Just 15 goals (but several really beautiful ones), 3 red cards, 1 converted penalty and 1 own goal, the second this season - this was the harvest of the last weekend. And the greatest fears of the Israeli society about the probable violence in the game between Hapoel Taibe and Beitar Jerusalem didn't come true - the game was sportive, and the sport won.
Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa and Maccabee Tel-Aviv finished their game with a 1:1 draw, a first draw of Petakh-Tikwa this season, and the team still goes unbeaten; it was also an unbelievable miss of Offer Mizrahi, a first ever red card of Eli Driks and "The Goal Of The Week" by Manor Hassan, a style of David Ginola's goal against Ferencvaros recently. The magnificent goal of another talented Arab player, Morad Abu-Kishak, gave Maccabee Petakh-Tikwa an away victory over Hapoel Jerusalem and cut the series of the latter's success. Hapoel Beer-Sheva managed to beat Hapoel Kefar-Saba at home with a winner of Siad Halilovic, "The Player Of The Game", and despite the magnificent performance of the young Eran Scheinsinger, our "Keeper Of The Week". Beitar Jerusalem, as I've mentioned earlier, beat Hapoel Taibe with the hat-trick of Istvan Salloi, our "Player Of The Week", and closed the gap from the leader down to just 2 points, before "The Game Of The Season" between the two. Maccabee Haifa managed to beat the troubled squad of Maccabee Herzliya, 2:0 at home, and the same was the score a successful Bnei-Yehuda of Yaacov Grondman achieved in Holon. And at the bottom, there were the minimal 1:0 victories to Hapoel Haifa over Hapoel Tel-Aviv away, and to Hapoel Rishon le-Zion over Hapoel Beit-Shean at home. And now - to all the details.
The game between Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa and Maccabee Tel-Aviv wasn't a bright one, but brought us still some moments of quality. Hapoel, the young and talented team, wasn't falling from the defending champions who played quite a routine game with no inspiration; however, the team of Nir Levin seemed to have a certain respect to the titled rival and didn't use fully the absence of its two key players, Alexander Uvarov and Avi Nimni, and the shaky game of the reserve keeper Alen Mashraki, altogether with a lot of misunderstandings and mutual lack of trust between him and his defenders. On the other hand, Maccabee saw Shai Hess in his usually good game and suffered from the nerves of Eli Driks and the misses of Offer Mizrahi. Mizrahi wasted a fantastic opportunity to score after a wonderful head preparation of Driks (14), shooting weakly from the air to the hands of Shai Hess, and then found just the bar (62), while in between Hess dived incredibly well to deflect outside the surprising far-ranger of Shoham going to his low left corner. On the other hand, Kakun (15) managed to pass Alen Mashraki, but failed to find the net from the hard angle; later on Mashraki, also partly luckily, managed to parry several dangerous balls of Kakun, Hassan and Abrabanel. And, of course, there was a red card of Eli Driks at the very last minute of play - the forward who scored and was the best player of Maccabee, got his second yellow card for the redundant and rude talk to the referee.
And of course, in between there were the 2 wonderful goals, coming in just one minute. Driks slid another ball by his head to Offer Mizrahi who shot a volley from 4 meters, just to see Shai Hess reacting instinctively and parrying it to the corner, undoubtedly "The Miss Of The Year" and arguably "The Save Of The Year"; however, Klinger performed the corner kick, and Driks took the initiative himself, this time heading the ball to the high left corner out of the keeper's reach, 1:0. But in a minute, an equalizer came, "The Goal Of The Week" and also probably "The Goal Of The Season" - Moti Kakun, surrounded by Brumer and Shelakh, touched the ball to throw it back to Manor Hassan, and the latter stopped it on his chest and sent immediately a magnificent curved beauty from 22 meters, touching the right post of Mashraki and going in, to everybody's astonishment. Avraham Grant, Maccabee's coach, said after the game: "It was the goal we shouldn't have conceded, but also one of the most beautiful goals I have ever seen". Finally, both of the teams could be disappointed with the score, but looking with some optimism forward the important games the next week.
A lot of fears were accompanying the game between Hapoel Taibe and Beitar Jerusalem, the Arab team against the team of the extreme right-wingers; nevertheless, it was the sport that won, and as "YEDIOTH AHRONOTH" wrote later, "the game between the Arabs and the Jews, ironically enough, was won by the Christian". 13,000 spectators in Kiryat-Eliezer saw Istvan Salloi finishing the game after half an hour, with his 3 goals, a header and two footers; more goals could've come from both sides, but Mickey Dahan and Itzhak Korenfein denied that, in addition to a post of the same Salloi. Nassim Agbariya, Taibe's forward, was sent out in the early stages of the game with his 2nd yellow card. And I should mention the magnificent 2nd goal by Salloi - getting the ball from Yossi Abuksis inside the box, he stopped it with his right and elegantly passed his defender, and then touched the ball gently with his left to roll it past the approaching Mickey Dahan, 2:0. Another performance by Beitar.
The 3rd place is surprisingly occupied by Hapoel Beer-Sheva that beat Hapoel Kefar-Saba away, 1:0. Time after time the midfielders and the forwards of Beer-Sheva attacked and shot to the frame, but Eran Scheinsinger was in his best, parrying the balls time after time. Finally, it was Siad Halilovic who scored a winner, after a solo penetration into the box and a sharp shot to the close corner of the keeper. Despite the loss, Kefar-Saba should hardly be disappointed with what it shows by now. And an interesting point - this is the first Israeli season in my memory where all the best keeping is shown exclusively by the Israeli keepers: the young Shai Hess and Eran Scheinsinger, and a little bit more experienced Shaul Smadja, Itzhak Korenfein and Golan Malul; probably, only Jaroslav Baku of Hapoel Jerusalem can be compared to those five by now.
Apropos, Baku and Malul - those two met in Jerusalem, and the Israeli keeper with the hosts, Maccabee Petakh-Tikwa, won. Hapoel Jerusalem opened the score after a great pass of Eyal Avrahami and a great sprint of a promising forward Moti Menakhem, overrunning his defender and rolling the mighty ball in before Golan Malul; however, Guy Itzhak equalized seconds before the break after a confusion in the hosts' box. The winner was of a defender, Morad Abu-Kishak, 20 minutes from the final whistle, and what a winner! Offer Shitrit tried to pass the ball into the box to Najouan Grayib, the defence of the hosts parried it somehow, and Morad Abu-Kishak got the present 12 meters diagonally from the net, volleying a left-footer to the bar and in, nearly crashing the frame. 2:1 to Petakh-Tikwa, and it's already the 4th.
The 5th place is of Maccabee Tel-Aviv, and the 6th and the 7th are caught by the teams that beat their opponents with the same 2:0 score. Maccabee Haifa, playing without the suspended (yellow cards) Sergei Kandaurov, managed to beat Maccabee Herzliya through the goals of its defenders, Sergei Belianchuk and Avishai Zhano; Herzliya played with Yehuda Boaron in its net instead of Shuli Gilardi, but it didn't help much. And Bnei-Yehuda defeated Holon away; Alon Mizrahi was the best on the pitch, making a goal pass to the flat shot of Meir Ben-Margi from 20 meters, and scoring the last minute penalty, after he himself was fouled inside the box.
Finally, about the two bottom games. Hapoel Tel-Aviv and Hapoel Haifa were competing openly about "The Most Overrated Team Before The Season" award, and finally, Hapoel Tel-Aviv won it, losing at home after a wonderful flying header of its Brasilian defender Leonardo Bauer ... to his own net. And in Rishon le-Zion, it was a great shot of Nir Shikwa from inside the box, in the early stage of the game, to bring the hosts another 3 points in the era of Eyal Lakhman. Yaniv Mizrahi in the net of Rishon, replacing Sagi Strauss for the second time, was secure again, and so, we are probably talking about the next first keeper of Rishon.
NEXT ROUND (in a fortnight): a very interesting game is promised to be in Ramat-Gan, where the two great rivals, Maccabee Tel-Aviv (5) and Maccabee Haifa (6), meet. But this time this is not the central game - "The Game Of The Season" will be held at Teddy, between Beitar Jerusalem (2) and Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa (1) - never to be missed!!! A very important bottom game is in Beit-Shean, between the local Hapoel (14) and Hapoel Tsafririm Holon (15). Another interesting game - Bnei-Yehuda Tel-Aviv (7) against Hapoel Taibe (11). And this week, we wish a great luck to our National team that should win the Sunday game in Cyprus, in WC'98 preliminaries.
Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa - Maccabee Tel-Aviv 1:1 (0:0).
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Hosts: Manor Hassan (56).
Guests: Eli Driks (55).
RED: Eli Driks, forward, Maccabee Tel-Aviv, 90.
THE BEST: Manor Hassan, midfielder, Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa.
Hapoel Taibe - BEITAR JERUSALEM 0:3 (0:3).
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Hosts: -.
Guests: Istvan Salloi (19, 25, 30).
RED: Nassim Agbariya, forward, Hapoel Taibe, 28.
THE BEST: Istvan Salloi, midfielder, Beitar Jerusalem.
Hapoel Kefar-Saba - HAPOEL BEER-SHEVA 0:1 (0:0).
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Hosts: -.
Guests: Siad Halilovic (76).
THE BEST: Siad Halilovic, midfielder, Hapoel Beer-Sheva.
Hapoel Jerusalem - MACCABEE PETAKH-TIKWA 1:2 (1:1).
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Hosts: Moti Menakhem (23).
Guests: Guy Itzhak (45), Morad Abu-Kishak (70).
THE BEST: Guy Itzhak, midfielder, Maccabee Petakh-Tikwa.
MACCABEE HAIFA - Maccabee Herzliya 2:0 (1:0).
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Hosts: Sergei Belianchuk (19), Avishai Zhano (72).
Guests: -.
RED: Tomer Azulai, midfielder, Maccabee Herzliya, 54.
THE BEST: Avishai Zhano, midfielder, Maccabee Haifa.
Hapoel Tsafririm Holon - BNEI-YEHUDA TEL-AVIV 0:2 (0:0).
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Hosts: -.
Guests: Meir Ben-Margi (71), Alon Mizrahi (90 pen).
THE BEST: Alon Mizrahi, forward, Bnei-Yehuda Tel-Aviv.
HAPOEL RISHON LE-ZION - Hapoel Beit-Shean 1:0 (1:0).
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Hosts: Nir Shikwa (7).
Guests: -.
THE BEST: Nir Shikwa, forward, Hapoel Rishon le-Zion.
Hapoel Tel-Aviv - HAPOEL HAIFA 0:1 (0:1).
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Hosts: -.
Guests: OG (Leonardo Bauer, 18).
THE BEST: Tal Banin, midfielder, Hapoel Haifa.
THE WEEK'S TEAM:
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Eran Scheinsinger
(Hapoel Kefar-Saba)
Alon Harazi Gadi Brumer Yuval Naim David Amsalem
(Maccabee Haifa) (Maccabee Tel-Aviv) (Bnei-Yehuda) (Beitar Jerusalem)
Siad Halilovic Manor Hassan Yossi Abuksis Avishai Zhano
(Hapoel Beer-Sheva) (Hapoel P.-T.) (Beitar Jerusalem) (Maccabee Haifa)
Alon Mizrahi Istvan Salloi
(Bnei-Yehuda Tel-Aviv) (Beitar Jerusalem)
Beitar Jerusalem - 3.
Maccabee Haifa, Bnei-Yehuda Tel-Aviv - 2.
Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa, Hapoel Beer-Sheva,
Maccabee Tel-Aviv, Hapoel Kefar-Saba - 1.
PLACE TEAM G W T L Goals Points
1 (1) Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa 08 7 1 0 18- 5 22
2 (2) Beitar Jerusalem 08 6 2 0 17- 5 20
3 (6) Hapoel Beer-Sheva 08 5 0 3 12- 7 15
4 (7) Maccabee Petakh-Tikwa 08 5 0 3 9- 7 15
5 (3) Maccabee Tel-Aviv 08 4 2 2 14-12 14
6 (8) Maccabee Haifa 08 4 2 2 11- 9 14
7 (9) Bnei-Yehuda Tel-Aviv 08 4 2 2 9- 9 14
8 (4) Hapoel Kefar-Saba 08 4 1 3 7- 6 13
9 (5) Hapoel Jerusalem 08 4 1 3 10-10 13
10 (12) Hapoel Rishon le-Zion 08 3 1 4 11-14 10
11 (10) Hapoel Taibe 08 3 0 5 7-13 9
12 (11) Hapoel Tel-Aviv 08 2 2 4 6- 9 8
13 (14) Hapoel Haifa 08 2 1 5 11-15 7
14 (13) Hapoel Beit-Shean 08 1 1 6 5- 9 4
15 (15) Hapoel Tsafririm Holon 08 1 1 6 5-12 4
16 (16) Maccabee Herzliya 08 0 1 7 1-11 1
IN BRACKETS - the places of the teams before this week.
BEST PLAYER: Istvan Salloi, midfielder, Beitar Jerusalem.
TOP SCORERS: Yaniv Offri (Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa) 6(0)
Eli Ohana (Beitar Jerusalem) 6(0)
Avi Nimni (Maccabee Tel-Aviv) 6(2)
Moti Kakun (Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa) 6(2)
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Istvan Salloi (Beitar Jerusalem) 5(0) 3
Offer Shitrit (Maccabee Petakh-Tikwa) 5(2)
*********************************************************
Moti Menakhem (Hapoel Jerusalem) 4(0) 1
Alon Mizrahi (Bnei-Yehuda Tel-Aviv) 4(3) 1(1)
NOTE - the penalties scored are put in brackets. The last
column means the number of goals scored this week.
THE NEXT ROUND (in a fortnight):
| Hosts | Guests |
| Beitar Jerusalem (2) | Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa (1) |
| Hapoel Beer-Sheva (3) | Hapoel Tel-Aviv (12) |
| Maccabee Petakh-Tikwa (4) | Hapoel Rishon le-Zion (10) |
| Maccabee Tel-Aviv (5) | Maccabee Haifa (6) |
| Bnei-Yehuda Tel-Aviv (7) | Hapoel Taibe (11) |
| Maccabee Herzliya (16) | Hapoel Kefar-Saba (8) |
| Hapoel Haifa (13) | Hapoel Jerusalem (9) |
| Hapoel Beit-Shean (14) | Hapoel Tsafririm Holon (15) |
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