B:  Lubomir Penev (68).
I:  -.

GOAL PASSES:  Bulgaria - Jordan Letchkov;
              Israel   - NONE.



B:  Zlatko Zdravkov          6      I:  Rafi Cohen            7
    --------------------------          -----------------------
    Georgi Nankov          5.5          Felix Halfon          6
    (RED, 70)                           (Ronen Harazi, 75)
    Trifon Ivanov          5.5          Amir Shelakh          6
    Ivailo Iordanov        5.5          Arik Benado         6.5
    Radostin Kischischev     6          Ran Ben-Shimon        6
    --------------------------          David Amsalem       5.5
    Zlatko Iankov            6          -----------------------
    Krasimir Balakov       6.5          Alon Hazan          5.5
    Ivailo Petkov          5.5          (RED, 89)
    (Lubomir Penev, 46 -     7)         Tal Banin           6.5
    Hristo Stoichkov       6.5          Avi Nimni           5.5
    --------------------------          Haim Revivo         5.5
    Daniel Borimirov       6.5          -----------------------
    (Jordan Letchkov, 59 - 7.5)         Eli Ohana             5
    Emil Kostadinov        5.5          (Alon Mizrahi, 75)
    (Bruno Guentchev, 74)



THE BEST:  Jordan Letchkov, midfielder, Bulgaria.

AUDIENCE:  30.000 spectators, Vasil Levski Stadium, Sofia, Bulgaria.

REFEREE:   Sandor Filler (Hungary).          HIS MARK:       6.

CORNERS:   Bulgaria   5, Israel   4.

YELLOWS:   BUL - Daniel Borimirov (18), Zlatko Iankov (26);
           ISR - Arik Benado (5), Alon Hazan (10),
                 Haim Revivo (59), Avi Nimni (63).

REDS:      BUL - Georgi Nankov, defender, 70;
           ISR - Alon Hazan, midfielder, 89.

In 1891, a modest Irish gym teacher entered the history, at least the Soccer one. His name was Jonh Penalty, and his invention bore his name, reflecting both the inventor and the entity - the defending player who took the ball by hand in his box or made a foul on the attacking player there, should suffer a team penalty, a direct shot of the attacker against the keeper from 11 meters without a wall. A Penalty kick, the most awful penalty a defence can fear of, almost a certain goal for the attackers.

Calling for a penalty shot requires a lot of guts, especially away and in the frontier situations; however, the skill of the referee is measured by the responsibility he may take upon himself. Itzhak Ben-Itzhak, one of the best referees Israel ever remembered, made his name famous amongst the rest by his tough penalty calls, partly against the home teams. Alfredo Tartalenga, the Italian referee who was in charge of the first game between Israel and Bulgaria in Ramat-Gan, made two perfect calls for the penalty kicks in quite the frontier situations; the first was against the home team of Israel after just 2 minutes of play (!), and the second was the Israeli winner. However, Sandor Filler yesterday lacked both the history (or the rules) knowledge and the skill (or the responsibility). After 56 minutes of play, Nimni made a miraculous misleading move on Trifon Ivanov and was clearly knocked down by the latter inside the box; Israel never deserved in Europe a clearer penalty kick to be awarded, and Ivanov himself was ready for the call against him, but the referee marked to continue playing. As no Estonian referee would be allowed to lead the game between Latvia and, say, England, it was a wrong decision to put a Hungarian referee in charge of his neighboring country's game; however, this is not the time to talk about that FIFA mistake after the game had been played. Shlomo Sherf, the National coach, expressed his feelings in a more diplomatic way: "With a more experienced referee, we would've won".

After this referee's mistake it was somehow clear that Israel wouldn't score in this game - you may call it an unlucky day when the attacks are stopped and even the penalty chances are denied. However, after the breathtaking save of Rafi Cohen from Stoichkov's mighty header, I had a feeling that Israel wouldn't concede either. In just 2 minutes this hope was shattered, by a wonderful combination of the two skillful substitutes, Jordan Letchkov and Lubomir Penev, scoring the only goal of this game and ruining the last Israeli chance of reaching the World Championship in France. Another failure on just a finishing line.

The Bulgarians are 1 point ahead of Russia before their two face-to-face games, but they failed to impress. Indeed, Hristo Stoichkov, returning to the National team after a long absence, created lost of opportunities; also, Kostadinov made one move of a truly genius, and indeed, both Letchkov and Penev were perfect during the short minutes they played. However, the defensive line was dreadful and would fail to stop any attackers better than the mediocre Israelis; and I can't say anything about their new goalkeeper Zdravkov who just had no normal opportunities to show his skill. In any case, we'd wait and see. The first game is in Sofia, and the hosts' victory there will make the second game just a training field for both teams.

As for Israel, it had a real hero in its net - Rafi Cohen registered a great game, stopping 4 deadly Bulgarian opportunities, and his extraordinary save from Stoichkov's header excited the world (the Eurosport paid a particular attention to this save, as well as to the great job done by the Bosnian keeper Dedic and the keeper of Belarus Shantalosov during their games vs Denmark and Sweden, respectively). There were other players who played a great game as well - Arik Benado, Tal Banin, Felix Halfon and Ran Ben-Shimon. However, the upsets were numerous, too. Amir Shelakh did his job quite well, but his gap enabled Letchkov to make a goal pass to Penev. David Amsalem was awful, and most of the Bulgarian attacks developed through his wing; Eli Ohana didn't get any chances, and Avi Nimni indeed earned a penalty kick unawarded, but hardly made any positive deeds except that. Alon Hazan was nervous and finally made a second-yellow-card foul, 2 minutes from time. But the greatest disappointment of all was Haim Revivo - since the very moment he started playing actively in Spain, he's not himself in the National team, and yesterday he missed, unconcentrated and selfish, some good chances. The National team also lacked its 3 Englishmen - Eyal Berkovich of Westham (2 yellow cards), Ronnie Rosenthal of Watford and Itzhak Zohar of Crystal Palace (the coach's decision); however, it's clear that the best player is always the one who doesn't play...

As for the teams that supplied the players for this game (in brackets you can see the number of minutes each man played):

  Maccabee Tel-Aviv      2  (Nimni 90, Shelakh 90);
  Beitar Jerusalem       2  (Amsalem 90, Ohana 74);
  Maccabee Haifa         2  (Benado 90, Mizrahi 16);
  Bnei-Yehuda Tel-Aviv   1  (Cohen 90);
  Hapoel Haifa           1  (Ben-Shimon 90);
  Brescia                1  (Banin 90);
  Celta Vigo             1  (Revivo 90);
  Maccabee Ironi Ashdod  1  (Hazan 88);
  Hapoel Tel-Aviv        1  (Halfon 74);
  Salamanca              1  (Harazi 16).

THE FIRST HALF

Both teams had a crucial game lying before them, which they had to win, and so it was clear both of them would try to attack; indeed, the Bulgarians had a home pitch and the better forwards, and so they started pressing on Israel from the very first moments of play. After 5 minutes, Arik Benado kicked the Bulgarian forward down 20 meters from the net, and got booked for jumping inside the wall way before the kick was performed. After it had finally been taken, Balakov shot a magnificent ball that missed the frame by centimeters.

Alon Hazan got a yellow card too (10), after a back foul on Balakov near the midcircle, and Balakov tried his luck again from 20 meters (11), missing the frame again. The first normal Israeli attack was registered 4 minutes afterwards, when a fantastic pass of Avi Nimni was deflected by an alert Trifon Ivanov and misled Eli Ohana; a corner was performed, Haim Revivo shot a really mighty flat ball from 25 meters, and Zdravkov dived to hold it tight, one of the very few times the Bulgarian keeper had to fall during the game.

Daniel Borimirov got booked after 18 minutes of play; one minute before and after that, two great opportunities were missed, one for each side. A surprising well-curved shot by Stoichkov from his left wing missed the head of Kostadinov, but threatened to penetrate the left corner of Rafi Cohen at half a height (17); Cohen stretched fantastically well to deny the surprise from being devastating. And after 19 minutes, a great pass of Rafi Cohen from his own net left Haim Revivo at one-to-one against Zdravkov; Revivo, seeing the two defenders catching with him, made a great misleading move inside the box and found a position for shooting, but his shot was weak, and Zdravkov caught it with both hands, without even having to move anywhere.

Zlatko Iankov was booked (26) after fouling Eli Ohana 27 meters from the Bulgarian net; a free kick was performed, and Avi Nimni shot it well past the diving Zdravkov, but missed the frame. And then the Bulgarians wasted an 100% opportunity to score - Hazan lost foolishly a ball to Balakov in his half, the latter passed it to Stoichkov, and the "newcomer" found Borimirov inside the box at one-to-one with Rafi Cohen (29). Borimirov saw the keeper coming towards him in a wonderful timing and tried to roll the ball past him; he indeed succeeded in that, but failed to find the frame. What a miss!

The rest of the attacks in this half were those of Bulgaria. A cool free kick of Trifon Ivanov (32) found the hands of well-placed Rafi Cohen, and Stoichkov curved the ball far away from the frame (43). The last opportunity was well in the injury time, when Kostadinov was sent greatly in one-to-one with Rafi Cohen; the keeper got 10 meters out of the box and dived to kick the ball away by foot. The Bulgarian fans didn't hurry to return the ball back, and so the referee finally found a good chance to end the 1st half. A break.

THE SECOND HALF

The 2nd half started with lots of opportunities, and the first one was of Israel (46) - Haim Revivo got a great ball near the box, but instead of passing it to Eli Ohana he tried himself to pass 4 players (!); he succeeded indeed to pass 3 of them, but not the 4th, what a strange egoism! And after 2 minutes, a great pass of Balakov found Kostadinov inside the box at one-to-one against Rafi Cohen; in the mirrored position during the previous game between the two teams, Rafi Cohen had knocked Kostadinov down and was punished by a yellow card and a penalty, but yesterday he got out in a wonderful timing to reach the ball before the forward. Kostadinov didn't bother avoiding the diving keeper and injured him, but didn't get booked for that. The neighbouring country referee, you know...

Another 2 minutes have passed, and another great opportunity of the hosts was missed. A pass of Iankov inside the box was cleared away by Arik Benado; the threatening Stoichkov was there on the rebound and tried to head it home, but Felix Halfon bicycle-kicked the ball away from the goal-line. The ball reached Balakov who scissored it back inside the box to Stoichkov, and the latter raised incredibly and bulled a magnificent diagonal header from 8 meters; Rafi Cohen was helpless, but the ball hit the bar and went out. In this game, Stoichkov's head was far more dangerous than his legs; probably, the sign that this remarkable forward has still not reacclimatised fully in the National team of Hristo Bonev.

Another shot of Stoichkov (53) and a shot of Nimni (54; this time Revivo made a good and well-timed pass, for a change) were imprecise, before the greatest unjustice was done. Tal Banin sent Nimni into the box; Nimni got the ball, turned around, performed a fabulous misleading move on Trifon Ivanov and was deliberately knocked down by the defender. A penalty kick? Normally, yes; not for Sandor Filler, though. Nimni refused to believe, as well as the whole country of Israel watching the TV; had it been Amir Shelakh who knocked Stoichkov down inside the Israeli box, it would've been another story, that's for sure.

The substitutes Jordan Letchkov and Lubomir Penev changed the Bulgarian game and made it sparkling much more than before. Rafi Cohen (60), in his only mistake of the game, slipped away the simple ball of Letchkov (60), but then reached the ball in crawling and took it tight; beforehand, Haim Revivo was booked (59) for a foul on Balakov. In another duel with Trifon Ivanov (63), Nimni was booked for diving inside the box; he probably expected the justice to be done, but this time the referee went with a law, allowing himself this piece of luxury after a major screw-up performed before. And finally, Lubomir Penev (65) fed Balakov with a good ball; the latter rushed inside the box, but shot too high.

The following minute was the minute of two attacks, making the modest team of Bnei-Yehuda Tel-Aviv proud of its keeper worldwide. Revivo shot a bomb from 25 meters, but Ivanov interfered there to slow the ball down, and Zdravkov collected it. And a deadly counterattack developed. Letchkov passed a midline and raised a marvellously measured ball to Stoichkov, the forward making a fantastic jump over Amir Shelakh and heading a magnificent ball from the penalty spot. A brilliant header to descend towards the low left corner of Rafi Cohen just near the post, and an unknown force to throw the keeper into a breathtaking save of once in a lifetime. The ball was finally reached by the fingertips of the diving-flying keeper's left hand and thrown away; Felix Halfon was there to pull the ball away, getting injured in a collision with Stoichkov who tried to regain the ball, refusing to believe he hadn't scored an instant before.

Halfon's injury finally lost the game for the guests. During the next Bulgarian attack (68), he was lying beyond the lines and getting treatment, while the extraordinary machine of Bulgarian team play cut the Israeli defence. Nankov started the combination by making a pass to Letchkov at the right wing. Letchkov passed the ball to Kostadinov, and the Mexican league forward heeled the ball back to leave Shelakh stunned. Letchkov overran Shelakh, entered the box and rolled the ball past Rafi Cohen to Lubomir Penev. The forward of Compostela had no problem of rolling the ball with his diving left into an empty net, 1:0. What a pity.

Immediately afterwards, Georgi Nankov was sent off for a dirty foul on David Amsalem, near the midline; Shlomo Sherf also substituted Felix Halfon and Eli Ohana by the two dangerous forwards, Ronen Harazi and Alon Mizrahi, but there was a feeling the game was lost. Revivo's left-foot volley was imprecise (76), and 2 minutes afterwards, it was first the great shot of Nimni parried to a corner by Zdravkov, and then a header of Harazi after Hazan's pass, just too high. The last minutes were marked by an imprecise shot of Penev from inside the box (87), and a 2nd yellow card shown to Alon Hazan (88); and there the game ended. Sadly, another dream is over; when will this era of the shattered illusions and hopes ever end?