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| Previous, Week 29 | Main Page | Soccer Page | 1995-96, History |
24 goals, two penalties and no red cards - that was the story of the last weekend, and now the season is over. The Champion was known beforehand, and the 2 relegating teams are those who had the least chances to stay; in Beit-Shean, the spectators had several threatening minutes, but all ended well for their team. And Beitar Jerusalem was the happiest team of yesterday, promising itself an UEFA Cup place. Hapoel Haifa has to wait now for the Cup semifinals and pray Maccabee Haifa wins it and then takes the Cup, otherwise Hapoel won't be in Europe; and Felix Halfon, Hapoel's defender, is the most miserable person in Haifa now - had he scored a penalty kick, it would have been Beitar Jerusalem to eat now its thumbnails in anticipation. And one more interesting point - there were 4 teams playing yesterday waiting for the semifinals, and there was nothing important left for these in the League; however, they all showed us the real soccer and struggled up to the end, a good certificate to the Israeli soccer.
In Beit-Shean, Hapoel knew nothing was secure yet and it'd better defeat the fresh Champions, Maccabee Tel-Aviv; however, the guests were better, and the hosts were pressed to their net. Alexander Uvarov managed to parry the surprising ball of Boris Krimus, but mostly it was Meir Cohen who made 4 great saves from the shots of Zohar, Nimni, Hageage and Gadi Brumer. After the break, Evgeniy Kashentsev hit the bar; still, the game seemed to stay scoreless until Avi Nimni exploited the defensive mistake and shot a flat ball from 25 meters to the left corner. Beit-Shean lost, but the joy of a tiny town was great - indeed, not only due to itself, but the team stayed once again in the National League. Nini Assor expressed it better than anyone else: "This is a loss that means a victory".
A lot of grateful telegrams from Beit-Shean will surely be sent to Nir Shikwa and Nissan Capeta of Rishon le-Zion, who sent Beitar Tel-Aviv to the Country League. Beitar was dreadful in its most important game of the season, and Rishon saw the game as a perfect training before the Cup semifinals. Shikwa overplayed Sagi Strauss after a perfect goal pass by Assaf Shemesh, a talented youngster, and in the 2nd half, a wonderful goal was scored, as Dani Albert sent a 40-meters-ranged ball into Beitar's box, and Nissan Capeta stopped it greatly, left the defender Doron Amar lying on the ground and beat Sagi Strauss from a close range. Viko Hadad, the successful coach of Rishon, summed up after the game: "There is no pleasure in causing a relegation to the other team, but the sport is the sport, and we proved once again that the era of closed-before-the-match games was far behind us".
Viko was probably right about his team, but the embarrassment caused by Hapoel Tsafririm Holon and Hapoel Kefar-Saba won't be forgotten for a long time. Both teams needed a draw to secure their place in the National League, and so they saw no reason at all for trying hard. 0:0 after a dreadful performance that nobody wants to remember or to mention.
Hapoel Tel-Aviv, on the other hand, continued scoring a lot and caused the relegation of Maccabee Yaffa. Cobi Hadadi started with a nice opener; however, Moti Fleeter headed a good ball despite the flight of ... his own keeper, Jaroslav Baku - 1:1. Yaffa was attacking then, and Baku saved his team time after time; however, it was Hapoel Tel-Aviv scoring again, when Pogodin shot from 25 meters to the right low corner of Beloshapka. Yaffa managed to equalize again through Tamir Netser, with 8 minutes more to go. But exactly in these minutes Hapoel scored twice more - first, through a great dribbling and a charming bounce of Shalom Tikwa, and later on, through its best scorer, Nissim Avitan. 4:2 to the attractive team of Moshe Sinai.
Hapoel Haifa defeated Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa away, but didn't catch a 3rd place that gives a European berth automatically. Playing without Tal Banin, Reuven Attar and Amir Turgeman, Haifa still scored first through Alon Halfon; however, Avi Fletcher performed another bright free kick of his to equalize. 2 fatal mistakes of the keeper Shai Hess brought Haifa an advantage of 3:1 before the break, from the goals of Eyal Amar and Liron Basis. And in the 2nd half, Liron Basis was knocked down in the box by Shai Hess; the keeper was booked, and the penalty kick was awarded, but Felix Halfon missed the frame. Oren Gabai and Demir Lajec scored later on, setting the final score of 4:2. And now, all the eyes were to Jerusalem.
Here Beitar played without Ronen Harazi, Istvan Salloi and Eitan Mizrahi, vs Bnei-Yehuda Tel-Aviv, which showed no signs of inferiority; moreover, Eli Ohana was very weak and didn't threaten the net of Guy Nakhshon. However, it was Istvan Pisont, our "Player Of The Week", to do all the job. After 12 minutes, he scored one of the best goals this season, passing Maradona-style 6 (!) players of the guests and shooting a bomb under a bar, 1:0. Offer Levi of Bnei-Yehuda couldn't leave it that way, passing 2 defenders in his turn and bouncing the ball over Korenfein, 1:1; however, Pisont shot again a ball that hit powerfully the bar of Nakhshon and went in. Early in the 2nd half, Itzhak Levi deflected a ball to his own net, after a shot of David Amsalem, and Bnei-Yehuda seemed beaten all over. However, Bentsi Rosenfeld gave the Jerusalemite fans another 8 minutes of pressure, reducing the score. But all is well that ends well - Beitar is in Europe.
Another 2 games had actually no importance and ended with 1:1 draws. In Herzliya, Oleg Naduda gave his team an advantage, erased momentarily by Alon Riff; a surprising ball of Shlomi Vaaknin from Beer-Sheva later on hit the bar. And in Haifa, it was the competition of "The Best Israeli Scorer" and "The Best Foreign One" - Haim Revivo opened the score with a cool bounce to the right high corner of Golan Malul, but Roman Filipchuk was converted a penalty kick into a goal after a foul on Najouan Grayib, 1:1 between Maccabee Haifa and Maccabee Petakh-Tikwa. By the way, Maccabee Petakh-Tikwa turned out to be the only team this season besides Maccabee Tel-Aviv that the Greens failed to beat.
The Championship is over, but I don't say good-bye. Tomorrow, we have a fascinating couple of games in the Cup semifinals; the day after that, a peak of the European Soccer, and an awful problem for me, as I like both Ajax and Juve. Then, the Cup final, and then, we turn our eyes to Manchester, London, Liverpool, etc. - the EC'96 is coming.
Hapoel Beit-Shean - MACCABEE TEL-AVIV 0:1 (0:0).
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Hosts: -.
Guests: Avi Nimni (81).
THE BEST: Avi Nimni, midfielder, Maccabee Tel-Aviv.
Maccabee Haifa - Maccabee Petakh-Tikwa 1:1 (1:1).
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Hosts: Haim Revivo (22).
Guests: Roman Filipchuk (43 pen).
THE BEST: Eyal Berkovich, midfielder, Maccabee Haifa.
BEITAR JERUSALEM - Bnei-Yehuda Tel-Aviv 3:2 (2:1).
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Hosts: Istvan Pisont (12, 29), OG (Itzhak Levi, 47).
Guests: Offer Levi (20), Bentsi Rosenfeld (82).
THE BEST: Istvan Pisont, midfielder, Beitar Jerusalem.
Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa - HAPOEL HAIFA 2:4 (1:3).
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Hosts: Avi Fletcher (30), Oren Gabai (58).
Guests: Alon Halfon (8), Eyal Amar (38), Liron Basis (44),
Demir Lajec (85).
THE BEST: Marian Paneh, midfielder, Hapoel Haifa.
On the 55th minute Felix Halfon (Hapoel Haifa) missed a penalty kick -
the ball went above the bar.
HAPOEL TEL-AVIV - Maccabee Yaffa 4:2 (1:1).
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Hosts: Cobi Hadadi (2), Sergei Pogodin (66), Shalom Tikwa (86),
Nissim Avitan (90).
Guests: OG (Moti Fleeter, 26), Tamir Netser (83).
THE BEST: Sergei Pogodin, midfielder, Hapoel Tel-Aviv.
Maccabee Herzliya - Hapoel Beer-Sheva 1:1 (0:0).
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Hosts: Oleg Naduda (61).
Guests: Alon Riff (63).
THE BEST: Tomer Azulai, defender, Maccabee Herzliya.
HAPOEL RISHON LE-ZION - Beitar Tel-Aviv 2:0 (1:0).
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Hosts: Nir Shikwa (30), Nissan Capeta (68).
Guests: -.
THE BEST: Dani Albert, defender, Hapoel Rishon le-Zion.
Hapoel Tsafririm Holon - Hapoel Kefar-Saba 0:0.
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Hosts: -.
Guests: -.
THE BEST: NO ONE!!!
THE WEEK'S TEAM:
----------------
Alexander Uvarov
(Maccabee Tel-Aviv)
Assaf Shemesh Demir Lajec Sharon Tsofin Dani Albert
(Rishon le-Zion) (Hapoel Haifa) (Maccabee Petakh-Tikwa) (Rishon le-Zion)
Marian Pane Yossi Abuksis Istvan Pisont Avi Nimni
(Hapoel Haifa) (Beitar Jerusalem) (Beitar Jerusalem) (Maccabee Tel-Aviv)
Najouan Grayib Liron Basis
(Maccabee Petakh-Tikwa) (Hapoel Haifa)
Hapoel Haifa - 3.
Maccabee Tel-Aviv, Beitar Jerusalem,
Maccabee Petakh-Tikwa, Hapoel Rishon le-Zion - 2.
PLACE TEAM G W T L Goals Points
1 (1) Maccabee Tel-Aviv 30 23 5 2 59-16 74 EC1
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2 (2) Maccabee Haifa 30 19 9 2 74-31 66 (EC2/3)
3 (3) Beitar Jerusalem 30 19 7 4 65-31 64 EC3
4 (4) Hapoel Haifa 30 19 7 4 66-33 64 (EC3/4)
5 (5) Hapoel Tel-Aviv 30 16 6 8 47-28 54 EC4
6 (6) Maccabee Petakh-Tikwa 30 13 10 7 43-37 49 (EC4)
7 (8) Maccabee Herzliya 30 10 6 14 33-37 36
8 (7) Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa 30 7 15 8 31-40 36
9 (10) Hapoel Rishon le-Zion 30 8 7 15 25-40 31 (EC2)
10 (9) Hapoel Beer-Sheva 30 6 11 13 32-36 29
11 (11) Bnei-Yehuda Tel-Aviv 30 7 7 16 46-65 28 (EC2)
12 (12) Hapoel Kefar-Saba 30 8 4 18 29-53 28
13 (13) Hapoel Tsafririm Holon 30 7 6 17 32-52 27
14 (14) Hapoel Beit-Shean 30 5 11 14 28-49 26
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15 (15) Beitar Tel-Aviv 30 6 6 18 30-63 24
16 (16) Maccabee Yaffa 30 6 5 19 24-53 23
EC1 - The Champions League, EC2 - The Cup Winners Cup, EC3 - The UEFA Cup,
EC4 - The Intertoto Cup. () - still having a chance to play there.
BEST PLAYER: Istvan Pisont, midfielder, Beitar Jerusalem.
TOP SCORERS: Haim Revivo (Maccabee Haifa) 26(0) 1
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Reuven Attar (Hapoel Haifa) 21(6)
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(3 in M. Haifa) Alon Mizrahi (Bnei-Yehuda Tel-Aviv) 16(2)
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Offer Shitrit (Maccabee Haifa) 15(0)
Eli Driks (Maccabee Tel-Aviv) 15(1)
Roman Filipchuk (Maccabee Petakh-Tikwa) 15(3) 1(1)
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Istvan Salloi (Beitar Jerusalem) 14(1)
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Amir Turgeman (Hapoel Haifa) 13(0)
Eli Ohana (Beitar Jerusalem) 13(0)
Ronen Harazi (Beitar Jerusalem) 13(3)
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Nissim Avitan (Hapoel Tel-Aviv) 12(0) 1
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Cobi Refua (Hapoel Kefar-Saba) 11(4)
Sergei Kandaurov (Maccabee Haifa) 11(4)
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Nir Klinger (Maccabee Tel-Aviv) 10(0)
Najouan Grayib (Maccabee Petakh-Tikwa) 10(1)
Moti Kakun (Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa) 10(1)
Avi Nimni (Maccabee Tel-Aviv) 10(2) 1
Offer Mizrahi (Maccabee Herzliya) 10(3)
NOTE - the penalties scored are put in brackets. The last
column means the number of goals scored this week.
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