21 goals, 4 red cards and several wonderful games - that was the story of Week 05 in Israeli football. Maccabee Haifa takes the lead, a goal ahead of Beitar Jerusalem which lost its first points this season, but still remains unbeaten. Maccabee Tel-Aviv fully recovered after a "bloody Haifa" game, and the same can be said about Hapoel Beit-Shean and Beitar Tel-Aviv. Maccabee Yaffa, Hapoel Rishon le-Zion and Hapoel Kefar-Saba are at the very bottom, and so is Bnei-Yehuda, though making an impossible against Hapoel Haifa. Reuven Attar is in a great form, scoring a hat-trick and providing 2 goals of a truly master; still, that was enough just for a draw. Ronen Harazi and Itzhak Korenfein, two other great heroes of this week, provided great pieces of play, but it was enough also just for a draw.
Two years and a day after his great volley winner of last minute in France-Israel sensation, Reuven Attar proved us beyond any doubt this year he was going to make again a season appropriate to his class. 34: Felix Halfon rushed on the right wing, passes the ball to Tal Banin in the box, and the latter passed it to Attar on the box edge; Reuven made 4 touches, one to throw the ball over Moti Sason, one to throw it above Nir Shitrit, one with a left knee to prepare for the kick and the last one, a left-foot scissors kick to score near Bonnie Ginzburg, all this without letting the ball touch the ground, a tremendous effort of a truly star. Not to let us relax, he took the ball in the midfield (45), passed a defender, ran for another 25 meters, maddened 2 others and shot from 22 meters to a left low corner of Ginzburg, 2:0. As if it wasn't enough, he scored another one from a hard angle, 3:0, and everything seemed perfect for Hapoel Haifa. But since 1968 (!) Hapoel didn't win a single game in Shkhunat-ha'Tikwa, and neither was it to succeed yesterday. Ran Ben-Shimon deflected the ball home after a strike by Sergei Gerasimets, and even after the latter had been sent off, Bentsi Rosenfeld scored, and Sahar Mizrahi equalized several seconds from the whistle, after a terrible mistake by Hungarian National keeper of Haifa, Zoltan Veg. An unbelievable happened, from 3:0 to 3:3.
This goal of Sahar Mizrahi threw Hapoel Haifa 2 places back, after both Hapoel and Maccabee Tel-Aviv won and gained 12 points each, leaving Haifa behind with 10. Nissim Avitan was the man to score the winner for Hapoel against Tsafririm Holon, and Maccabee Tel-Aviv expectedly defeated Hapoel Kefar-Saba, 3:1. The keeper of Kefar-Saba, Eran Scheinsinger, was the best in his team and made "The Save Of The Week", flying greatly to parry the scissors kick from 18 meters by Noam Shoham.
Talking about the great saves, it was Itzhak Korenfein to play his best game this year and to prevent Beitar Jerusalem from losing at Teddy. The man who defeated Maccabee Haifa twice the last year with Beitar Tel-Aviv, stopped the balls of Schwartz (4) and Iluz (17), parried the wonderful free kick of Gadi Hazut (44), and after Beitar lost its defender Ehud Kahila to the red card, stopped Sergei Gusev in one-to-one (62), and parried in a great way a shot by Rami Eliyahu (70). He seemed to preserve another victory for Beitar, but the 85th minute was a lucky one for Avitans yesterday, and the substitute Sharon, the cousin of Nissim, equalized. Beitar had 3 real opportunities, all by Ronen Harazi: once he headed it home greatly (33), once it was Smadja to prevent another header from going in with a great stop (51), and once he missed the frame in front of the lying Smadja, the latter parrying a ball by Salloi an instant before. To sum up, Beer-Sheva deserved to win, but to get a point at Teddy is no disappointment for any team.
Beitar Tel-Aviv crashed Maccabee Petakh-Tikwa unexpectedly during 20 minutes in the 2nd half; Beitar seems to be promising for the last time. Hapoel Beit-Shean crashed Maccabee Yaffa at home from 2 penalties by Tibor Shallai, and it seems Yaffa has just one player to play appropriately to the National League - their keeper Boris Beloshapka, who is wonderful, but still can do nothing alone.
This week had also two bad games. For the first time since 1993, we have a game with no one to be the best (a nil draw between Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa and Maccabee Herzliya), the game to get "2" out of "10" (to compare, the game of Beitar Jerusalem got "8", and the game of Hapoel Haifa - "7"); Herzliya seems to have a problem, scoring just once in 5 games (!) through Offer Mizrahi. The other bad one was between Maccabee Haifa and Hapoel Rishon le-Zion; Haifa scored twice early in the match, but then didn't show anything extraordinary (except several kicks, saved well by Shavit Elimelekh), and neither did Rishon. Rishon has to start thinking, and for Haifa, as nearly always, even the dull game was enough to be better than opponents and to gain points.
The next week - Maccabee Haifa vs Hapoel Tsafririm Holon, Maccabee Herzliya vs Beitar Jerusalem, Maccabee Petakh-Tikwa vs Maccabee Tel-Aviv. Also to watch - the bottom battle between Hapoel Kefar-Saba and Bnei-Yehuda Tel-Aviv.
MACCABEE HAIFA - Hapoel Rishon le-Zion 2:0 (2:0).
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Hosts: Haim Revivo (7), Alon Hazan (27).
Guests: -.
THE BEST: Ronnie Levi, midfielder, Maccabee Haifa.
Beitar Jerusalem - Hapoel Beer-Sheva 1:1 (1:0).
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Hosts: Ronen Harazi (33).
Guests: Sharon Avitan (85).
RED: Ehud Kahila, defender, Beitar Jerusalem, 43.
THE BEST: Itzhak Korenfein, keeper, Beitar Jerusalem.
MACCABEE TEL-AVIV - Hapoel Kefar-Saba 3:1 (3:1).
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Hosts: Nir Klinger (25), Eli Driks (30), Evgeniy Kashentsev (39).
Guests: Moti Eberbaum (41).
THE BEST: Amir Shelakh, defender, Maccabee Tel-Aviv.
Hapoel Tsafririm Holon - HAPOEL TEL-AVIV 0:1 (0:0).
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Hosts: -.
Guests: Nissim Avitan (85).
THE BEST: Jaroslav Baku, keeper, Hapoel Tel-Aviv.
Bnei-Yehuda Tel-Aviv - Hapoel Haifa 3:3 (0:2).
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Hosts: OG (Ran Ben-Shimon, 65), Bentsi Rosenfeld (84), Sahar Mizrahi (90).
Guests: Reuven Attar (34, 45, 57).
RED: Sergei Gerasimets, forward, Bnei-Yehuda Tel-Aviv, 82.
THE BEST: Reuven Attar, midfielder, Hapoel Haifa.
Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa - Maccabee Herzliya 0:0.
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Hosts: -.
Guests: -.
RED: Guy Gat, defender, Maccabee Herzliya, 72.
THE BEST: NO ONE!!!
BEITAR TEL-AVIV - Maccabee Petakh-Tikwa 4:0 (0:0).
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Hosts: Yaniv Avvargeal (61,78), Ronen Schweig (66), Arik Shriki (70).
Guests: -.
THE BEST: Yaniv Avvargeal, forward, Beitar Tel-Aviv.
HAPOEL BEIT-SHEAN - Maccabee Yaffa 2:0 (0:0).
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Hosts: Tibor Shallai (56 pen, 59 pen).
Guests: -.
RED: Itzhak Swissa, forward, Maccabee Yaffa, 59.
THE BEST: Eitan Taib, defender, Hapoel Beit-Shean.
THE ROUND'S TEAM:
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Itzhak Korenfein
(Beitar Jerusalem)
Dani Malkin Eitan Taib Amir Shelakh Moshe Glam
(Hap. Beit-Shean) (Hap. Beit-Shean) (Maccabee Tel-Aviv) (Maccabee Haifa)
Ronnie Levi Tal Banin Ronen Schweig Reuven Attar
(Maccabee Haifa) (Hapoel Haifa) (Beitar Tel-Aviv) (Hapoel Haifa)
Yaniv Avvargeal Ronen Harazi
(Beitar Tel-Aviv) (Beitar Jerusalem)
Maccabee Haifa, Beitar Jerusalem, Hapoel Haifa,
Beitar Tel-Aviv, Hapoel Beit-Shean - 2.
Maccabee Tel-Aviv - 1.
PLACE TEAM G W T L Goals Points
1 (2) Maccabee Haifa 05 4 1 0 11- 3 13
2 (1) Beitar Jerusalem 05 4 1 0 11- 4 13
3 (4) Maccabee Tel-Aviv 05 4 0 1 12- 6 12
4 (5) Hapoel Tel-Aviv 05 4 0 1 9- 6 12
5 (3) Hapoel Haifa 05 3 1 1 13- 6 10
6 (6) Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa 05 2 2 1 7- 5 8
7 (11) Beitar Tel-Aviv 05 2 1 2 10- 9 7
8 (10) Hapoel Beit-Shean 05 2 1 2 7- 7 7
9 (7) Maccabee Petakh-Tikwa 05 2 1 2 10-13 7
10 (8) Hapoel Beer-Sheva 05 1 3 1 6- 6 6
11 (9) Hapoel Tsafririm Holon 05 1 1 3 8-11 4
12 (13) Maccabee Herzliya 05 1 1 3 1- 5 4
13 (12) Hapoel Rishon le-Zion 05 1 0 4 4- 7 3
14 (14) Maccabee Yaffa 05 1 0 4 6-13 3
15 (15-16) Bnei-Yehuda Tel-Aviv 05 0 2 3 7-13 2
16 (15-16) Hapoel Kefar-Saba 05 0 1 4 5-13 1
BEST PLAYER: Reuven Attar, midfielder, Hapoel Haifa.
TOP SCORERS: Reuven Attar (Hapoel Haifa) 8(2) 3
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Nissim Avitan (Hapoel Tel-Aviv) 5(0) 1
******************************************************
Yaniv Avvargeal (Beitar Tel-Aviv) 4(0) 2
Amir Turgeman (Hapoel Haifa) 4(0)
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 Haifa (1) | Hapoel Tsafririm Holon (11) |
| Maccabee Herzliya (12) | Beitar Jerusalem (2) |
| Maccabee Petakh-Tikwa (9) | Maccabee Tel-Aviv (3) |
| Hapoel Tel-Aviv (4) | Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa (6) |
| Hapoel Rishon le-Zion (13) | Hapoel Haifa (5) |
| Maccabee Yaffa (14) | Beitar Tel-Aviv (7) |
| Hapoel Beer-Sheva (10) | Hapoel Beit-Shean (8) |
| Hapoel Kefar-Saba (16) | Bnei-Yehuda Tel-Aviv (15) |
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