've been registered in gold in the history of World Soccer had it been scored in Europe. Hapoel Beer-Sheva, coached by Viko Hadad, caught a surprising 4th place; Alexander Uvarov of Maccabee Tel-Aviv was again awarded "The Keeper Of The Season" award. And "the Syndrome of Bonnie Ginzburg" returned again, though the keeper himself was one of the best in his team and in the whole League; the problem had been that Beitar Tel-Aviv had nearly no normal player but the keeper, and Bonnie, even in his best, wasn't enough.
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Week 1 brought us a game of our two European representatives - the Champions, Maccabee Tel-Aviv, defeated the Cup Holders, Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa, 3:2 away. Maccabee Petakh-Tikwa astonished Maccabee Haifa in Kiryat-Eliezer - 5:2! And Beitar Jerusalem defeated Hapoel Tel-Aviv away from the header of Tomer Azulai, after a huge mistake of Hassan Bejiev in Hapoel's net.
Week 2 - the Haifa derby ended with a 3:0 victory to Maccabee. Maccabee Petakh-Tikwa defeated Hapoel Tsafririm Holon, 3:1 at home, and took the lead. The best game was held at Teddy stadium in Jerusalem, where the goal of Ronen Harazi and the bomb of Vladimir Greshnev from 25 meters gave Beitar a temporary lead of 2:1, but Maccabee Tel-Aviv said the last word as well as the first. 2:2 at the end, and both teams showed their intentions towards the future.
* Week 3 - one of the most interesting weeks ever in the last years, with 35 goals scored in 6 games. Beitar Tel-Aviv equalized 3 times, playing at home against Beitar Jerusalem, twice by Igor Petrov, but these were still the guests to score the winner, 4:3. Maccabee Netanya had "The Player Of The Week", Moshe Glam, scoring a hat-trick and leading his team to a home victory, 4:3 vs Hapoel Tel-Aviv. Hapoel Haifa performed a highlighted comeback in Holon, 3:2, with a certain help of the referee. The Petakh-Tikwa derby ended with a 1:1 draw, after Evgeniy Shakhov gave Maccabee a point with his equalizer, 2 minutes from time. And the defender of Maccabee Tel-Aviv, Amit Levi, ended the game with 3 goal passes (!), 5:2 to his team at home over Hapoel Beer-Sheva.
* The best game of the week was held in Haifa, as Sahar Mizrahi of Bnei-Yehuda scored an early opener, and Offer Mizrahi of Maccabee Haifa equalized. The own goal of the same Sahar Mizrahi game the home side a lead erased by the far-range shot of Uzi Otachi just before the break, 2:2. Haifa wasn't broken and scored another leading goal, by Ivan Getsko; and now it was the turn of Niko Kudritskiy to equalize after 72 minutes of play. Bnei-Yehuda was then already reduced to 10 players, as Itzhak Izmirli had been sent off. The game seemed to end with a draw, but a great personal effort of Haim Revivo (85) gave the victory to the Oranges of Bnei-Yehuda, 4:3 in a dramatic game.
Week 4 - Maccabee Petakh-Tikwa, being down in an early stage, registered "The Surprise Of The Week", making a great home comeback against Maccabee Tel-Aviv - 3:1. The same result was achieved by Bnei-Yehuda at home over Hapoel Tsafririm Holon. Both of the winning teams had 10 points, and Beitar Jerusalem was at the very top as well, defeating Hapoel Beer-Sheva 2:0 at home. Hapoel Tel-Aviv lost 1:2 at home to Maccabee Haifa, and here the Greens started the series of 13 unbeaten games, up to Week 17.
Week 5 - Beitar Jerusalem won 2:0 in Netanya, and Maccabee Haifa defeated Beitar Tel-Aviv, 2:0 at home. Hapoel Tel-Aviv defeated Hapoel Tsafririm Holon away - 3:2. A surprising victory of Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa, 3:2 at home over Bnei-Yehuda, brought the Oranges down to the 4th place. Maccabee Tel-Aviv defeated Hapoel Haifa at home, 3:1. And the interesting game was held in Beer-Sheva - the last goal in Uri Malmilian's career, after a wonderful personal effort of this 36-years-old star, gave Beer-Sheva a 3:1 lead, but 2 goals of Evgeniy Shakhov at the last 10 minutes equalized the score, 3:3; after this game, the coach of Beer-Sheva, Eliyahu Offer, was fired, and Viko Hadad replaced him, leading Beer-Sheva to bells and whistles later on.
Week 6 - the leaders met at Teddy, and 2 harsh mistakes of Golan Malul caused Maccabee Petakh-Tikwa's loss of 0:2 to Beitar Jerusalem. Bnei-Yehuda defeated the defending Champions 2:1 at home and caught the 2nd place. Avishai Zhano levelled the score from a penalty spot for a home squad in Netanya - 1:1 vs Maccabee Haifa. At the top were Beitar Jerusalem (16 pts), Bnei-Yehuda Tel-Aviv (12) and Maccabee Petakh-Tikwa (11); and at the bottom were Hapoel Tsafririm Holon, Beitar Tel-Aviv and Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa (4 pts each).
Week 7 - Yaacov Schwartz scored an opener for Beitar Jerusalem away, but Maccabee Haifa made a sensation and defeated the leaders 4:1 at home; 2 goals of Reuven Attar (one after a real Brazilian effort, and one after a penalty kick), and one of Ivan Getsko and Offer Mizrahi each were responsible for the first loss of the future Champions. At the bottom, Beitar Tel-Aviv defeated Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa, 2:0 away, and the same did Maccabee Netanya do in Holon. In Tel-Aviv derby, Eli Driks scored a hat-trick; Maccabee won 4:0.
Week 8 - Maccabee Tel-Aviv defeated Beitar Tel-Aviv, 6:0 away (!); Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa defeated Maccabee Netanya with "just" 5:1 away. Maccabee Haifa failed to defeat Hapoel Tsafririm Holon at home, as the latter, being reduced to 10 men and with a goal deficit, still managed to equalize with 2 minutes to go, 3:3. Beitar Jerusalem had a hard time against Hapoel Haifa at home, when Moti Ivanir of the guests equalized from the penalty spot; however, Vladimir Greshnev beat Giora Antman from the spot as well, 2:1 to the leaders. And Bnei-Yehuda Tel-Aviv defeated Maccabee Petakh-Tikwa at home; the 2nd goal was of a real beauty, as Yossi Shoshani found Niko Kudritskiy with a far-ranged pass, and Niko shot a powerful volley kick from 16 meters diagonally to the right low corner of Golan Malul while running. Asked about this magnificent effort after the game, Niko answered with a modest phrase that became classics: "Tishma, ze kaduregel" ("Listen, that's soccer").
Week 9 - Holon made a sensation, performing just 2 attacks throughout the whole game and scoring twice by Itzhak Swissa, 2:0 at home over Beitar Jerusalem! Maccabee Petakh-Tikwa managed just a 2:2 draw at home vs Hapoel Tel-Aviv and dropped to the 5th place; Maccabee Haifa, on the other hand, climbed up to the 4th place after defeating Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa at home, 2:0. Hapoel Haifa and Maccabee Netanya achieved 1:1 draws against the top guns of Bnei-Yehuda Tel-Aviv and Maccabee Tel-Aviv, respectively.
Week 10 - the penalty of Haim Revivo was answered by the goal of Ronen Harazi, and then Yaacov Schwartz scored a winner, 2:1 to Beitar Jerusalem over Bnei-Yehuda at home. Maccabee Haifa managed just a nil draw against Maccabee Tel-Aviv at home. At the bottom, Hapoel Tsafririm Holon defeated Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa at home, 3:1.
* Week 11 - Bnei-Yehuda, leading 4:0 at home against Hapoel Tel-Aviv, finished the game with "just" 4:2. 6:0 to Maccabee Petakh-Tikwa over Maccabee Netanya at home, and Tal Bnaya, scoring a hat-trick, was "The Player Of The Week". In a dramatic game in Beer-Sheva, Ivan Getsko scored a last minute winner - 2:1 to Maccabee Haifa, which temporarily took the 2nd place. Hapoel Haifa defeated Beitar Tel-Aviv, 2:0 at home, with a pair of goals by Zahi Armeli. And Rafi Cohen was "The Keeper Of The Week", as his bottom team, Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa, managed to hold held Beitar Jerusalem to a nil draw.
* The best and the most unexpected game was held in Ramat-Gan, where Maccabee Tel-Aviv took a lead, and Konstantin Marko of Hapoel Tsafririm Holon equalized from the penalty spot. After 75 minutes, Maccabee already had a lead of 3:1, but 3 lightning quick goals of Holon, under a pouring rain, gave the visitors a surprising victory of 4:3 and threw Maccabee Tel-Aviv down to the 4th place.
PLACE TEAM G W T L Goals GD Points 1 Beitar Jerusalem 11 7 2 2 18-13 + 5 23 2 Maccabee Haifa 11 6 3 2 24-16 + 8 21 3 Bnei-Yehuda Tel-Aviv 11 6 2 3 23-18 + 5 20 4 Maccabee Tel-Aviv 11 5 3 3 29-17 +12 18 5 Maccabee Petakh-Tikwa 11 5 3 3 25-17 + 8 18 6 Hapoel Beer-Sheva 11 4 3 4 16-16 0 15 7 Hapoel Tsafririm Holon 11 4 2 5 20-22 - 2 14 8 Hapoel Tel-Aviv 11 4 2 5 17-22 - 5 14 9 Hapoel Haifa 11 3 4 4 11-14 - 3 13 10 Beitar Tel-Aviv 11 3 1 7 13-21 - 8 10 11 Maccabee Netanya 11 2 3 6 10-25 -15 9 12 Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa 11 2 2 7 15-20 - 5 8
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Week 12 - Beitar Jerusalem defeated Hapoel Tel-Aviv at home - 2:0, with a free kick of Vladimir Greshnev and a shot of Ronen Harazi. Maccabee Petakh-Tikwa made a home draw 1:1 against Maccabee Haifa, and Maccabee Tel-Aviv defeated Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa at home, 2:0. And Bnei-Yehuda Tel-Aviv defeated Beitar Tel-Aviv at home, 2:1; here just a fantastic reaction of Bonnie Ginzburg prevented Haim Revivo from scoring "The Goal Of All Times", after he got a pass from Kudritskiy at half a height and shot a fantastic left-foot volley from the box corner under the bar.
Week 13 - "The Game Of The Season" in Ramat-Gan ended with 2:0 to Maccabee Tel-Aviv over Beitar Jerusalem; however, Beitar Jerusalem was still the 1st (26 pts), and Maccabee Tel-Aviv still the 3rd (24). The second team, Maccabee Haifa (25), defeated Hapoel Haifa in derby, 4:0. Maccabee Netanya defeated Bnei-Yehuda 3:1 at home, and Hapoel Tel-Aviv beat Beitar Tel-Aviv, 2:0 away.
* Week 14 saw Ronen Harazi, after 70 minutes of play, passing an excellent Bonnie Ginzburg and scoring - a sweaty 1:0 to Beitar Jerusalem at home over Beitar Tel-Aviv. Hapoel Haifa reacted with the efforts of Vadim Tischenko and Tal Banin to the fast goal of Itzhak Swissa, 2:1 to the home squad over Hapoel Tsafririm Holon. The great scissors kick of Hisham Zoabi beat Uvarov, but Alexander Polukarov and Itzhak Zohar changed the situation totally, 2:1 to Maccabee Tel-Aviv in Beer-Sheva, after a dramatic comeback.
* The most interesting game took place in Shkhunat-ha'Tikwa, where Niko Kudritskiy gave the lead to Bnei-Yehuda, erased by an equalizer of Tamir Daniel with a flat mighty kick from 25 meters. Victor Chanov in Haifa's net registered two superb saves - first, slipping a cannon shot by Haim Revivo but stretching greatly to deny a rebound of Kudritskiy, and second, overplaying Alon Mizrahi in one-to-one. Ivan Getsko, Maccabee Haifa's forward, was sent off, and Bnei-Yehuda pressed all over and over again, but the goal came on the other side - Eyal Berkovich was knocked down after 67 minutes of play, and Reuven Attar shot the perfectly curved left-foot free kick from 18 meters diagonally under the right crossbar over the stretched hands of the flying keeper. This goal was chosen for a weekly sport magazine "Mischak ha'Shabat" ("The Saturday Game") opening movie and stayed there for the 2 seasons to follow. 2:1 to the Greens.
* Week 15 - a wonderful weekend. Hapoel Beer-Sheva surprised Beitar Jerusalem in Beer-Sheva, defeating the leaders 4:1 after having even a lead of 4:0; Beer-Sheva raised to the 5th place, and Beitar descended to the 3rd. Maccabee Tel-Aviv defeated Maccabee Petakh-Tikwa, 4:1 at home, and took the lead. Maccabee Haifa could've become the leaders itself, having a promising home lead of 2:0 against Hapoel Tel-Aviv after just 18 minutes, from the goals of Eyal Berkovich and Ivan Getsko; however, Liran Strauber parried a penalty kick shot by Reuven Attar, and at the last 10 minutes of the game, a completely unknown player named Yaniv Yaron scored twice to level the score. This was the beginning of Maccabee Haifa's decay for that season.
* And the best moment was, no doubt, in Petakh-Tikwa, where the local Hapoel hosted Hapoel Haifa. The first 86 minutes were those of total boredom, and then Zahi Armeli bounced a clever far-ranged ball to his left, towards the edge of the box. There it was met by Tal Banin, raising his left leg to the height of 1.2 meters and inclining his body well to shoot an unstoppable diagonal volley bomb just under the left crossbar of Shai Hess, 1:0 to the guests. "The Goal Of The Season" and, in my opinion, "The Volley Shot Of All Times", beating Carlos Alberto and, perhaps, van Basten himself.
Week 16 - Hapoel Haifa made a sensation, defeating Maccabee Tel-Aviv 3:0 at home, and Beitar Jerusalem returned to the top, defeating Maccabee Netanya 4:1 at home after being down early in the game. Maccabee Haifa lost another opportunity to catch up with the leaders, after a leading goal by Alon Harazi was answered by Igor Petrov's equalizer, 1:1 away vs Beitar Tel-Aviv; Bonnie Ginzburg in Beitar's net preserved the score until the very end.
Week 17 - Hapoel Beer-Sheva made a nil draw at home against Hapoel Haifa, in a game which was stopped for several minutes as the smoke grenade was launched onto Haifa's bench. Bnei-Yehuda achieved a nil draw away against Maccabee Tel-Aviv, and Beitar Jerusalem finished with just a nil draw away vs Maccabee Petakh-Tikwa. Maccabee Haifa could've used it to advance to the top, but it surprisingly lost 1:3 at home to Maccabee Netanya.
Week 18 saw Maccabee Netanya performing a home comeback on Holon, 3:2 at the end. The same happened at Teddy, where the far-ranger of Reuven Attar was answered by the great combination of Ohana - Greshnev - Harazi, and then Harazi and Ohana scored to make the score 3:1 to Beitar Jerusalem over Maccabee Haifa; some magnificent saves of Victor Chanov and a reducer of Ivan Getsko a minute from time made it 3:2 to the leaders. Maccabee Tel-Aviv inflicted a loss upon Hapoel Tel-Aviv away in a derby - 2:1, and Hapoel Beer-Sheva surprised everybody defeating Bnei-Yehuda in Shkhunat-ha'Tikwa, 3:2! Hisham Zoabi scored 2 great goals before being sent off and so gave Beer-Sheva a lead of 3:0; Bnei-Yehuda managed to score 2 goals and to press all over, but Asi Rakhamim in Beer-Sheva's net, "The Player Of The Week", preserved the unexpected victory of the guests.
Week 19 - an early goal of Itai Mordechai (5) made us smell the sensation in Haifa, but Ronen Harazi (79) and Eli Ohana (84) gave the leaders, Beitar Jerusalem, an away victory over Hapoel. Bnei-Yehuda Tel-Aviv beat away Maccabee Petakh-Tikwa, 2:1, and Hapoel Beer-Sheva, becoming the 5th again, defeated Hapoel Tel-Aviv, 3:1 at home. Maccabee Tel-Aviv defeated Beitar Tel-Aviv, 4:0 at home, and Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa, still closing the table, defeated Maccabee Netanya, 3:0 at home. Just a nil draw to Maccabee Haifa in Holon.
Week 20 - despite the penalty of Haim Revivo, parried well by Giora Antman, Revivo's Bnei-Yehuda Tel-Aviv still defeated Hapoel Haifa, 2:1 at home. Maccabee Haifa defeated Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa, 2:0, and Beitar Jerusalem finished with a home victory, 3:2 over Hapoel Tsafririm Holon, after Israel Maya of the guests missed in front of an empty net. All the other games ended in draws.
* Week 21 - Hapoel Beer-Sheva achieved a very important home victory, 2:1 over Maccabee Netanya; Avi Cohen equalized to Maccabee Tel-Aviv in Ramat-Gan after an opening goal of Eyal Berkovich to Maccabee Haifa, 1:1 at the end. Itai Mordechai scored a hat-trick and brought Hapoel Haifa an important home victory, 4:3 over Hapoel Tel-Aviv. But still, the other person became "The Player Of The Week".
* 45,000 spectators (!) saw the fantastic thriller, in which Beitar Jerusalem was defeated away, 1:3. Alon Mizrahi shot to the post of Yaacov Asayag, and Niko Kudritskiy pushed the rebound in, giving a lead to Bnei-Yehuda. Beitar equalized through Ilan Elharar, and Yaacov Asayag, "The Keeper Of The Week", made several great saves. And then came the bright goal - Sahar Mizrahi found Haim Revivo at the left wing, this gave a pass to Alon Mizrahi into the box, and the latter, pressed by Sergei Tretyak, performed a brilliant scissors pass back, Kudritskiy diving to head it home, 2:1 to Bnei-Yehuda. From that moment on, Beitar was attacking vigorously, but the last word was again of Kudritskiy - getting the ball from Uzi Otachi in the injury time, he advanced and lobbed it from 35 meters over Asayag, 3:1 to the Oranges. Niko was deservedly awarded "The Player Of The Week".
Week 22 - Beitar Jerusalem defeated Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa at home, 2:1, and Maccabee Tel-Aviv registered an away revenge over Hapoel Tsafririm Holon, 1:0. Oren Sagron scored after 79 minutes of play, bringing Hapoel Beer-Sheva an away victory in Haifa over Maccabee, 1:0; the two teams swapped places then, just before the 3rd round was about to start.
PLACE TEAM G W T L Goals GD Points 1 Beitar Jerusalem 22 14 3 5 37-29 + 8 45 2 Maccabee Tel-Aviv 22 12 6 4 48-25 +23 42 3 Bnei-Yehuda Tel-Aviv 22 12 4 6 43-34 + 9 40 4 Hapoel Beer-Sheva 22 10 7 5 33-26 + 7 37 5 Maccabee Haifa 22 9 8 5 40-29 +11 35 6 Hapoel Haifa 22 8 6 8 26-28 - 2 30 7 Hapoel Tel-Aviv 22 8 5 9 37-41 - 4 29 8 Maccabee Petakh-Tikwa 22 6 9 7 33-32 + 1 27 9 Maccabee Netanya 22 6 5 11 26-44 -18 23 10 Hapoel Tsafririm Holon 22 5 5 12 30-38 - 9 20 11 Beitar Tel-Aviv 22 5 5 12 22-39 -17 20 12 Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa 22 4 4 14 25-35 -10 16
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Week 23 - Beitar Jerusalem defeated Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa, 1:0 at home, and Maccabee Tel-Aviv defeated Hapoel Tsafririm Holon, 2:0 at home. Bnei-Yehuda lost all of a sudden, 1:2 at home to Beitar Tel-Aviv; it was a swan song of Beitar, only to be followed by 2 points collected in the next 10 games, and an inevitable relegation. Hapoel Beer-Sheva and Hapoel Haifa both lost 0:1 at home, to Maccabee Netanya and Hapoel Tel-Aviv, respectively. And Maccabee Haifa finished with just a nil draw at home, against Maccabee Petakh-Tikwa.
Week 24 - here Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa sprang up to life, and so did Hapoel Tsafririm Holon, with a new coach Eli Gutman, and Beitar Jerusalem. In another "Game Of The Season", Ronen Harazi (64) shot well from a hard angle to equalize after an opener of Avi Nimni (47), 1:1 to Beitar Jerusalem at home vs Maccabee Tel-Aviv. Hapoel Tsafririm Holon defeated Bnei-Yehuda at home, 2:1, the second consecutive loss of the Oranges. Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa defeated Hapoel Tel-Aviv at home, also 2:1. And Maccabee Haifa lost in Netanya, 0:1.
Week 25 - Beitar Jerusalem crashed Bnei-Yehuda away, 5:0! Here the Oranges actually parted from the Championship dreams. Maccabee Tel-Aviv beat Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa at home, 2:1. Maccabee Haifa devastated Beitar Tel-Aviv at home, 4:0, and Hapoel Haifa did it at home too, 5:0 over Maccabee Netanya. And Hapoel Tsafririm Holon defeated Hapoel Beer-Sheva, 1:0 away.
* Week 26 - Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa crashed Maccabee Petakh-Tikwa, 5:0 in a home derby. Hapoel Haifa defeated Beitar Tel-Aviv away, 3:1, and actually finished Beitar's story in the National League that year. Hapoel Tsafririm Holon defeated Maccabee Haifa, 1:0 at home. And Beitar Jerusalem started a series of the marvellous victories, with 4:0 over Beer-Sheva at home.
* The most interesting game was held between Maccabee Tel-Aviv and Bnei-Yehuda in Ramat-Gan. Nir Klinger gave Maccabee a lead, but a couple of goals by Alon Mizrahi and a charming in its cleverness effort of Haim Revivo to bounce the ball over the helplessly sitting Uvarov made the story different. Itzhak Zohar managed to score a reducer, but Bnei-Yehuda won, 3:2, and gave a wonderful advantage to Beitar Jerusalem at the top.
Week 27 - Bnei-Yehuda defeated Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa, 3:1 at home, and Hapoel Beer-Sheva managed just a nil draw at home against Maccabee Tel-Aviv. Beitar Jerusalem beat Maccabee Haifa away, 3:0, and opened a top gap of 8 pts from the runners-up, Maccabee Tel-Aviv.
Week 28 - 2:1 to Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa at home against Maccabee Netanya. Beitar Tel-Aviv achieved just a 1:1 home draw against Maccabee Petakh-Tikwa and fell down to the very bottom. Beitar Jerusalem beat Hapoel Haifa, 4:0 at home, and Hapoel Haifa began here the series of 6 consecutive losses, to make it finally fall to the 7th place. Maccabee Tel-Aviv defeated Maccabee Haifa, 3:1 in Ramat-Gan. And Hisham Zoabi failed to beat Sharon Cohen from the penalty spot after 11 minutes of play, and then saw his team beaten twice by Alon Mizrahi, after 2 goal passes of Haim Revivo - 2:0 to Bnei-Yehuda at home over Hapoel Beer-Sheva. Hapoel Tsafririm Holon climbed up to the 9th place, after beating Hapoel Tel-Aviv, 3:2 at home.
Week 29 - Hapoel Tel-Aviv managed to stop Beitar Jerusalem with a 2:2 home draw, and Maccabee Tel-Aviv took a chance to defeat Hapoel Haifa, 4:2 away. Maccabee Haifa made a home 1:1 draw against Bnei-Yehuda, and Hapoel Beer-Sheva achieved the same against Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa. Maccabee Petakh-Tikwa defeated Hapoel Tsafririm Holon away, 2:1, and Maccabee Netanya took 3 vital points from Beitar Tel-Aviv, 1:0 at home.
Week 30 - at the bottom, Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa defeated Beitar Tel-Aviv, 1:0 at home, and Beitar Tel-Aviv actually relegated. Beitar Jerusalem beat Maccabee Petakh-Tikwa at home, 2:1; 3:0 to Maccabee Tel-Aviv in a derby, with 2 goals of Eli Driks and an own goal of David Hershlikovich. Bnei-Yehuda defeated Hapoel Haifa, 4:2 at home; Giora Antman, Hapoel's keeper, parried a penalty of Haim Revivo and then scored another penalty himself, but it didn't help much. And Hapoel Beer-Sheva defeated Maccabee Haifa, 5:1 at home; that day, 24/05/93, became the day of Maccabee Haifa's last loss till 01/10/94, with a complete unbeaten season in between and a record of +31=15-0, 111-34.
Week 31 - Beitar Jerusalem became the Champion! It defeated Maccabee Netanya away, 2:1, and even a missed penalty of Vladimir Greshnev didn't spoil the fans' mood - "Gershon", after all, was a very important part of the fresh Champions. Maccabee Petakh-Tikwa defeated Maccabee Tel-Aviv, 2:1 at home, and added something to the joy of Beitar Jerusalem. The other Beitar, that of Tel-Aviv, lost at home, 0:5 to Hapoel Tsafririm Holon; Hapoel Tel-Aviv defeated Bnei-Yehuda, 4:2 at home, and Hapoel Beer-Sheva celebrated on the expense of Hapoel Haifa, 3:0 away. A home nil draw to Maccabee Haifa vs Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa.
Week 32 - Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa defeated Hapoel Tsafririm Holon, 3:1 at home, and finally stayed in the National League, going to the play-offs later on; as for Beitar Tel-Aviv, it finally relegated officially, and this happened in the crowning game of Beitar Jerusalem, 2:1 at Teddy to the fresh Champions. Maccabee Tel-Aviv lost at home to Maccabee Netanya, 0:1; Yaron Melika, a 2nd keeper of Tel-Aviv (and also a younger brother of their forward, Meir Melika), was responsible for the goal conceded. Maccabee Haifa won another derby, 4:1 this time. Hapoel Beer-Sheva beat Hapoel Tel-Aviv at home, 3:0. And Bnei-Yehuda achieved a great victory too, 5:2 at home over Maccabee Petakh-Tikwa.
Week 33 - Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa defeated Hapoel Haifa away, 1:0, but it didn't suffice to escape the play-offs. 4:2 to Maccabee Haifa away vs Hapoel Tel-Aviv, and Hapoel Tsafririm Holon surprised Beitar Jerusalem again, 3:1 at home, and became the only team that year after Maccabee Tel-Aviv to have a positive balance against the Champions. And the last accord belonged to the Yellows of Maccabee Tel-Aviv, who devastated Beitar Tel-Aviv 8:0 away! Bonnie Ginzburg got a break from the "torn" net of Beitar, and his young substitute Liron Lichterman played quite unsuccessfully, I would say.
PLACE TEAM G W T L Goals GD Points 1 Beitar Jerusalem 33 22 5 6 64-38 +26 71 EC1 ************************************************************************** 2 Maccabee Tel-Aviv 33 18 8 7 74-36 +38 62 3 Bnei-Yehuda Tel-Aviv 33 17 5 11 66-57 + 9 56 4 Hapoel Beer-Sheva 33 15 9 9 52-36 +16 54 5 Maccabee Haifa 33 12 11 10 55-46 + 9 47 EC2 6 Hapoel Tsafririm Holon 33 13 5 15 49-49 0 44 7 Hapoel Haifa 33 11 7 15 42-51 - 9 40 8 Maccabee Netanya 33 11 6 16 35-57 -22 39 9 Hapoel Tel-Aviv 33 10 8 15 52-64 -12 38 10 Maccabee Petakh-Tikwa 33 9 11 13 43-55 -12 38 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 11 Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa 33 10 6 17 41-44 - 3 36 ************************************************************************** 12 Beitar Tel-Aviv 33 6 7 20 28-68 -40 25
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Maccabee Yaffa - HAPOEL PETAKH-TIKWA 0:3
HAPOEL PETAKH-TIKWA - Maccabee Yaffa 2:1
HAPOEL PETAKH-TIKWA won 5:1 on aggregate.
And so, Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa regained its place in the National League, after nearly losing it all of a sudden, and Maccabee Yaffa had to play once again in the Country League and to try its luck once more.
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Again, I don't remember well the first rounds of the Cup, but the picture of the quarterfinals, the semifinals and the finals is clear to me. The teams to meet again in a thriller were Maccabee Tel-Aviv and Maccabee Haifa, this time in a final to make the North happy. And a hero of mine in this Cup series was Victor Chanov - the star of Haifa's keeper was fading, and he knew it was his last season in Maccabee Haifa, but in the Cup games he was really sparkling, and in my eyes, he was mostly responsible for the trophy of the Greens which brought them the European glory later on.
In the quarterfinals, Maccabee Tel-Aviv defeated easily Hapoel Yehud from League C, 3:0 away. Hapoel Tel-Aviv also won in an easy way, and Maccabee Haifa sweated in Tel-Aviv to defeat Beitar, 2:1 - Chanov registered several important saves. And the truly great surprise fell at the Teddy stadium in Jerusalem - the future Champions sieged Maccabee Netanya's net, but saw there Yehuda Boaron in his best ever game, flying here and there to remain the only keeper that year unbeaten by Jerusalemite attacking line. The game went into an extra time and then the penalty kicks; after Boaron had parried the kick of Yaacov Hillel, and Yaacov Asayag had saved a matchball shot by Alon Halfon, Nir Menakhem shot his ball high, and Ronen Gabai was precise to get Netanya advanced to the semis.
The semifinals saw Chanov all over, and while the keeper saved his net on and on again, it was Alon Hazan to score on the counterattack, 1:0 to Haifa over Hapoel Tel-Aviv. And the thriller took place in the other game - here, Maccabee Tel-Aviv took a lead, but Vyacheslav Sukristov equalized with a really beautiful header, 1:1 for Netanya. The game eventually went into the penalties, and Alexander Uvarov took the ball shot by Ilan Boaron. Itzhak Zohar nearly crashed the bar with the last kick of the first series, still 4:3 for Maccabee Tel-Aviv; however, Uvarov dived fabulously to his left corner and denied the shot of Moshe Glam. Maccabee Tel-Aviv and Maccabee Haifa were to meet in the final.
It was a nice final, with a lot of attacks for both sides, and the keepers were busy; however, both Uvarov and Chanov did a good job, and the game went on scoreless. Gadi Brumer could've changed the story with a wonderful unexpected shot from 45 meters, but Chanov sent the ball to a corner with his fingertips. And then, after 78 minutes, the winning goal was scored into the other net. Eyal Berkovich misled two defenders in a magnificent move and gave a wonderful in its precision pass to Reuven Attar who bombed it from 10 meters; Uvarov managed to reach the ball in a beautiful instinct, but it deflected into the bar and past the line, to colour the stadium in Green.
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