20 goals, 4 red cards and just one penalty, but what a crucial one! The week of 13,000,000 shekels in Toto brought a big surprise in Beit-Shean, and was very close to bringing an astonishment in Teddy, Jerusalem. A surprise was born also in Holon, where Maccabee Yaffa won after 8 winless games, escaping from the last place; great changes happened at the bottom, overall. The status-quo at the top is, on the other hand, preserved, except for the disappointment of Hapoel Haifa; though, it should be said, all the 4 top teams were far from being impressive this time. And the great Niko Kudritskiy (of blessed memory) is remembered again - had he lived today, he would've been proud of his "deadly trio" partners, 2 men whose talents he helped to form. Alon Mizrahi and Haim Revivo, the first scoring 4 goals and so conquering "The Top Scorers List" and becoming "The Player Of The Week", and the other producing "The Shot Of The Season" by far.
We'll start with what had nearly become a huge surprise. A free kick bounced into the box, found Guy Messika with a wonderful flying header to beat Itzhak Korenfein, an early 1:0 to Hapoel Kefar-Saba in Teddy! Beitar Jerusalem, angry and frustrated, attacked vigorously, but the ball just denied to kiss the net - were the reasons Eran Scheinsinger with some marvellous saves from the legs of Ronen Harazi, Eli Ohana, and Arik Benado, or the bar, or just the hardly digestible misses. It seemed to end this way, but the International forward of Israel had another plans. First, he pressed the defender, and the latter touched the ball by hand in his box; Ronen Harazi himself scored from the penalty spot. And then, even after his flying header was denied by a stretching defender, he didn't stop trying, and finally scored - getting a ball in one-to-one with Scheinsinger, Harazi cleverly bounced it above the keeper, just as he did a week ago in Haifa. 2:1.
Maccabee Haifa played in Kiryat-Eliezer without Eyal Berkovich (suspended for 3 yellow cards), and had a lot of problems against Hapoel Beer-Sheva, with a secure and steady defence and Shaul Smadja, very good in the net. This was the scoreless story of the 1st half. However, in the early stages of the 2nd half Zlatko Leikovic and Oren Sagron (who did a wonderful defensive job on his right wing against the penetrations of Moshe Glam) were sent off with 2nd yellow cards, and the story went quite another way. This way, "The Goal Of The Season" by far was produced - Glam rushed up to the corner flag, raised the ball to the far end of the box at half a height, and there it was met by a left foot of Haim Revivo who, standing with his back to the net, turned around into 120 degrees to shoot it to the right low corner of Smadja. Inspired by this beauty, 2 other Haifa representatives at "The Top Scorers List", Offer Shitrit and Sergei Kandaurov, scored too - Shitrit with a misleading movement and a shot to go in, nearly crashing the bar, and Kandaurov with a mighty shot from 17 meters to a high left corner. 2 great goals and one unbelievable strike, but Haifa still should improve a midline.
Maccabee Tel-Aviv had neither red-carded rivals nor Ronen Harazi, but a good header of Eli Driks did the job, as Uvarov in the net preserved the score with the series of great saves, a thing to be positively marked as this 36-years-old keeper conceded the lest number of goals in the whole League. The guests from Rishon were better all the time and attacked, but Uvarov was in his place, as I said. On the other hand, Tel-Aviv had some counterattacks, showing us several magnificent saves of Shavit Elimelekh.
The surprise, as I told, was registered in Beit-Shean, where Hapoel Haifa couldn't defeat the hosts and wasn't far from being defeated itself. Haifa created the best move of the game (27), when Tal Banin played an intelligent double pass with Reuven Attar and shot a fantastic scissors kick from inside the box, denied superbly by Meir Cohen to a corner. The goal, though, came on the other side - Nassim Agbariya overran his defender and shot it flat and precise in front of Zoltan Veg. Beit-Shean was better throughout the 2nd half, but Haifa scored an equalizer in its only counterattack - Reuven Attar was brought down, and Tal Banin scored a clever free kick, with Meir Cohen freezing at his position, 1:1. The last minute opportunity was also of Beit-Shean, but Yossi Alpiya was denied superbly by Zoltan Veg and scored from a rebound, just to see his goal disallowed because of the hand he'd used. An interesting statistics - this was the 4th (!) consecutive draw for both teams (5 consecutive unbeaten games for Beit-Shean, 9 for Haifa), but if for Beit-Shean these are 4 gained points, for Hapoel Haifa these are 8 wasted ones.
Another team to register a 4th consecutive draw was Maccabee Petakh-Tikwa, in a derby. It opened the score, with Najouan Grayib passing the keeper and scoring just after the break. Tomacz Czibola equalized, in a 2nd consecutive game. In between, it was Golan Malul, the keeper of Maccabee, denying a shot of Mark Adousi and parrying superbly a scissors kick of Czibola. Both teams can feel disappointed and happy altogether.
Bnei-Yehuda refreshed fully after a somewhat dull performance the last week against Hapoel Beit-Shean, and this time devastated Beitar Tel-Aviv. Alon Mizrahi was the hero of the game, with 4 goals and a goal pass; the own goal of David Hershlikovich was a deflection from a bar after a shot of Sahar Mizrahi, fed by Alon with a ball. Beitar scored a beautiful goal through the legs of its new Hungarian player, Jacob Czehba (sp?), and had a certain advantage in the midline; still, the counterattacks of Bnei-Yehuda were killing, and besides, Beitar had Alon Mizrahi playing against it. This game brought us "The Man Of The Week", and also changed the places for both teams - Beitar fell to the very bottom, and Bnei-Yehuda went 2 places up.
Hapoel Tel-Aviv, defeated in the Cup by Maccabee Acco several weeks ago and having a dreadful end of Round 1, is flourishing again, and this time with Shalom Tikwa, returning after his long career with Standard Liege. Maccabee Herzliya was a stubborn rival, but a goal of Krasimierz Muskal, a wonderful bomb to the high right corner of Gilardi from 18 meters, was enough; even the red card for Alon Offir couldn't change it. What happened to Herzliya of Gili Landau from before the recess? That is still unclear.
And a certain surprise was registered in Holon - indeed, the two equal bottom teams were meeting each other, but as it was in Holon and Jaffa hadn't had a single victory away, it was pretty unexpected. 2 fantastic flights of Boris Beloshapka and a bar of Ronen Feigenbaum left Holon scoreless, while Yaffa scored on a rare counterattack, through Yaron Drori.
NEXT WEEK: Two very interesting games. Maccabee Petakh-Tikwa (5), the team that took 4 pts from Haifa teams, can help them now, by hosting Beitar Jerusalem (2); Bnei-Yehuda (9), after a great performance against an outsider, meets the leader, Maccabee Tel-Aviv, in Shkhunat-ha'Tikwa. Other tips: Hapoel Haifa (4) has a good rival to register a victory against, Beitar Tel-Aviv (16). Maccabee Haifa (3) plays a tough game away against Maccabee Herzliya (8), desperately seeking its first victory in this round. Two interesting bottom fights - Hapoel Beer-Sheva (10) vs Hapoel Tsafririm Holon (15), and Hapoel Kefar-Saba (13) vs Hapoel Beit-Shean (12).
MACCABEE TEL-AVIV - Hapoel Rishon le-Zion 1:0 (1:0).
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Hosts: Eli Driks (19).
Guests: -.
THE BEST: Assaf Dagai, midfielder, Hapoel Rishon le-Zion.
BEITAR JERUSALEM - Hapoel Kefar-Saba 2:1 (0:1).
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Hosts: Ronen Harazi (75 pen, 85).
Guests: Guy Messika (19).
THE BEST: Ronen Harazi, forward, Beitar Jerusalem.
MACCABEE HAIFA - Hapoel Beer-Sheva 3:0 (0:0).
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Hosts: Haim Revivo (67), Offer Shitrit (84), Sergei Kandaurov (85).
Guests: -.
RED: Zlatko Leikovic, midfielder, Hapoel Beer-Sheva, 61.
Oren Sagron, midfielder, Hapoel Beer-Sheva, 64.
THE BEST: Moshe Glam, defender, Maccabee Haifa.
Hapoel Beit-Shean - Hapoel Haifa 1:1 (1:0).
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Hosts: Nassim Agbariya (36).
Guests: Tal Banin (84).
RED: Ran Ben-Shimon, midfielder, Hapoel Haifa, 58.
THE BEST: Yehuda Amar, defender, Hapoel Beit-Shean.
Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa - Maccabee Petakh-Tikwa 1:1 (0:0).
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Hosts: Tomacz Czibola (78).
Guests: Najouan Grayib (46).
THE BEST: Walid Badir, defender, Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa.
HAPOEL TEL-AVIV - Maccabee Herzliya 1:0 (0:0).
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Hosts: Krasimierz Muskal (59).
Guests: -.
RED: Alon Offir, midfielder, Hapoel Tel-Aviv, 90.
THE BEST: Shalom Tikwa, midfielder, Hapoel Tel-Aviv.
Beitar Tel-Aviv - BNEI-YEHUDA TEL-AVIV 1:6 (0:1).
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Hosts: Jacob Czehba (72).
Guests: Alon Mizrahi (9, 58, 69, 90), Nir Sevilla (47),
OG (David Hershlikovich, 65).
THE BEST: Alon Mizrahi, forward, Bnei-Yehuda Tel-Aviv.
Hapoel Tsafririm Holon - MACCABEE YAFFA 0:1 (0:1).
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Hosts: -.
Guests: Yaron Drori (32).
THE BEST: Oren Zeituni, defender, Hapoel Tsafririm Holon.
THE WEEK'S TEAM:
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Eran Scheinsinger
(Hapoel Kefar-Saba)
Moti Sason Yehuda Amar Eitan Taib Moshe Glam
(Bnei-Yehuda Tel-Aviv) (Beit-Shean) (Beit-Shean) (Maccabee Haifa)
Jackie Sourjoun Shalom Tikwa Roni Levi Tal Banin
(Hapoel Beit-Shean) (Hapoel Tel-Aviv) (Maccabee Haifa) (Hapoel Haifa)
Alon Mizrahi Ronen Harazi
(Bnei-Yehuda Tel-Aviv) (Beitar Jerusalem)
Hapoel Beit-Shean - 3.
Bnei-Yehuda Tel-Aviv, Maccabee Haifa - 2.
Beitar Jerusalem, Hapoel Haifa, Hapoel Tel-Aviv, Hapoel Kefar-Saba - 1.
PLACE TEAM G W T L Goals Points
1 (1) Maccabee Tel-Aviv 17 13 2 2 37-11 41
2 (2) Beitar Jerusalem 17 12 4 1 41-18 40
3 (3) Maccabee Haifa 17 11 5 1 48-20 38
4 (4) Hapoel Haifa 17 10 5 2 38-18 35
5 (5) Maccabee Petakh-Tikwa 17 8 5 4 28-24 29
6 (7) Hapoel Tel-Aviv 17 8 4 5 19-18 28
7 (6) Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa 17 6 8 3 23-18 26
8 (8) Maccabee Herzliya 17 7 2 8 17-18 23
9 (11) Bnei-Yehuda Tel-Aviv 17 5 3 9 26-34 18
10 (9) Hapoel Beer-Sheva 17 4 5 8 19-21 17
11 (10) Hapoel Rishon le-Zion 17 5 2 10 14-23 17
12 (13) Hapoel Beit-Shean 17 3 6 8 16-31 15
13 (12) Hapoel Kefar-Saba 17 4 2 11 16-29 14
14 (16) Maccabee Yaffa 17 4 1 12 15-35 13
15 (14) Hapoel Tsafririm Holon 17 3 3 11 19-35 12
16 (15) Beitar Tel-Aviv 17 3 3 11 19-42 12
BEST PLAYER: Alon Mizrahi, forward, Bnei-Yehuda Tel-Aviv.
TOP SCORERS: Haim Revivo (Maccabee Haifa) 18(0) 1
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Reuven Attar (Hapoel Haifa) 13(4)
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Amir Turgeman (Hapoel Haifa) 11(0)
Ronen Harazi (Beitar Jerusalem) 11(3) 2(1)
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(3 in M. Haifa) Alon Mizrahi (Bnei-Yehuda Tel-Aviv) 10(1) 4
Eli Driks (Maccabee Tel-Aviv) 10(1) 1
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Offer Shitrit (Maccabee Haifa) 9(0) 1
Roman Filipchuk (Maccabee Petakh-Tikwa) 9(0)
Moti Kakun (Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa) 9(2)
Sergei Kandaurov (Maccabee Haifa) 9(3) 1
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Nir Klinger (Maccabee Tel-Aviv) 8(0)
Eli Ohana (Beitar Jerusalem) 8(0)
Najouan Grayib (Maccabee Petakh-Tikwa) 8(1) 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 |
| Bnei-Yehuda Tel-Aviv (9) | Maccabee Tel-Aviv (1) |
| Maccabee Petakh-Tikwa (5) | Beitar Jerusalem (2) |
| Maccabee Herzliya (8) | Maccabee Haifa (3) |
| Hapoel Haifa (4) | Beitar Tel-Aviv (16) |
| Hapoel Rishon le-Zion (11) | Hapoel Tel-Aviv (6) |
| Maccabee Yaffa (14) | Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa (7) |
| Hapoel Beer-Sheva (10) | Hapoel Tsafririm Holon (15) |
| Hapoel Kefar-Saba (13) | Hapoel Beit-Shean (12) |
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