19 goals, no penalties at all and just 1 red card, in a bottom game - it was the story of this weekend. The other highlights were - the darkness of Herzliya, the excellence of Shaul Smadja in the net of Hapoel Beer-Sheva to make things hard for Beitar Jerusalem and, of course, 5 contenders for "The Goal Of The Season" scored in one game (!), one of them (and my feeling didn't deceive me for the last 4 years) to be chosen lately as such.
Maccabee Tel-Aviv goes on winning, and its forward Eli Driks, scoring twice, reached the barrier of "100 National League Goals" at the age of 31.5. Alon Mizrahi also reached the same barrier, and considering the fact that he's only 24.5 years old, it's an astonishing achievement (the list of his goals is the following: 1991 - 4 with Hapoel Tel-Aviv, 1992 - 20 with Bnei-Yehuda Tel-Aviv ("The Best Scorer"), 1993 - 26 with Bnei-Yehuda Tel-Aviv ("The Best Scorer"), 1994 - 28 with Maccabee Haifa ("The Best Scorer"), 1995 - 1 with Maccabee Tel-Aviv and 9 with Maccabee Ironi Ashdod ("The Best Scorers List"), and by now 3 with Maccabee Haifa and 9 with Bnei-Yehuda Tel-Aviv, "The Best Scorers List"); still, his team lost, being an equal participant in a wonderful game with 6 goals scored, 5 so beautiful to see again and again. Maccabee Haifa in a very dull match still devastated Hapoel Rishon le-Zion in Herzliya, all the goals scored during 5 late minutes; several events should be mentioned there, amongst them the electric break which left the stadium lightless for 17 minutes. Shaul Smadja was again the last barrier for the threatening attacks of Beitar Jerusalem, and became the 3rd keeper this season (after Shavit Elimelekh of Hapoel Rishon le-Zion and Golan Malul of Maccabee Petakh-Tikwa) to save his sheet clean playing against Beitar; it's interesting that all the above-mentioned keepers became "The Man Of The Match" and "The Keeper Of The Week" on those occasions. Shlomo Iluz, the defender of Beer-Sheva, celebrated his 500th game in the National League, at the age of 37, and he's close to break the all-time Israeli record of Gidi Damthi (516 games). And in the bottom, Maccabee Yaffa defeated Hapoel Beit-Shean and caused its trainer, Eli Gutman, to be fired. And now - everything detailed.
Moti Eberbaum scored again vs Maccabee Tel-Aviv, for the 4th time in the last 5 games between the 2 teams; and again, like in all the previous times, it wasn't enough. Kefar-Saba played without its 1st keeper, Eran Scheinsinger, who broke his arm during the training session and has to rest for 6 weeks; still, his substitute, Ishai Sason (the son of a well-known Israeli keeper Avi Sason), played confidently, made several great saves and was not the problem of Kefar-Saba. Fortunately for the leaders, they have Eli Driks this year in a great shape, and yesterday he scored twice to bring his team all the points - first, he was on the rebound, after Sason parried the bomb by Victor Moroz and no defender cleared the ball away, and then he bounced a beautiful header over the keeper and his defender. Uvarov, with a huge bandage covering his head, parried in a great way a corner kick of Dudu Stolper to preserve the score, and to open a gap of 5 pts at the top.
Shaul Smadja helped Uvarov in his second above-mentioned mission, taking the 2 points from Beitar Jerusalem in Beer-Sheva almost singlehandedly. It was a pretty dull game, with a lot of duels between Eli Ohana and the keeper won by the latter. Shlomo Iluz, in a good show during his 500th National League appearance, helped to preserve the nil draw. And as for Beitar, it lost the 2nd place to Maccabee Haifa on goal difference; their points are equal.
Maccabee Haifa is the only team by now to score in every game, and yesterday wasn't the exception, despite the dull game of the team. In the 1st half, it was Shavit Elimelekh all over, first reacting in a beautiful instinct to parry the ball by Ronnie Levi from 5 meters (3), and then denying Haim Silbas in a beautiful flight after the great solo penetration of the latter (31); Nir Davidovich denied a clever ball shot by Dudu Elkaslassi (45). But after the break, the pressure of Haifa brought its fruits - Jaroslav Kintus headed the ball home, Haim Revivo slipped to touch the ball of Haim Silbas just before the goal-line, and then Silbas himself scored a perfect copy of a winner against Ajax, all that in 5 minutes. In between, Elimelekh parried the deadly balls of Eyal Berkovich and Offer Shitrit, and on the other hand, Nissan Capeta hit the bar in front of an empty net, after the ball of Oleg Koshlyuk hit the post. Nir Davidovich was injured while denying bravely the ball from Nir Shikwa, and the International Haifa's keeper Rafi Cohen substituted him 5 minutes from time, denying then superbly a far-range volley shot by Koshlyuk and getting a blast in his knee, but playing up to the very end; hopefully, both keepers of the Greens will be fine up to the next week. Another event to mention was an electric shortage to stop the game for 17 minutes; somebody in Herzliya should take it into consideration, as it's not the first time for such an incident in this otherwise perfect stadium.
And to "The Goal Of The Season" by far. The game in Haifa was marvellous, and despite the hosts' pressure, the score was opened with a counterattack of Bnei-Yehuda, Hanokh Mararo bombing from 23 meters to the left post of Veg and in. Haifa reacted momentarily, as Reuven Attar kidnapped the keeper's ball to pass 40 meters between the defenders and to score in front of Bonnie Ginzburg (and again, this keeper can see himself robbed, being pretty good throughout the game, but still conceding 4 marvellous goals and not able to stop any of them, as most keepers in the world wouldn't be). Just 2 minutes have passed, and Nimrod Rozales fed Felix Halfon, who shot a marvellous curved volley, 2:1. Ginzburg denied several dangerous shots, and there came the break; after it, Alon Mizrahi took his part in the celebration with a magnificent free kick from 26 meters. But still, the best was to come. 60: Nimrod Rozales fed Reuven Attar with the ball, and the latter stopped it on the knee, put it on the ground and, turning around, shot under the right crossbar of Ginzburg, 3:2. And the last goal was the very best - it was again a goal pass of Nimrod Rozales, who left the ball to Tal Banin, and the latter shot while running, from 26 meters, the rare in its beauty bomb that kissed the net of Ginzburg just under his right crossbar again, despite Bonnie's flight, 4:2. "The Goal Of The Season" so far, which won't be beaten until the season ends.
Maccabee Herzliya defeated Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa and swapped places with this club; Maccabee Yaffa defeated Hapoel Beit-Shean (and if not for Meir Cohen in Beit-Shean's net, the score would've been much higher) and made a very important step towards the promised land of staying in the League; Hapoel Tel-Aviv defeated Hapoel Tsafririm Holon and goes on fighting for the European berth. And Maccabee Petakh-Tikwa defeated Beitar Tel-Aviv 3:0, the first goal was a great scissors kick from inside the box by Petakh-Tikwa's new foreigner, the Argentinian Jew Leo Liberman.
NEXT WEEK: two very interesting games, Maccabee Tel-Aviv (1) vs Maccabee Petakh-Tikwa (5) and Beitar Jerusalem (playing without spectators as a punishment for the disgusting behaviour of several of them) (3) vs Maccabee Herzliya (7). Two relatively comfortable rivals to both Haifa teams. At the bottom: Bnei-Yehuda Tel-Aviv (10) vs Hapoel Kefar-Saba (11), Beitar Tel-Aviv (16) vs Maccabee Yaffa (13).
Hapoel Kefar-Saba - MACCABEE TEL-AVIV 1:2 (0:1).
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Hosts: Moti Eberbaum (75).
Guests: Eli Driks (42, 60).
THE BEST: Eli Driks, forward, Maccabee Tel-Aviv.
Hapoel Beer-Sheva - Beitar Jerusalem 0:0.
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Hosts: -.
Guests: -.
THE BEST: Shaul Smadja, keeper, Hapoel Beer-Sheva.
Hapoel Rishon le-Zion - MACCABEE HAIFA 0:3 (0:0).
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Hosts: -.
Guests: Jaroslav Kintus (73), Haim Revivo (74), Haim Silbas (77).
THE BEST: Haim Silbas, midfielder, Maccabee Haifa.
HAPOEL HAIFA - Bnei-Yehuda Tel-Aviv 4:2 (2:1).
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Hosts: Reuven Attar (23, 60), Felix Halfon (25), Tal Banin (64).
Guests: Hanokh Mararo (22), Alon Mizrahi (54).
THE BEST: Tal Banin, midfielder, Hapoel Haifa.
MACCABEE PETAKH-TIKWA - Beitar Tel-Aviv 3:0 (1:0).
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Hosts: Leo Liberman (7), Roman Filipchuk (85), Sharon Tsofin (90).
Guests: -.
THE BEST: Guy Itzhak, midfielder, Maccabee Petakh-Tikwa.
HAPOEL TEL-AVIV - Hapoel Tsafririm Holon 1:0 (0:0).
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Hosts: Sagiv Eliyahu (64).
Guests: -.
THE BEST: Avi Azulai, midfielder, Hapoel Tel-Aviv.
MACCABEE HERZLIYA - Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa 2:0 (0:0).
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Hosts: Alex Barmecher (63), Yair Simhon (82).
Guests: -.
THE BEST: Vassili Ivanov, midfielder, Maccabee Herzliya.
MACCABEE YAFFA - Hapoel Beit-Shean 1:0 (1:0).
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Hosts: Avi Pitusi (36).
Guests: -.
RED: Jamil Hader, defender, Hapoel Beit-Shean, 73.
THE BEST: Avi Pitusi, defender, Maccabee Yaffa.
THE WEEK'S TEAM:
----------------
Shaul Smadja
(Hapoel Beer-Sheva)
Avi Pitusi Andrei Lazovskiy Alon Halfon Felix Halfon
(Maccabee Yaffa) (Hapoel Kefar-Saba) (Hapoel Haifa) (Hapoel Haifa)
Nimrod Rozales Haim Silbas Reuven Attar Tal Banin
(Hapoel Haifa) (Maccabee Haifa) (Hapoel Haifa) (Hapoel Haifa)
Eli Ohana Eli Driks
(Beitar Jerusalem) (Maccabee Tel-Aviv)
Hapoel Haifa - 5.
Beitar Jerusalem, Maccabee Tel-Aviv, Maccabee Haifa,
Hapoel Kefar-Saba, Hapoel Beer-Sheva, Maccabee Yaffa - 1.
PLACE TEAM G W T L Goals Points
1 (1) Maccabee Tel-Aviv 20 16 2 2 43-14 50
2 (3) Maccabee Haifa 20 13 6 1 56-24 45
3 (2) Beitar Jerusalem 20 13 6 1 43-19 45
4 (4) Hapoel Haifa 20 12 5 3 44-22 41
5 (5) Maccabee Petakh-Tikwa 20 10 6 4 32-24 36
6 (6) Hapoel Tel-Aviv 20 10 4 6 24-22 34
7 (8) Maccabee Herzliya 20 9 3 8 22-19 30
8 (7) Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa 20 6 10 4 23-20 28
9 (10) Hapoel Beer-Sheva 20 4 7 9 19-22 19
10 (9) Bnei-Yehuda Tel-Aviv 20 5 4 11 31-42 19
11 (12) Hapoel Kefar-Saba 20 5 3 12 20-33 18
12 (11) Hapoel Rishon le-Zion 20 5 3 12 15-28 18
13 (15) Maccabee Yaffa 20 5 2 13 17-37 17
14 (13) Hapoel Tsafririm Holon 20 4 3 13 20-38 15
15 (14) Hapoel Beit-Shean 20 3 6 11 17-35 15
16 (16) Beitar Tel-Aviv 20 3 4 13 21-48 13
BEST PLAYER: Tal Banin, midfielder, Hapoel Haifa.
TOP SCORERS: Haim Revivo (Maccabee Haifa) 22(0) 1
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Reuven Attar (Hapoel Haifa) 16(4) 2
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Eli Driks (Maccabee Tel-Aviv) 12(1) 2
(3 in M. Haifa) Alon Mizrahi (Bnei-Yehuda Tel-Aviv) 12(1) 1
******************************************************
Amir Turgeman (Hapoel Haifa) 11(0)
Ronen Harazi (Beitar Jerusalem) 11(3)
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Roman Filipchuk (Maccabee Petakh-Tikwa) 10(0) 1
Eli Ohana (Beitar Jerusalem) 10(0)
Offer Shitrit (Maccabee Haifa) 10(0)
Sergei Kandaurov (Maccabee Haifa) 10(4)
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 |
| Maccabee Tel-Aviv (1) | Maccabee Petakh-Tikwa (5) |
| Hapoel Tsafririm Holon (14) | Maccabee Haifa (2) |
| Beitar Jerusalem (3) | Maccabee Herzliya (7) |
| Hapoel Haifa (4) | Hapoel Rishon le-Zion (12) |
| Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa (8) | Hapoel Tel-Aviv (6) |
| Hapoel Beit-Shean (15) | Hapoel Beer-Sheva (9) |
| Bnei-Yehuda Tel-Aviv (10) | Hapoel Kefar-Saba (11) |
| Beitar Tel-Aviv (16) | Maccabee Yaffa (13) |
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