8 goals, no red cards and no single goal conceded by the advancing teams - this was the story of the bright April day with the Israeli Cup 1/4 finals. And I should also say - I don't remember such the strong teams in the semifinals for the last years. Even a certain surprise in one of the games didn't change this situation.

Beitar Jerusalem, playing at home against Hapoel Beit-Shean, was quite dull during the first 45 minutes of play and made us wonder if this was exactly the same team to captivate the League during the starting part of the season. Moreover, after 56 minutes, an awful referee Haim Yaacov made a huge mistake to help Beitar survive - Sergei Tretyak knocked Boris Matveyev down inside Beitar' box, but the referee's whistle stayed silent. And then, in a counterattack, Itzhak Zohar made a great pass to Ehud Kahila who volleyed it home, 1:0. From that moment on, it was suddenly the same Beitar Jerusalem that we'd used to see. 3 minutes later, it was already 2:0, as Eli Ohana used a goal pass of David Amsalem to score. Salloi found Ohana after another 3 minutes, and the latter slid a ball with his head to Zohar who volleyed it powerfully, 3:0. The concert was finished finally after 76 minutes, when Ohana shot a magnificent in its beauty ball from 20 meters under the crossbar of Meir Cohen, 4:0. As for Beit-Shean, the team was playing decently during the first 55 minutes, but that's hard to comprehend how the professional team from the National League can be broken up to such an extent after the first goal it concedes.

We pass now to another game of edges - the derby of Tel-Aviv. Here, Maccabee was much-much better than Hapoel, whose players just stood on the pitch, and so the double holders didn't even break a sweat to score 3 unanswered goals. First, it was Offer Mizrahi with a wonderful personal effort to pass his personal guard Shimon Gershon and to score in front of Shavit Elimelekh, after 35 minutes of play; in another 9 minutes, a huge confusion of the Reds' defence against the force of Eli Driks made Mizrahi able to win the ball and to score his second goal with a bounce over the keeper. The last nail into Hapoel's coffin was put by Avi Nimni, 20 minutes from time. It was a big problem for me to choose "The Man Of The Game" - should it be Offer Mizrahi, who scored two great goals, or Eli Driks, who made two explicit and one implicit goal passes? Finally, I went with Mizrahi.

Bogdan Ujebyak, the wonderful Polish defensive midfielder of Hapoel Kefar-Saba, neutralized completely the star of Hapoel Beer-Sheva, the Bosnian midfielder Siad Halilovic; and without "Halil" ("a flute" in Hebrew, Halilovic's nickname in the capital of Negev) Beer-Sheva failed to impress. The teams showed an equal soccer, and both had some opportunities to score, missed mercilessly by Shai Holtzman and Stav Elimelekh of the hosts and Washington de Santos and Yaniv Avvargeal of the guests. Eran Scheinsinger, our "Keeper Of The Round", showed his great skill once again, as he parried incredibly two great shots of the hosts Giovanni Rosso (46) and Gadi Hazut (68). But finally there came the after-match penalties, and here even Scheinsinger could do nothing. Neither could Avi Perets, but he was helped by the terrible miss of Offer Cohen whose shot found just the blue Israeli skies. The decisive penalty was taken and scored by the hosts' defender Shimon Biton, "The Man Of The Game".

And finally, to a certain surprise, the game that was described under the title "Oriental Express" by "YEDIOTH AHRONOTH" (those of you who don't know Hebrew - "oriental" sounds in Hebrew as "mizrahi"). This title had also another meaning - the masterpiece of Agatha Christie told us about the murder, and yesterday Alon Mizrahi killed in cold blood the hopes of Maccabee Haifa to be in Europe this year. This happened after a combination of Mizrahi - Tsafrir - Avi Tikwa - Mizrahi, when the wonderful forward shot the finishing ball sharply into the low corner of Nir Davidovich. Haifa wasn't a bad team, and it was a full partner for an equal game; however, no goals were scored except for Mizrahi's winner (30). I would also say that Bnei-Yehuda deserved the victory, and this skill of the Oranges made its captain Nissim Cohen (42 and 10 days old today!) state: "This time I will undoubtedly meet the President (to get the Cup out of his hands)!" Let's wait and see, as Nir Klinger of Maccabee Tel-Aviv stated the same...

Before we part for this time, a little bit of statistics... This will be the first season of Maccabee Haifa since 1992-93 without participation in any European Cup... In its 14 games there, Haifa showed the following achievements: +5=1-8, 20-20; out of those 20 goals, 8 were scored by ... Alon Mizrahi! Haifa also registered there the biggest ever achievement of the Israeli club football, an away victory over Parma 3.5 years ago; Mizrahi was one of its heroes, with his incredible effort that resulted in a sharp flat shot from 18 meters past the rushing Luca Bucci into his right corner. A cruel destiny made this hero of the "European" Maccabee Haifa throw the Greens out of Europe this year, but the players of Giora Spiegel should blame only themselves for the reality - they can show a good football, they just woke up too late...

The semi-finals will take place on May 8th, both in the National stadium in Ramat-Gan. The draw is still unknown, but whatever it will be - the games with such the teams promise to be wonderful.

*****************************************************************************
 In brackets you can see the League of the team and its current place there.
*****************************************************************************


BEITAR JERUSALEM (A,1) - Hapoel Beit-Shean (A,12)  4:0 (0:0).
--------------------------------------------------------------
Hosts:    Ehud Kahila (57), Eli Ohana (60, 76), Itzhak Zohar (63).
Guests:   -.
THE BEST: Eli Ohana, forward, Beitar Jerusalem.


Hapoel Beer-Sheva (A,2) - Hapoel Kefar-Saba (A,6)  0:0 AET (5:3 on pens).
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hosts:    -.
PENALTIES (first):   Shai Holtzman           1:0
                     Ilan Vaaknin            2:1
                     Gadi Hazut              3:2
                     Giovanni Rosso          4:3
                     Shimon Biton            5:3
Guests:   -.
PENALTIES (second):  Yaniv Avvargeal         1:1
                     Washington de Santos    2:2
                     Tamir Netser            3:3
                     Offer Cohen             3:4  (too high)

THE BEST: Shimon Biton, defender, Hapoel Beer-Sheva.


MACCABEE TEL-AVIV (A,4) - Hapoel Tel-Aviv (A,14)  3:0 (2:0).
-------------------------------------------------------------
Hosts:    Offer Mizrahi (35, 44), Avi Nimni (70).
Guests:   -.
THE BEST: Offer Mizrahi, forward, Maccabee Tel-Aviv.


BNEI-YEHUDA TEL-AVIV (A,9) - Maccabee Haifa (A,8)  1:0 (1:0).
--------------------------------------------------------------
Hosts:    Alon Mizrahi (30).
Guests:   -.
THE BEST: Alon Mizrahi, forward, Bnei-Yehuda Tel-Aviv.





                         THE 11 OF THE ROUND
                         -------------------
                          Eran Scheinsinger
                         (Hapoel Kefar-Saba)

 Offer Levi      Sergei Tretyak        Ehud Kahila         Shimon Biton
(Bnei-Yehuda)  (Hapoel Beer-Sheva)  (Beitar Jerusalem)  (Hapoel Beer-Sheva)

Sergei Kandaurov   Yossi Abuksis          Avi Tikwa           Itzhak Zohar
(Maccabee Haifa) (Beitar Jerusalem) (Bnei-Yehuda Tel-Aviv) (Beitar Jerusalem)

                      Offer Mizrahi         Eli Ohana
                   (Maccabee Tel-Aviv)  (Beitar Jerusalem)


4: Beitar Jerusalem             (League A)
2: Hapoel Beer-Sheva            (League A)
2: Bnei-Yehuda Tel-Aviv         (League A)
1: Maccabee Tel-Aviv            (League A)
1: Hapoel Kefar-Saba            (League A)
1: Maccabee Haifa               (League A)


THE BEST OF THE ROUND:  Eli Ohana, forward, Beitar Jerusalem.


THE BEST CUP SCORERS:
        Eli Ohana (Beitar Jerusalem)            7     2
        Alon Mizrahi (Bnei-Yehuda Tel-Aviv)     4(2)  1


PASSING INTO THE NEXT ROUND:
        Beitar Jerusalem        (A,  1)
        Hapoel Beer-Sheva       (A,  2)
        Maccabee Tel-Aviv       (A,  4) *
        Bnei-Yehuda Tel-Aviv    (A,  9) *

* - the teams that had also participated in the semifinals a year ago.

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