A strange week - these are the words to characterize the last tour of the Israeli National League Championship. There were 20 goals, no draws at all, and in all the 8 games the losers didn't score! And what is even stranger - no red cards and just 36 yellows! The lack of struggle surprises and frustrates a little bit, and as for the bookings and sendings off - well, after a game in France we should continue to come closer to Europe, shouldn't we?
The status-quo was preserved, as the 7 first teams from the previous round won; the other winner was Bnei-Yehuda, when the good header of Sahar Mizrahi opened his club a possibility to jump 3 places up. Maccabee Haifa and Maccabee Petakh-Tikwa devastated their opponents away, mostly due to a fantastic skill of Haim Revivo and Roman Filipchuk; Maccabee Tel-Aviv and Beitar Jerusalem, on the other hand, worked hard to earn the minimal victories at home. Hapoel Haifa and Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa had no problems at home, and 3 more excellent scorers from "The Scorers List" should be mentioned - Reuven Attar, Amir Turgeman and Moti Kakun. And Sagiv Eliyahu scored two great goals, his first ones this season, to give Hapoel Tel-Aviv a deserved victory and to put his team in a decent position before the next week derby.
Hapoel Beit-Shean was the dark horse of the leaders the last season - they defeated Maccabee Tel-Aviv 2:1 at home, lost away 0:1 after the injury time goal of Yuriy Schukanov, and converted being down 0:2 to a honorable 2:2 draw with Maccabee Haifa at home; the culmination moment, of course, was during the last week, when in the crucial game of make or break Beit-Shean converted a deficit of 0:2 to a dramatic victory 3:2 in Kiryat-Eliezer, finally denying Maccabee Haifa the Championship. Haifa came to take a revenge this time, and sweet it was, with 3 (!) of Haifa's players improving their positions in "The Scorers List". It started with Haim Revivo - he kidnapped the ball 30 meters from Beit-Shean's net, played a double pass with Alon Mizrahi and, getting the ball back, advanced and scored with his mighty left; a brilliant effort, as 4 (!) defenders of Beit-Shean surrounded Revivo, but couldn't prevent him from shooting. Alon Mizrahi, missing several times, finally scored, but was still substituted - the substitute, Offer Shitrit, was active and effective as usual and earned a 2nd penalty, while the 1st one was earned by Moshe Glam and both were scored by Kandaurov. Then, Avishai Zhano made a pass to Revivo, and the latter sparkled again, shooting a terrific left-foot bomb from 20 meters to the right post of Meir Cohen and in. The last accord was of Offer Shitrit, with a header. One dark horse is past the Greens, and the team seems to be in a cool form. The next week - the next dark horse, Beitar Tel-Aviv.
Hapoel Haifa, usually an outsider and clearly the marginal team of Haifa, refuses this year to be taken lightly again; the football it shows is great, and this time I can't predict the derby results. Anyway, this time it was Maccabee Yaffa to suffer, and it started with the header of Nir Sokher to the post and a goal of Ran Ben-Shimon from the free kick a little bit afterwards. Demir Lajec, the Croatian defender of Hapoel, passed nearly all the field to play a double pass with Reuven Attar and to finish the job himself; Attar scored then himself, a powerful left-footer right under the crossbar from 22 meters. The last minute goal was signed by Amir Turgeman. Well done, Haifa!
Beitar Jerusalem was sweating at home hard against Hapoel Tsafririm Holon - the superiority of the hosts was absolute, and they played greatly, but the guests closed their defensive line, and Alexander Zhidkov, the hero of Azerbaijan's sensational nil draw with Poland this Wednesday, was very confident between the posts. Still, once Beitar scored, and that was enough - Eli Ohana got the ball near the box and found there David Amsalem, who stood uncovered for the only time during the game. Ohana (and all the team) got rid then of a lot of frustration, after 2 previous goals of him weren't counted, scored from offsides. 1:0 was enough for Beitar to preserve the promising 2nd place.
The hard time was also the destiny of Maccabee Tel-Aviv, which was virtually defending their advantage over Maccabee Herzliya for all the 2nd half; just a great instinct and experience of Alexander Uvarov denied the ball sent by Offer Mizrahi from 7 meters. Maccabee Tel-Aviv scored through Itzhak Zohar, after a bad decision by Shuli Gilardi to get out of his net. By that, Maccabee passed its dark horse - we remember that Herzliya drew Tel-Aviv twice the last year, an unforgettable 4:4 draw away and a nil draw at home. Still, Maccabee Herzliya showed several pieces of attractive football, and its coach, the former Israeli superstar Gili Landau, sounded optimistic after the game; frankly speaking, he has all the reasons to be so.
Hapoel Tel-Aviv and Maccabee Petakh-Tikwa won away, owning their victories respectively to Sagiv Eliyahu and Roman Filipchuk. Eliyahu, coming as a substitute, scored 2 goals, the last one with a bicycle kick from inside the box after a great header pass by Tomer Eliyahu. Filipchuk had no problem managing with the defence (or, I'd better say, lack of defence) in Kefar-Saba, scoring 3 times and becoming the second-leading scorer by far.
Alon Maya and Moti Kakun scored, just as a round before, to give their team another 3 points; Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa is pretty well-shaped and threatens the top. As for Beer-Sheva, it's far from the place to lead to Europe, and far from its form demonstrated for the last 2 years; the club lost again, this time to Bnei-Yehuda in Shkhunat-ha'Tikwa, after a great header by Sahar Mizrahi just under the bar from 13 meters. The latter had several more good chances to score, several missed and several saved by Beer-Sheva's keeper, Shaul Smadja.
THE NEXT WEEK: The greatest game is undoubtedly the derby of Tel-Aviv, with Hapoel as hosts. Not to be missed also: Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa vs Beitar Jerusalem and the two bottom battles, Maccabee Yaffa vs Hapoel Kefar-Saba and Hapoel Tsafririm Holon vs Hapoel Beit-Shean.
MACCABEE TEL-AVIV - Maccabee Herzliya 1:0 (1:0).
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Hosts: Itzhak Zohar (30).
Guests: -.
THE BEST: Itzhak Zohar, midfielder, Maccabee Tel-Aviv.
BEITAR JERUSALEM - Hapoel Tsafririm Holon 1:0 (0:0).
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Hosts: David Amsalem (65).
Guests: -.
THE BEST: Arik Benado, defender, Beitar Jerusalem.
Hapoel Beit-Shean - MACCABEE HAIFA 0:6 (0:2).
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Hosts: -.
Guests: Haim Revivo (11, 82), Alon Mizrahi (35),
Sergei Kandaurov (61 pen, 78 pen), Offer Shitrit (89).
THE BEST: Haim Revivo, midfielder, Maccabee Haifa.
HAPOEL HAIFA - Maccabee Yaffa 4:0 (2:0).
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Hosts: Ran Ben-Shimon (18), Demir Lajec (41), Reuven Attar (58),
Amir Turgeman (90).
Guests: -.
THE BEST: Demir Lajec, defender, Hapoel Haifa.
Beitar Tel-Aviv - HAPOEL TEL-AVIV 0:2 (0:0).
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Hosts: -.
Guests: Sagiv Eliyahu (52, 80).
THE BEST: Sagiv Eliyahu, forward, Hapoel Tel-Aviv.
HAPOEL PETAKH-TIKWA - Hapoel Rishon le-Zion 2:0 (2:0).
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Hosts: Alon Maya (31), Moti Kakun (43).
Guests: -.
THE BEST: Moti Kakun, forward, Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa.
Hapoel Kefar-Saba - MACCABEE PETAKH-TIKWA 0:3 (0:1).
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Hosts: -.
Guests: Roman Filipchuk (36, 55, 83).
THE BEST: Roman Filipchuk, forward, Maccabee Petakh-Tikwa.
BNEI-YEHUDA TEL-AVIV - Hapoel Beer-Sheva 1:0 (1:0).
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Hosts: Sahar Mizrahi (10).
Guests: -.
THE BEST: Nir Sevilla, forward, Bnei-Yehuda Tel-Aviv.
THE ROUND'S TEAM:
-----------------
Alexander Uvarov
(Maccabee Tel-Aviv)
Shmuel Levi Demir Lajec Arik Benado Avishai Zhano
(Beitar Jerusalem) (Hapoel Haifa) (Beitar Jerusalem) (Maccabee Haifa)
Sergei Kandaurov Assif Ben-Ishai Haim Revivo Itzhak Zohar
(Maccabee Haifa) (Hapoel Haifa) (Maccabee Haifa) (Maccabee Tel-Aviv)
Sagiv Eliyahu Roman Filipchuk
(Hapoel Tel-Aviv) (Maccabee Petakh-Tikwa)
Maccabee Haifa - 3.
Maccabee Tel-Aviv, Beitar Jerusalem, Hapoel Haifa - 2.
Maccabee Petakh-Tikwa, Hapoel Tel-Aviv - 1.
PLACE TEAM G W T L Goals Points
1 (1) Maccabee Tel-Aviv 09 8 0 1 22- 7 24
2 (2) Beitar Jerusalem 09 7 2 0 20-10 23
3 (3) Maccabee Haifa 09 6 3 0 24- 9 21
4 (4) Hapoel Haifa 09 6 1 2 22- 8 19
5 (5) Hapoel Tel-Aviv 09 5 2 2 13- 9 17
6 (6) Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa 09 4 4 1 14- 8 16
7 (7) Maccabee Petakh-Tikwa 09 5 1 3 19-18 16
8 (8) Hapoel Beer-Sheva 09 3 3 3 16-12 12
9 (9) Maccabee Herzliya 09 3 1 5 8-10 10
10 (10) Maccabee Yaffa 09 3 0 6 8-20 9
11 (14) Bnei-Yehuda Tel-Aviv 09 2 2 5 10-18 8
12 (11) Hapoel Beit-Shean 09 2 2 5 9-18 8
13 (12) Hapoel Rishon le-Zion 09 2 1 6 8-14 7
14 (13) Beitar Tel-Aviv 09 2 1 6 11-21 7
15 (15) Hapoel Tsafririm Holon 09 1 1 7 10-18 4
16 (16) Hapoel Kefar-Saba 09 0 2 7 7-21 2
BEST PLAYER: Roman Filipchuk, forward, Maccabee Petakh-Tikwa.
TOP SCORERS: Reuven Attar (Hapoel Haifa) 9(2) 1
*********************************************************
Roman Filipchuk (Maccabee Petakh-Tikwa) 8(0) 3
*********************************************************
Amir Turgeman (Hapoel Haifa) 7(0) 1
Moti Kakun (Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa) 7(2) 1
Sergei Kandaurov (Maccabee Haifa) 7(3) 2(2)
*********************************************************
Haim Revivo (Maccabee Haifa) 6(0) 2
Sergei Gusev (Hapoel Beer-Sheva) 6(0)
Nir Klinger (Maccabee Tel-Aviv) 6(0)
*********************************************************
Offer Shitrit (Maccabee Haifa) 5(0) 1
Istvan Salloi (Beitar Jerusalem) 5(0)
Nissim Avitan (Hapoel Tel-Aviv) 5(0)
Sahar Mizrahi (Bnei-Yehuda Tel-Aviv) 5(1) 1
Najouan Grayib (Maccabee Petakh-Tikwa) 5(1)
Ronen Harazi (Beitar Jerusalem) 5(1)
NOTE - the penalties scored are put in brackets. The last
column means the number of goals scored this week.
NEXT ROUND (in a week):
| Hosts | Guests |
| Hapoel Tel-Aviv (5) | Maccabee Tel-Aviv (1) |
| Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa (6) | Beitar Jerusalem (2) |
| Maccabee Haifa (3) | Beitar Tel-Aviv (14) |
| Hapoel Beer-Sheva (8) | Hapoel Haifa (4) |
| Hapoel Rishon le-Zion (13) | Maccabee Petakh-Tikwa (7) |
| Maccabee Herzliya (9) | Bnei-Yehuda Tel-Aviv (11) |
| Maccabee Yaffa (10) | Hapoel Kefar-Saba (16) |
| Hapoel Beit-Shean (12) | Hapoel Tsafririm Holon (15) |
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