A great football weekend, with 25 goals, several unexpected results, the best game of this year by now, 3 red cards and a lot of beautiful moments - this was the harvest yesterday. And it was just a prelude - the next week we have the second "Game Of The Season", between the two greatest Empires of Israeli football, Maccabee Tel-Aviv and Maccabee Haifa, with both in the top form.
Maccabee Haifa devastated its dark horse from the last year, Beitar Tel-Aviv, 6:3 at home, in the very best game seen in this Championship by far; the guests, though beaten, showed several great pieces of football: not many teams at all score 3 times against Maccabee in Kiryat-Eliezer. Maccabee Tel-Aviv rehabilitated from the derby humiliation of the last year and was again the same Maccabee we used to see at derbys and at all; Hapoel Tel-Aviv is getting more and more distant from the top. Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa, a nice surprise of this season, was again cool against the favourite, and just the sparkling performance of Itzhak Korenfein prevented Beitar from being beaten for the first time this season. Its landsake, Maccabee Petakh-Tikwa, made another move forward, and Hapoel Haifa felt really threatened; just a fantastic piece of strike by Tal Banin made the day for Haifa and made Beer-Sheva start thinking hard about its future. Hapoel Kefar-Saba registered its first victory, and Hapoel Tsafririm Holon returned to its repaired stadium to win, with 2 goals of its new Hungarian player Denecz Eszenyi; their rivals, Maccabee Yaffa and Hapoel Beit-Shean respectively, weren't convincing. And Maccabee Herzliya defeated Bnei-Yehuda, moving forward and blessing Gili Landau for the new quality of play he brought as a coach. Sounds exciting, doesn't it? And now - to the details.
Being beaten twice during the last season by Beitar Tel-Aviv, 2:3 at home (with an exciting sprint of Yaniv Avvargeal past the distinguished Oleg Kuznetsov) and 0:1 away (with an unforgettable performance of Itzhak Korenfein), Maccabee Haifa felt an urgent need to take a revenge. And revenge it was - indeed, Beitar managed again to score 3 times in Haifa, but conceded twice as much. The start was of Haifa, and after 23 minutes of the game "The Goals Of The Season" list was updated again - Berkovich passed the ball to Revivo in the box, and the latter stopped it, performed a great switch over 2 defenders and curled it to the far right corner of Sagi Strauss, 1:0. And here, surprisingly, came the minutes of the guests. First, Rafi Cohen stretched unbelievably to parry with his right hand over a head the ball sent by Yaniv Avvargeal from inside the box, and then, even his stretching wasn't enough to stop the great header by Arik Shriki. Fortunately, the 2nd half started well for the hosts, as Alon Hazan headed it home greatly over Sagi Strauss, and then Haim Revivo and Alon Mizrahi made a goal and a goal pass each to finish the story. Moshe Glam scored the 5th, with an active help from the substitute Offer Shitrit. Yaniv Avvargeal, who scored 3 of 4 Beitar's goal against Haifa the last season, scored again, this time a great reducer, while passing one defender, driving another crazy and shooting from a close range under the bar. But then Revivo completed his hat-trick - getting the ball 20 meters from the box, he curved it in a charming way over the keeper, 6:2. Ronen Schweig reduced the score once again during the dying seconds. A great game, with 4 fantastic goals (2 from each side), 9 goals summed up.
Talking again about Itzhak Korenfein, he proved once again that his personal shows are quite something to watch - Laszlo Czeh gave Beitar Jerusalem the lead during the very first attack of the guests, but then Petakh-Tikwa was better throughout the match, and met the excellent keeper time after time. 25 years after the famous save by Gordon Banks from Pele's header, Korenfein performed virtually the same, flying exactly Banks' way to parry a ball sent by Manor Hassan; the forward seized his head and fell on the ground with disbelief, as Korenfein denied his volley "The Goal Of The Week" status. Several more falls of Korenfein should be mentioned, especially when he made a rush of 10 meters and then in a flight closed the corner in time to deny the shot of Alon Maya. Even so, he was beaten twice - once by Adoram Keisi, and once by his own defender, Arik Benado, who scored into a right direction 20 minutes prior to that own goal. Beitar managed to end it with a draw, even being reduced to 10 men. To sum up, both teams showed a good football, and their place at the top is hardly arguable.
3 years ago, the game between Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa and Hapoel Haifa gave us 86 minutes of scoreless boredom, and then came the miracle - Zahi Armeli made a brilliant pass towards Tal Banin, and the latter, being 18 meters from the net, raised his left leg to a height of 1.2 meters and fired a fantastic volley rocket which entered the high left corner just under the bar, despite the desperate flight of the keeper Shai Hess; this goal became "The Goal Of 1991-92", and frankly speaking, it was the best volley kick I've seen in my entire life all over the world. This Saturday it was virtually the same - the game was scoreless, and 5 minutes from time, Tal Banin shot a great left-foot free-kick bomb from 28 meters, the one entering just between the bar and the stretched hand of flying Shaul Smadja (very good throughout the game); definitely not the goal of all times, but a contender for "The Goal Of The Season" and, more important, a winner. Hapoel Beer-Sheva, forcing draws on Maccabee Haifa, Beitar Jerusalem and Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa, was far only 4 minutes from making another draw with one of the leaders; the team showed a good football and wasn't far from scoring itself, but "almost" doesn't give the points, and Beer-Sheva dived to the 9th place, which is really lower than it deserves.
Maccabee Tel-Aviv was better this time than Hapoel Tel-Aviv, attacking all the time and being far more effective than the hosts; just the saves of Jaroslav Baku in one-to-one with Nimni, Kashentsev, Klinger etc. left the score intact. Still, Baku was to blame for the 1st goal, headed home by Evgeniy Kashentsev, and, in my opinion, didn't react properly to the bomb sent by Itzhak Zohar from 22 meters, another one to be mentioned this week as a great piece of strike. Alexander Uvarov, the keeper of Maccabee, wasn't sent off or even booked as he deserved after punching Nissim Avitan; this made good for the leaders, since Uvarov was very confident, parrying the ball by Sagiv Eliyahu, denying Alon Offir and getting all the high balls without any problems. The men to be mentioned are also the 2 defenders of the Yellows, Gadi Brumer and Ron Nakhman.
Maccabee Herzliya defeated Bnei-Yehuda 1:0; again, as in most of the games the last season, Offer Mizrahi scored, and Shuli Gilardi in the net did everything to preserve the score and succeeded in that. Hapoel Tsafririm Holon defeated Hapoel Beit-Shean, and twice it was its new foreigner, the Hungarian Denecz Eszenyi, who scored, once with a wonderful header. Maccabee Petakh-Tikwa devastated Rishon le-Zion away and is close to the top; Hapoel Kefar-Saba surprisingly defeated Maccabee Yaffa away, and their hero was, as usual, the Hungarian defender Gabor Marton. So, the bottom is an interesting as a top.
NEXT WEEK: Maccabee Tel-Aviv vs Maccabee Haifa, never to be missed!!! This season, the games between the 4 leading teams are of the greatest interest, and the next 3 weeks give us such a game each. Also to be watched - Hapoel Haifa vs Maccabee Herzliya, and the bottom battle, Beitar Tel-Aviv vs Hapoel Tsafririm Holon.
Hapoel Tel-Aviv - MACCABEE TEL-AVIV 0:2 (0:1).
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Hosts: -.
Guests: Evgeniy Kashentsev (41), Itzhak Zohar (61).
THE BEST: Noam Shoham, midfielder, Maccabee Tel-Aviv.
MACCABEE HAIFA - Beitar Tel-Aviv 6:3 (1:1).
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Hosts: Haim Revivo (23, 58, 89), Alon Hazan (47), Alon Mizrahi (48),
Moshe Glam (79).
Guests: Arik Shriki (36), Yaniv Avvargeal (72), Ronen Schweig (90).
THE BEST: Haim Revivo, midfielder, Maccabee Haifa.
Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa - Beitar Jerusalem 2:2 (1:1).
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Hosts: Adoram Keisi (21), OG (Arik Benado, 76).
Guests: Laszlo Czeh (1), Arik Benado (57).
RED: Shmuel Levi, defender, Beitar Jerusalem, 72.
THE BEST: Itzhak Korenfein, keeper, Beitar Jerusalem.
Hapoel Beer-Sheva - HAPOEL HAIFA 0:1 (0:0).
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Hosts: -.
Guests: Tal Banin (85).
THE BEST: Tal Banin, midfielder, Hapoel Haifa.
Hapoel Rishon le-Zion - MACCABEE PETAKH-TIKWA 0:2 (0:0).
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Hosts: -.
Guests: Tal Bnaya (68, 77).
THE BEST: Tal Bnaya, midfielder, Maccabee Petakh-Tikwa.
MACCABEE HERZLIYA - Bnei-Yehuda Tel-Aviv 1:0 (1:0).
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Hosts: Offer Mizrahi (26).
Guests: -.
RED: Itzhak Levi, defender, Bnei-Yehuda Tel-Aviv, 84.
THE BEST: Tomer Azulai, midfielder, Maccabee Herzliya.
Maccabee Yaffa - HAPOEL KEFAR-SABA 1:2 (0:1).
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Hosts: Itzhak Swissa (60).
Guests: Moti Eberbaum (36), Gabor Marton (63).
THE BEST: Gabor Marton, midfielder, Hapoel Kefar-Saba.
HAPOEL TSAFRIRIM HOLON - Hapoel Beit-Shean 2:1 (2:0).
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Hosts: Denecz Eszenyi (2, 34).
Guests: Moris Uzan (90).
RED: Dani Malkin, defender, Hapoel Beit-Shean, 57.
THE BEST: Denecz Eszenyi, midfielder, Hapoel Tsafririm Holon.
THE ROUND'S TEAM:
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Itzhak Korenfein
(Beitar Jerusalem)
Ron Nakhman Gadi Brumer Haim Goldberg Moshe Glam
(Maccabee Tel-Aviv) (Maccabee Tel-Aviv) (Tsafririm Holon) (Maccabee Haifa)
Noam Shoham Gabor Marton Haim Revivo Adoram Keisi
(Mcb. Tel-Aviv) (Hapoel Kefar-Saba) (Maccabee Haifa) (Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa)
Eli Ohana Denecz Eszenyi
(Beitar Jerusalem) (Hapoel Tsafririm Holon)
Maccabee Tel-Aviv - 3.
Beitar Jerusalem, Maccabee Haifa, Hapoel Tsafririm Holon - 2.
Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa, Hapoel Kefar-Saba - 1.
PLACE TEAM G W T L Goals Points
1 (1) Maccabee Tel-Aviv 10 9 0 1 24- 7 27
2 (3) Maccabee Haifa 10 7 3 0 30-12 24
3 (2) Beitar Jerusalem 10 7 3 0 22-12 24
4 (4) Hapoel Haifa 10 7 1 2 23- 8 22
5 (7) Maccabee Petakh-Tikwa 10 6 1 3 21-18 19
6 (6) Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa 10 4 5 1 16-10 17
7 (5) Hapoel Tel-Aviv 10 5 2 3 13-11 17
8 (9) Maccabee Herzliya 10 4 1 5 9-10 13
9 (8) Hapoel Beer-Sheva 10 3 3 4 16-13 12
10 (10) Maccabee Yaffa 10 3 0 7 9-22 9
11 (11) Bnei-Yehuda Tel-Aviv 10 2 2 6 10-19 8
12 (12) Hapoel Beit-Shean 10 2 2 6 10-20 8
13 (15) Hapoel Tsafririm Holon 10 2 1 7 12-19 7
14 (13) Hapoel Rishon le-Zion 10 2 1 7 8-16 7
15 (14) Beitar Tel-Aviv 10 2 1 7 14-27 7
16 (16) Hapoel Kefar-Saba 10 1 2 7 9-22 5
BEST PLAYER: Haim Revivo, midfielder, Maccabee Haifa.
TOP SCORERS: Haim Revivo (Maccabee Haifa) 9(0) 3
Reuven Attar (Hapoel Haifa) 9(2)
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Roman Filipchuk (Maccabee Petakh-Tikwa) 8(0)
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Amir Turgeman (Hapoel Haifa) 7(0)
Moti Kakun (Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa) 7(2)
Sergei Kandaurov (Maccabee Haifa) 7(3)
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Sergei Gusev (Hapoel Beer-Sheva) 6(0)
Nir Klinger (Maccabee Tel-Aviv) 6(0)
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Yaniv Avvargeal (Beitar Tel-Aviv) 5(0) 1
Itzhak Zohar (Maccabee Tel-Aviv) 5(0) 1
Offer Shitrit (Maccabee Haifa) 5(0)
Istvan Salloi (Beitar Jerusalem) 5(0)
Nissim Avitan (Hapoel Tel-Aviv) 5(0)
Sahar Mizrahi (Bnei-Yehuda Tel-Aviv) 5(1)
Najouan Grayib (Maccabee Petakh-Tikwa) 5(1)
Ronen Harazi (Beitar Jerusalem) 5(1)
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 Tel-Aviv (1) | Maccabee Haifa (2) |
| Beitar Jerusalem (3) | Hapoel Rishon le-Zion (14) |
| Hapoel Haifa (4) | Maccabee Herzliya (8) |
| Maccabee Petakh-Tikwa (5) | Maccabee Yaffa (10) |
| Hapoel Beit-Shean (12) | Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa (6) |
| Bnei-Yehuda Tel-Aviv (11) | Hapoel Tel-Aviv (7) |
| Hapoel Kefar-Saba (16) | Hapoel Beer-Sheva (9) |
| Beitar Tel-Aviv (15) | Hapoel Tsafririm Holon (13) |
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