The Stars Of Israeli Soccer: REUVEN ATTAR

NOTE: This series of articles is by no means something regular, but certainly the question of mood. The last time I brought you the article about Haim Revivo, written because of his departure to Celta Vigo. An article on Niko Kudritskiy's death was written 2.5 years ago and reposted several times since. And now, Reuven Attar's story, just to remind you of some glorious moments the Israeli Soccer has experienced.

I remember well the Soccer lesson in Technion several months ago - the talk was about Eyal Berkovich, and the coach of ours stated: "What a player! And what a rare mixture! 50% of gift and 50% of a hard work and sweat. Most of the players are different..." "Elaborate", we asked. "Well", he said, "Haim Revivo is 80% of gift and 20% of sweat, Tal Banin has no gift at all, but a tremendous will to succeed, and he does succeed..." "And what about Attar?" I asked. "Oh!" laughed the coach. "Attar has 200% of gift and an absolute zero of motivation. Had he possessed any tiny motivation to advance, he would've starred now in Italy or Spain".

I wouldn't have thought about the better characteristics for this player. A man of a hard and capriceful personality who can't concentrate at the training field, a man of many problems who had narrowly escaped several charges for hooliganism at the late 80-ies, an unstable player who can be very dull or just magnificent... But above all this - a man of a rare football gift who made a lot of deeds to remember for years, both in Israel and at the International level. Attar is one of the few Israeli players whose name is remembered by the Soccer historians - he was the person to score one of the most surprising goals of this decade, the Israeli winner vs France in 1993.

On October 13, 1993, the world was shocked by the achievement of the modest Israeli National Team. France, even considered one of the favourites for the WC'94 to come, had 2 home games left, against Israel and Bulgaria, and needed just 1 point to qualify to this WC'94. The Israeli team was considered then "a cannon meat", and France was preparing for a great celebration in Paris. However, the unbelievable happened; France, leading in both games, let the rivals equalize and then score a winner at the dying seconds of the games! Bulgaria went to the WC'94 instead of France and was very far from disappointing there, finishing its best ever 4th and eliminating Germany in the quarterfinals; and the pictures of two players, Emil Kostadinov and "the curled devil" Reuven Attar, were in the headlights of every sport edition at that time.

France started to press from the very first seconds, but a brave Israeli defence and a great skill of the keeper Bonnie Ginzburg, who coped successfully with the wet ball and the slippery field, left the situation scoreless. 21 minutes from the start, however, the score was opened ... into the wrong net. Moshe Glam threw in a ball to Ronnie Rosenthal, the latter turned around on a tiny square to pass Alaine Roche and to center the ball, Reuven Attar flew forward acrobatically to slide the ball with his head to Ronen Harazi, and the latter rolled it past Bernard Lama from 5 meters. 1:0 to Israel.

It was considered sensational enough in the world, and France answered with 2 goals of its own still in the 1st half. First, it was Franc Sauzee, with a sharp flat ball from 18 meters to enter the right corner of diving Ginzburg (29th minute). And 10 minutes later on, David Ginola stopped the ball on his chest at the left wing, centered it to run away from Felix Halfon and, from the left edge of the box, curved it perfectly under the left crossbar of the acrobatically flying Ginzburg, above the keeper's hands. At the end, however, Ginola was disappointed not only with the loss, but also with Attar's goal, more beautiful than his own; after 40 minutes of play, however, I really couldn't have thought of an effort better than Ginola's.

France continued pressing in the 2nd half, but the great game of Bonnie and the misses of Cantona and especially Papin left the score intact. It still seemed to be enough since no Israeli attack could be mentioned in those moments; however, the unbelievable happened again. After 83 minutes, Rosenthal took the ball at his own half and started with his famous technique of an elk running through the forest, this time of French defenders. He was stopped by a 4th defender near in the French box; the ball blasted to Ronen Harazi who tried a flying lob over Lama, the keeper blocked the effort, but it was Eyal Berkovich, the fresh substitute, who pushed it home from 10 meters and equalized the score, 2:2.

Lots of Israeli fans, switching off their TVs earlier not to see the defeat, turned them on again after this equalizer to see the unbelievable after 9 minutes. 2.5 minutes into an injury time, Hazan passed the ball to Rosenthal, and the latter started his run again. Finishing his very best game ever in the Israeli National Team, the Premier League forward passed a defender and managed to control the ball near the goal line, on the left wing, to center it between the two others. The ball seemed to have no address, but Reuven Attar was there, jumping in the air and scissoring his legs 10 meters from the net to shoot a bomb with his left under the right crossbar of Bernard Lama. 3:2! And Pele applauded at the tribune. 3:2! What a perfect bicycle kick!

The Israeli President Ezer Weitzman shared his feelings of this moment with us several days afterwards: "My grandchildren were so angry during the 2nd half, and I constantly talked to them on phone, trying to calm them down, in vain. However, when this little curled devil produced that overwhelming shot, they shouted with joy, and God, did I share this joy!" I remember the usually calm commentator Meir Einstein weeping on TV, unable to say anything but: "3:2! A winner! 3:2! Attar!" And Reuven Attar summed it up after the game: "It was a dream..."

Born on January 3rd, 1969, Attar started his soccer career at the place of his birth, a small suburb of Haifa named Tirat-ha'Carmel. Soon, he was invited to play in Maccabee Haifa. At the age of 20, Reuven Attar had the experience of taking the Championship (1988-89) and playing in a famous Cup final against Beitar Jerusalem at the same season; he even scored, but the game ended 3:3, and in the penalty shoot-out Haifa lost the trophy.

At the season of 1990-91, when I arrived at Israel, Maccabee Haifa bought another talented youngster from Tirat-ha'Karmel, Tal Banin, and a fabulous former International keeper of the USSR, Victor Chanov; altogether with an 18-years-old domestic player, Eyal Berkovich, and a forward Moshe Eisenberg they were the most responsible for the first ever Maccabee Haifa's double. The trio Banin - Berkovich - Attar made miracles on the field and started the era of magnificent attacking trios, followed by Alon Mizrahi - Haim Revivo - Niko Kudritskiy in Bnei-Yehuda Tel-Aviv and Vladimir Greshnev - Ronen Harazi - Eli Ohana in Beitar Jerusalem later.

The season of 1991-92 was a season of a certain disappointment for Maccabee Haifa, since the team finished just the 3rd (after Maccabee Tel-Aviv and Bnei-Yehuda Tel-Aviv) and lost to Maccabee Tel-Aviv in a thrilling Cup semifinal, 2:4. Nevertheless, both Attar and Banin were in shape, Attar scoring 13 goals and Banin 8. After that season, Haifa's coach Shlomo Sherf resigned to take the post of the National Team coach, and Giora Spiegel came from Bnei-Yehuda to replace him. This talented coach brought Maccabee Haifa glory later on. Tal Banin left for Hapoel Haifa, and so the main attacking force consisted now of Attar, Offer Mizrahi and the Ukrainean Ivan Getsko.

The season of 1992/93 started for Maccabee in a dreadful way - 2:5 to Maccabee Petakh-Tikwa at home, 3:0 in a derby and then 3:4 at home to Bnei-Yehuda, in a dramatic game with a lot of turnovers. But then Haifa started the series of 13 unbeaten games. I remember the dramatic game in Haifa between Maccabee and the leaders (and the future Champions), Beitar Jerusalem. Yaacov Schwartz opened the score for Beitar, but 2 minutes have passed, and Haifa equalized - Attar got the ball from Berkovich and "glued" it to his feet, passing 4 players in the area of 10 square meters (!) and then rolling it home past Yaacov Asayag. What a fantastic effort! Getsko added another one, and in the 2nd half, despite the Jerusalemite pressure, Attar added another goal from the penalty kick, and Offer Mizrahi scored the last goal to come. 4:1 to the Greens, the first loss of Beitar that season.

Another game of great quality was held in Shkhunat-ha'Tikwa later on, between the two top teams, Bnei-Yehuda (then 4th) and Maccabee Haifa (then 3rd). Niko Kudritskiy opened the score for the hosts, and Tamir Daniel equalized with one superb flat shot from 25 meters. Later on, Ivan Getsko was sent off, and Haifa stayed in 10 players; Chanov performed the miracle in the net, slipping the ball of Revivo from 20 meters, but stretching fantastically to take hold of Kudritskiy's rebound. Bnei-Yehuda's pressure increased, and Chanov was the hero once again, stopping Alon Mizrahi in one-to-one. And then the great moment came. Berkovich was knocked down 20 meters from the goal, a little bit diagonally to the net; Attar took a short run, leant his body to the right and shot a perfect left-foot free kick, curving above the wall, touching Sharon Cohen's right crossbar just above the stretched hands of the flying keeper and going in. This goal was chosen as an opener to "Miskhak Ha'Shabat" football review TV program and stayed there for nearly 1.5 years.

Sadly enough, in the next game Attar missed a penalty kick against Hapoel Tel-Aviv, and the latter, being down 0:2 after 80 minutes of play, managed to equalize. Here started the dawn of the Greens - they started losing game after game and finished just the 5th. There was also a painful defeat 1:5 in Beer-Sheva, on April 24th, 1993; Attar scored a reducer there, and it was the last ever goal Attar scored in Maccabee Haifa in a lost game in a League. (At least for the close 5 years to come). Maccabee started the wonderful series of 46 unbeaten League games, staying unbeaten for the whole next season! And naturally, the part of Reuven Attar in this was also big enough. BTW, Attar finished the season with 10 goals, exactly as Offer Mizrahi; Getsko scored 15 times.

The season was disappointing in a certain way, but there was still a Cup challenge left. Victor Chanov, knowing about his farewell to the team at the end of the season, made miracles in the Cup games, helping much to defeat Beitar Tel-Aviv (2:1) and Hapoel Tel-Aviv (1:0). And there came the final vs the Vice-Champions, Maccabee Tel-Aviv. Both teams attacked, and Chanov reacted superbly to a surprising lob of Gadi Brumer from 40 meters, sending it to a corner; however, just one team was to score, the Greens. After 78 minutes, it was a great penetration of Eyal Berkovich through the left wing; passing 2 players, he approached another two and sent between them a brilliant pass to Attar who stood uncovered in the box. Attar seized the opportunity in both hands, rushing to shoot the ball powerfully from 10 meters; Uvarov reached the ball in a perfect instinct, but managed to parry it just to the bar and inside. Haifa took the Cup, to bring Israel a great honor in Europe later on.

Passing Dodelange from Luxembourg (1:0 away, 6:1 at home) and overcoming Torpedo Moscow (0:1 away, 3:1 at home), and having 6 of its players tasted the Israeli National Team victory over France, Maccabee Haifa prepared to meet in the 1/8 ECWC the great rival of all, Parma. Losing at home 0:1 to the last minute effort of Thomas Brolin, Haifa went to Italy with no chances on paper. But here, the sensation came - Alon Mizrahi scored after 51 minutes, the game went into an extra time, and there Rafi Cohen parried a penalty kick shot by Gianfranco Zola; in between, just a great skill of Luca Bucci saved Parma from 2 deadly shots of Attar and a penetration of Alon Mizrahi in one-to-one. However, Bucci took the revenge over an excellent Rafi Cohen in the penalty shoot-out, and Parma advanced; eventually, it eliminated Ajax Amsterdam and Benfica Lisbon, and lost to Arsenal in the final game. The last penalty shot of Haifa was that of Reuven Attar, with a bomb to his right, but Bucci made an impossible to parry it to the post and out.

In the League, this was the season of Maccabee Haifa, with a perfect squad of great players in their forms' peak. Starting with a sparkling Rafi Cohen in the net, going on with a fantastic defence of Roman Pets, Arik Benado, Alon Harazi and Moshe Glam, continuing with a midline of Sergei Kandaurov (10 goals), Alon Hazan, Ronnie Levi and Eyal Berkovich, and finishing with a top scorer Alon Mizrahi (28 goals); the two great forwards, Ivan Getsko (9 goals) and Shai Holtzman (8 goals), stayed on the bench most of the time, and their goals were scored in the last minutes when they substituted someone! And I didn't mention Reuven Attar intentiously in this line of stars; Attar indeed scored 10 goals, but his contribution could be much better hadn't it been for his constant problems with the squad (let's recall just a spitting battle between him and Berkovich). At the end of the season, Attar left for Hapoel Haifa, joining there his friend Tal Banin who returned after a season in Cannes. Attar finished his era in Maccabee Haifa with 59 goals, becoming the 6th scorer of the Greens ever.

Still, there is a place here to remind us of two goals of Attar. A superb effort of his against Hapoel Beer-Sheva was just a prelude to "The Best Goal Of The Season", coming vs Maccabee Tel-Aviv, in a wonderful 5:0 home victory of the Greens. Attar tried to make too much dribbling in the box and seemed to have lost the ball; however, his will proved right. Still in the box, he blocked Polukarov to take the ball from him, then denied Amir Shelakh, still lying on the ground (!), and getting finally up, shot an unstoppable bomb with his left diagonally under the near crossbar of Alexander Uvarov, from 13 meters. A perfect goal!

The team of Rubi Shapira, Hapoel Haifa of 1994-95, was the team of several superb players; however, it had no glue and no harmony inside, and so finished 13th, struggling mightily against relegation. Attar scored just 7 goals and was very unstable, and his constant conflicts with the coach, Dror Kashtan, caused Shapira finally to fire the coach. Viko Hadad came to save the sinking ship, succeeded in doing it, and even brought it to the Cup final where it lost 0:2 to Maccabee Haifa. And if we remember Attar that season, it's because of his another conflict with the coach, in the Cup semifinals.

Hapoel Haifa was playing against Maccabee Netanya, the team that relegated at the end of the League and that was playing vigorously to save the honour. Attar himself scored after 7 minutes, and the equalizer of Roman Filipchuk (21) was immediately answered by the goal of Alon Halfon (24); however, a penalty taken by Asi Domb (81) equalized the score once again. Here, Viko Hadad decided to substitute the tired somewhat Attar with Dani Niron and ordered to raise the sign with number 10; however, Attar refused to leave the field, and the substitution wasn't performed! Attar, making a magnificent pass for Zoabi's winner (99), stated after the game: "I felt wonderful, and I felt I could make the difference; and that indeed happened". However, after this game it was clear that either the coach or the player had to leave the team. Attar stayed.

When Avraham Grant took Hapoel Haifa to make it a new team, the main question was about his ability to have a common language with Reuven Attar. Avraham, being a perfect coach, understood the difficulty and gave Attar freedom for his virtuosity, a thing which proved itself right. Hapoel took the 4th place, falling just a goal (!) behind Beitar Jerusalem which went to play in Europe. Attar scored 21 goals (falling only behind Haim Revivo) and made a lot of goal passes; but we remember most of all the virtuosity with which most of the goals were scored. A great volley lob over Sagi Strauss of Beitar Tel-Aviv, from a pass of George Weber; a great preparation and a perfect shot to the right high corner of Bonnie Ginzburg, against Bnei-Yehuda at home; a wonderful lob over Meir Cohen of Beit-Shean; an unstoppable shot against Boris Beloshapka of Maccabee Yaffa; a wonderful free kick from an impossible angle to hit the far post of Alexander Zhidkov (Hapoel Tsafririm Holon) and to go in; and, of course, 3 great goal passes to his friends in an away victory, 4:1 over Hapoel Tel-Aviv - this was just a part of his magnificent and remarkable deeds.

An opening game of Round 2 was a wonderful thriller in Haifa, where Hapoel hosted Beitar Jerusalem - 3:3 at the end, a lot of pressure, a lot of turnovers, and a dramatic equalizer of Ronen Harazi for Beitar in an injury time. But after the game, the most remarkable event that stayed in memory was an opening goal of Reuven Attar. Marian Paneh tried to find the midfielder in the box and lobbed a long ball into it; Arik Benado failed to reach it and just deflected it back with his header. Attar changed his position immediately to reach the deflected ball and stopped it with his left, 5 meters diagonally from the net and with his back to it. Still controlling the ball in the air, he turned around and sent a flying flat volley with his right to the far corner of Korenfein while the keeper was closing the near one. A fantastic effort to result in an opener.

But the best game of Attar that season was the game against Bnei-Yehuda away, where he scored 3 goals and still saw his team slipping the victory out of its hands, 3:3. First, Tal Banin found Attar inside the box, and the latter didn't give the ball an opportunity to hit the ground, touching it first to pass Nir Shitrit, then to lob it over Moti Sason, then to jump it on his knee and finally, to shoot a scissors kick from 7 meters past Bonnie Ginzburg. Then, Attar took the ball 60 meters from the net, penetrated on his right, passed 3 defenders and shot a flat ball from 22 meters, again out of Bonnie's reach. The last goal was again a flat shot, this time from a hard angle. But still, it wasn't enough.

Not fully finding the common language with the next coach of Haifa, Ivan Katalinic (who served as a deputy of Miroslav Blasevic later on and helped to bring Croatia to the 3rd place in WC'98), Attar registered a mediocre season of 1996-97, and from that moment on started wondering in different teams. Maccabee Haifa, Beitar Jerusalem, Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa, again Hapoel Haifa, again Beitar Jerusalem and again Maccabee Haifa.

The last station of Reuven Attar's career was the season of 2002-03 in Maccabee Netanya - and it was a swan song of tremendous sound, which was cut by a ridiculous injury. Having scored 9 goals and registered a great number of goal passes, being the best player of his team for the whole season and bringing it to the remarkable 4th place after the 3 grands (Maccabee Tel-Aviv, Maccabee Haifa and Hapoel Tel-Aviv), Attar tore his ligaments at the game against Hapoel Kefar-Saba 10 weeks from the season end; the recovery period was to become at least 6-8 months. Even so, the retirement announcement of Attar came as a shock to the real fans of the game all over the country.

There is no doubt, Attar could've done more. Only Eyal Berkovich and Haim Revivo, and also perhaps the youngster Yossi Benayoun could match Attar in their skills - and if you look at them, as well as at some other less talented players, their careers knew and will know the bigger peaks than Attar's. However, it's hard to criticize the historic victor of Parc des Princes, a man who perhaps caused the new French revolution, at the end of which Zinedine Zidane led the rebirthing Tricolor to become the World and the European Champions. Reuven Attar will forever stay in the Soccer history of Israel and the World.