18 goals, just 1 red card and 5 penalties, one crucial missed - all this actually happened in the Israeli National League while I was making my way to Dresden. Several spectacular goals scored, "The Game Of The Season" by now played, the double Petakh-Tikwa's victory over the teams from Haifa registered - what more could we ask?
Maccabee Petakh-Tikwa surprised everybody, defeating Maccabee Haifa through the goal of Offer Shitrit; now Yaacov Shakhar clearly sees the decision to let Shitrit go was a mistake. Hapoel Haifa and Maccabee Herzliya are surprisingly deteriorating, and on the other hand, Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa still goes without losing any point, this fact surprising us no less. 2 other surprises were registered by Hapoel Kefar-Saba and Hapoel Jerusalem, both teams collecting all the 3 points for the second consequent time (even though vs the weak rivals); the same can be said about Bnei-Yehuda, which returned to the route of wins after a bad start. The 2nd consecutive victory was also the pleasant fate of Hapoel Beer-Sheva, through the two great headers of Oren Sagron. But the very best game was registered in Ramat-Gan, where Maccabee Tel-Aviv hosted Beitar Jerusalem.
Maccabee was pressing all the time and opened the score after just 22 minutes of play - Noam Shoham found Avi Nimni inside the box, Nimni passed Korenfein and tried to shoot, Tretyak blocked the shot, but Sevilla was at the right place to push the rebound in, 1:0. During the last season, Maccabee was just unable to lose the lead; however, this year its defence badly suffers from an unexplicable lack of stability. Another 10 minutes have passed, and in a wonderful counter-attacking move of Harazi - Salloi - Harazi - Pisont - Harazi the National striker used the hole left by Gadi Brumer to enter the box at one-to-one position with Uvarov. The keeper knocked him down, was booked for this foul, and Zohar had no problems to convert a penalty kick into an equalizer against his former teammate, 1:1.
In another 2 minutes, "The Mistake Of The Week" was registered. Harazi was knocked down by Shelakh near the right edge of Maccabee's box, and Zohar came there to perform a free kick. Everybody expected him to bounce the ball inside the box, but Zohar made a slight misleading move and sent a flat curved ball into Uvarov's near low corner. The keeper wasn't expecting that, reacted lately and could just touch the ball to deflect it in. A classical repeat of Toni Meola's mistake against Romania during the last WC'94. 2:1 to Beitar, and everything suddenly turned upside down.
Another 2 goals of superb quality were registered in this game. Even before the break, Avi Nimni rushed to the wide ball of Amit Levi to volley it powerfully home from 15 meters, "The Goal Of The Week", levelling the result. However, Beitar managed to answer. 21 minutes after the break, Istvan Salloi reacted to the wide ball of David Amsalem from the left wing, jumped into the air and deflected the ball with his stretched leg over the head of flying Brumer and the hands of astonished Uvarov. 3:2.
Beitar felt secure and comfortable, but finally saw the real Uvarov in the net - he parried the dangerous ball of Abuksis to a corner, a corner was performed, the ball deflected again to Abuksis, and the latter shot a terrific bomb diagonally from 25 meters, but Uvarov used all his height and skill to stretch in a superb flight and to parry it, "The Save Of The Week". Eli Ohana, "The Best Of The Game", tried to do something, but couldn't overplay the Russian keeper, too. And finally, the goal came on the other side - Amit Levi made a high wide pass from the right wing, Ehud Kahila used his hand to deny the ball from Driks' header, and the referee booked him and let Avi Nimni go to the white spot, 3:3. Then it was actually the turn of Beitar to get nervous, as David Amsalem was sent off for an unsportive behaviour towards Amir Shelakh; but no other goals were scored. A magnificent game, like all the games between those two teams usually are.
Beitar played an outstanding soccer, but still lost two points; and so, Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa managed to grasp the lead after a hard victory in Haifa over the local Hapoel, 2:0. Haifa was attacking most of the time, but it seems the team of Ivan Catalinic has some problems to score; and when a counterattack of Petakh-Tikwa seconds before the break resulted in a clever lob of Manor Hassan over Rafi Cohen, the Reds were broken. 6 minutes in the 2nd half, Nir Shitrit and Georgi Kovac made a terrible mistake returning a dangerous ball to their keeper, Moti Kakun kidnapped it, and Rafi Cohen had nothing left but to knock the scorer down as he had done against Kostadinov a month and a half ago; Kakun himself converted a penalty. Later on, Turgeman missed from a very close range, and on the other hand, Offri tried to secure the shot of Kakun and touched it before the line to push it in; hadn't he done so, it would've been 3:0, but Offri was offside, and so the goal was disallowed. Even so, it was a great victory to Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa, and there seems to be no force in the League to stop the "young and restless" breed of Nir Levin.
Another game between Petakh-Tikwa and Haifa was held in Petakh-Tikwa, and here the hosts surprised Maccabee Haifa, 1:0, through the shot of Offer Shitrit. Petakh-Tikwa was far more dangerous, and only the skill of Bonnie Ginzburg saved Haifa from heavier defeat. Haifa had just one opportunity, this of Sergei Kandaurov who shot the ball above the bar; it seems Haifa's attacking line lacks any inspiration and ability to score.
This way, Maccabee Haifa deteriorated to the 6th place, and Maccabee Petakh-Tikwa climbed above the Greens; but another team caught the 4th place, Hapoel Beer-Sheva, with a 2:0 home victory over Hapoel Taibe. It started quickly and greatly - after just 3 minutes, Gadi Hazut shot a wide ball into the box from the right wing, and Sagron rushed towards the ball with a superb curved flying header under the left crossbar of Mickey Dahan, 1:0. Dahan made all he could to save his team from a heavy defeat, and he is our "Keeper Of The Week"; still, he was beaten once again, after Dudu Heffer overplayed him inside the box and found the head of Sagron 5 meters from the empty net, 2:0. In between, there were also 2 posts and one bar of Beer-Sheva, against one post of Taibe.
Hapoel Tel-Aviv defeated Hapoel Rishon le-Zion away, 2:0. Tel-Aviv was playing without Tikwa, Pogodin, Muskal and Nissim Avitan, but it was enough against the very weak squad of Rishon. Oded Tsakhi knocked Yossi Madar down inside the box 5 minutes from the break, and Alon Hazan opened the score from the white spot, 1:0. And after another 10 minutes, it was a magnificent shot of Mimer to force Sagi Strauss's save, and Sagiv Eliyahu put the rebound in, 2:0.
The surprise came again from Hapoel Jerusalem that defeated Hapoel Tsafririm Holon at home, 2:1. 2 quick goals, one into each net, were thought to be the only ones in the game, but Yair Asayag took care of scoring a winner one more time, 2:1. Jerusalem that was buried in every single Israeli sport edition before the season's start, has now 7 points and continues rushing forward. Good luck to its coach, Yossi Mizrahi.
The hardest of all is the situation of Hapoel Beit-Shean and Maccabee Herzliya, with only one point each. Beit-Shean lost at home to Hapoel Kefar-Saba, 0:1, from the header of Joseph Tchabi. And Herzliya lost at home with the same result to Bnei-Yehuda Tel-Aviv, after a magnificent volley kick of Moti Sason from 23 meters beat Shuli Gilardi. Beforehand, Herzliya had a chance to take a lead and to score its first goal this season, but a penalty kick of Oleg Naduda was parried by Liran Strauber.
NEXT WEEK: We have the top game between Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa (1) and Hapoel Beer-Sheva (4), and also Haifa's derby, interesting however low the 2 Haifa clubs stand now. Maccabee Tel-Aviv (3) will play away against Bnei-Yehuda Tel-Aviv (10), and these clubs' games were always of great interest. And Hapoel Tsafririm Holon (12) will host Beitar Jerusalem (2).
Hapoel Haifa - HAPOEL PETAKH-TIKWA 0:2 (0:1).
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Hosts: -.
Guests: Manor Hassan (45), Moti Kakun (51 pen).
THE BEST: Moti Kakun, forward, Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa.
Maccabee Tel-Aviv - Beitar Jerusalem 3:3 (2:2).
-------------------------------------------------
Hosts: Nir Sevilla (22), Avi Nimni (43, 84 pen).
Guests: Itzhak Zohar (32 pen, 34), Istvan Salloi (66).
RED: David Amsalem, defender, Beitar Jerusalem, 86.
THE BEST: Eli Ohana, forward, Beitar Jerusalem.
HAPOEL BEER-SHEVA - Hapoel Taibe 2:0 (1:0).
---------------------------------------------
Hosts: Oren Sagron (3, 87).
Guests: -.
THE BEST: Oren Sagron, midfielder, Hapoel Beer-Sheva.
MACCABEE PETAKH-TIKWA - Maccabee Haifa 1:0 (1:0).
---------------------------------------------------
Hosts: Offer Shitrit (36).
Guests: -.
THE BEST: Idan Tal, midfielder, Maccabee Petakh-Tikwa.
Hapoel Rishon le-Zion - HAPOEL TEL-AVIV 0:2 (0:2).
----------------------------------------------------
Hosts: -.
Guests: Alon Hazan (41 pen), Sagiv Eliyahu (51).
THE BEST: Alon Hazan, midfielder, Hapoel Tel-Aviv.
Hapoel Beit-Shean - HAPOEL KEFAR-SABA 0:1 (0:1).
--------------------------------------------------
Hosts: -.
Guests: Joseph Tchabi (30).
THE BEST: Joseph Tchabi, midfielder, Hapoel Kefar-Saba.
HAPOEL JERUSALEM - Hapoel Tsafririm Holon 2:1 (1:1).
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Hosts: Moti Menakhem (7), Yair Asayag (70).
Guests: Ronen Feigenbaum (9).
THE BEST: Yair Asayag, forward, Hapoel Jerusalem.
Maccabee Herzliya - BNEI-YEHUDA TEL-AVIV 0:1 (0:0).
-----------------------------------------------------
Hosts: -.
Guests: Moti Sason (58).
THE BEST: Vyacheslav Sukristov, midfielder, Bnei-Yehuda Tel-Aviv.
On the 16th minute Oleg Naduda (Maccabee Herzliya) missed a penalty kick -
Liran Strauber saved.
THE WEEK'S TEAM:
----------------
Mickey Dahan
(Hapoel Taibe)
Beni Kozoshvili Joseph Tchabi Raz Rabinovich Shimon Biton
(Hapoel P.-T.) (Hapoel Kefar-Saba) (Maccabee P.-T.) (Hapoel Beer-Sheva)
Idan Tal Itzhak Zohar Avi Nimni Oren Sagron
(Maccabee P.-T.) (Beitar Jerusalem) (Maccabee Tel-Aviv) (Hapoel Beer-Sheva)
Moti Kakun Eli Ohana
(Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa) (Beitar Jerusalem)
Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa, Beitar Jerusalem,
Hapoel Beer-Sheva, Maccabee Petakh-Tikwa - 2.
Maccabee Tel-Aviv, Hapoel Kefar-Saba, Hapoel Taibe - 1.
PLACE TEAM G W T L Goals Points
1 (2) Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa 05 5 0 0 12- 3 15
2 (1) Beitar Jerusalem 05 4 1 0 13- 5 13
3 (3) Maccabee Tel-Aviv 05 3 1 1 10- 8 10
4 (5) Hapoel Beer-Sheva 05 3 0 2 8- 5 9
5 (6) Maccabee Petakh-Tikwa 05 3 0 2 6- 5 9
6 (4) Maccabee Haifa 05 2 2 1 7- 5 8
7 (8) Hapoel Tel-Aviv 05 2 2 1 6- 5 8
8 (11) Hapoel Kefar-Saba 05 2 1 2 4- 4 7
9 (12) Hapoel Jerusalem 05 2 1 2 5- 6 7
10 (14) Bnei-Yehuda Tel-Aviv 05 2 1 2 5- 8 7
11 (7) Hapoel Taibe 05 2 0 3 5- 8 6
12 (10) Hapoel Tsafririm Holon 05 1 1 3 5- 7 4
13 (9) Hapoel Haifa 05 1 1 3 8-11 4
14 (13) Hapoel Rishon le-Zion 05 1 1 3 7-12 4
15 (15) Hapoel Beit-Shean 05 0 1 4 2- 6 1
16 (16) Maccabee Herzliya 05 0 1 4 0- 5 1
IN BRACKETS - the places of the teams before this week.
BEST PLAYER: Moti Kakun, forward, Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa.
TOP SCORERS: Eli Ohana (Beitar Jerusalem) 5(0)
Moti Kakun (Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa) 5(2) 1(1)
*********************************************************
Yaniv Offri (Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa) 4(0)
Avi Nimni (Maccabee Tel-Aviv) 4(1) 2(1)
Offer Shitrit (Maccabee Petakh-Tikwa) 4(1) 1
*********************************************************
Itzhak Zohar (Beitar Jerusalem) 3(1) 2(1)
Yair Asayag (Hapoel Jerusalem) 3(1) 1
Ronen Harazi (Beitar Jerusalem) 3(1)
NOTE - the penalties scored are put in brackets. The last
column means the number of goals scored this week.
THE NEXT ROUND (in a week):
| Hosts | Guests |
| Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa (1) | Hapoel Beer-Sheva (4) |
| Hapoel Tsafririm Holon (12) | Beitar Jerusalem (2) |
| Bnei-Yehuda Tel-Aviv (10) | Maccabee Tel-Aviv (3) |
| Hapoel Kefar-Saba (8) | Maccabee Petakh-Tikwa (5) |
| Maccabee Haifa (6) | Hapoel Haifa (13) |
| Hapoel Tel-Aviv (7) | Hapoel Beit-Shean (15) |
| Hapoel Jerusalem (9) | Hapoel Rishon le-Zion (14) |
| Hapoel Taibe (11) | Maccabee Herzliya (16) |
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