8 goals were scored in the two games of yesterday, most of them wonderful. And the story of the season is now nearly over. Hapoel Haifa stays far from Europe, and Maccabee Haifa will play in the UEFA Cup, losing yesterday again to its most hated rival, Maccabee Tel-Aviv; the later is going to have the double, no doubt of that. And the happiest team yesterday was, no doubt, Hapoel Rishon le-Zion, making all the way both to the final and the Cup Winners' Cup participation. That was the 2nd consecutive Cup final of Viko Hadad as a coach (last year he made it with Hapoel Haifa), and his 2nd consecutive European season. There were lots of speculations in Israel whether Viko Hadad and Johann Cruyff would meet again in Europe this year (the last meeting between them finished in favour of Cruyff and Barcelona - 7:0 away and 5:0 at home over Hadad and Hapoel Beer-Sheva), and Hadad made everything depending on him to approach the European goal; the shock came from the most surprising side, when Cruyff was fired from the Catalan superpower :-)

And a sad point about yesterday. Daud Suhil registered yesterday a perfect refereeing in the game between the two Empires, and that was the positive thing. But there were a lot of negative ones. If the two International players, the two bright stars of an Israeli soccer, are sent off for a disgusting unsportive behaviour (especially Berkovich), and if the crowd loses its mind and covers the field with bottles before the game is over, the meaning is we are still not close enough to Europe. Too bad...

The game between Maccabee Haifa and Maccabee Tel-Aviv started with a great speed, and the first half was bright, giving a lot of opportunities to both sides; however, Alexander Uvarov, who denied Revivo (1) and then parried a surprising shot of him to a corner (13), and especially Rafi Cohen with a lot of brave and secure deeds kept the game scoreless. All this until the 32nd minute, when the Dutch fans between us recalled a fantastic goal of Marco van Basten against West Germany in EC'88: Eyal Berkovich sent a wonderful pass to Haim Revivo, and El Virtuoso sped forward and stretched on the ground to touch the ball before Amit Levi and to beat Uvarov, 1:0 to Haifa. However, Maccabee Tel-Aviv managed to equalize (the header of Nir Klinger) after a great bounce of Amir Shelakh, even before the break. Still before the break, Nimni and Zohar had two perfect opportunities to score, both wasted. We'd mark once again the refereeing of Suhil Daud, marking to continue playing after a lot of divings in both boxes (Klinger, Glam, Revivo, Driks), and being everywhere at a right time.

After the break, the game was in its dawn, as the temperature was high and the players were tired. A perfect opportunity was given to Haifa when Glam penetrated on the left wing (62) and passed a ball into the box; the ball jumped on the ground, Uvarov got out of his net and flew desperately just to touch the ball, but it was enough to change its direction, and so the flying header of Revivo wasn't precise. Kandaurov shot high twice, and once Uvarov stopped his ball. And here came the winner of Maccabee Tel-Aviv - a lot of mistakes in Haifa's defence and Tel-Aviv's attack were finished when Zohar managed to shoot from 20 meters out of the crowd; the ball hit Ronnie Levi, misled Rafi Cohen and entered the net. 2:1.

For me, it was a certain feeling of robbery, as I felt that Haifa deserved the Cup; however, this feeling melted after 82 minutes of play. Eyal Berkovich rushed to the net, and Itzhak Zohar seized him rudely and knocked him down. A free kick was awarded, Berkovich got up, said something to Zohar and then all of a sudden grabbed him by ... well, you know what. Suhil Daud was there immediately with a red card prepared, and Berkovich left a field without a single word; nobody in his team tried to argue with the referee, as everybody was shocked.

This was not the end. 2 minutes before the final whistle, Tel-Aviv earned a corner, and Itzhak Zohar went to perform it. Haifa's fans cursed him and started to throw bottles at him; one of the bottles hit his chest, and Zohar raised it and threw it back well-aimed to hit a fan; he was sent off, and the game couldn't be restarted for 3 minutes. A dreadful end to what has started so well. And Maccabee Tel-Aviv goes towards the double.

Bnei-Yehuda and Rishon le-Zion played first, and so they didn't know the winning team would go automatically to Europe; however, Rishon was far more motivated. Bnei-Yehuda attacked most of the time, finding Shavit Elimelekh in a great shape again and again; however, Rishon le-Zion was more determined, its attacks were better prepared, and if not for a wonderful Bonnie Ginzburg in Bnei-Yehuda's net, the result would've been higher. However, even he couldn't rescue his team twice in the 1st half. First, Moshe Sebeg managed to shoot out of the crowd after Meir Azran had performed a corner kick. And then, "The Best Goal Of The Cup" this year came: Sharon Martsiano passed a ball into the box, and a wonderful Nir Shikwa shot a bright left-foot volley from the air to the far high corner of Bonnie, sort of a goal van Basten beat Dassayev with in EC'88.

Joseph Doro reduced the score early at the second half with a great shot from 20 meters to the high net, and then Alon Mizrahi missed in a terrible way (57); Nir Sevilla managed to pass Shavit Elimelekh several minutes later and shot wide, but there was no one there to push the ball in. On the other side, Bonnie saved in one-to-one against Oleg Koshlyuk (59), and then he flew superbly to parry the terrific volley kick of Dani Albert (63); the header of Nir Shikwa was stopped by a bar. And so the game went slowly towards the last whistle.

Bnei-Yehuda wanted to equalize, but no one stayed in its defence. Oren Tassa used this fact to send Vladimir Greshnev forward, and the fresh substitute secured his 2nd Israeli performance in Europe (he played in EC1 with Beitar Jerusalem), beating Bonnie from a close range. And if it wasn't enough, Sharon Martsiano registered a superb move, running for 60 meters, passing two defenders and shooting an unstoppable bomb from 20 meters to the high right corner of Bonnie. 4:1, and Rishon faces Europe.

The final will take place in a week, May 28. A day before the electoral final, we'll have a soccer one.

MACCABEE TEL-AVIV - Maccabee Haifa  2:1 (1:1).
-----------------------------------------------
Hosts:    Nir Klinger (41), Itzhak Zohar (76).
Guests:   Haim Revivo (32).
RED:      Eyal Berkovich, midfielder, Maccabee Haifa, 82.
          Itzhak Zohar, midfielder, Maccabee Tel-Aviv, 88.
THE BEST: Nir Klinger, midfielder, Maccabee Tel-Aviv.


HAPOEL RISHON LE-ZION - Bnei-Yehuda Tel-Aviv  4:1 (2:0).
---------------------------------------------------------
Hosts:    Moshe Sebeg (23), Nir Shikwa (28), Vladimir Greshnev (89),
          Sharon Martsiano (90).
Guests:   Joseph Doro (55).
THE BEST: Sharon Martsiano, midfielder, Hapoel Rishon le-Zion.




CUP TOP SCORERS:
        Offer Shitrit (Maccabee Haifa)             5        
        Istvan Pisont (Beitar Jerusalem)           5 (1)    
        ********************************************************
        Nir Shikwa (Hapoel Rishon le-Zion)         4        1
        ********************************************************
        Haim Revivo (Maccabee Haifa)               3        1
        Sergei Kandaurov (Maccabee Haifa)          3 (1)    
        Alon Mizrahi (Bnei-Yehuda Tel-Aviv)        3 (1)    

Previous, 1/4 Finals	Main Page	Soccer Page	1995-96, History	Next, The Final