Just 15 goals, just one really good game - this was the dull harvest of this week in the Israeli National League. And still, it was a week of several superb goals and a great surprise in Beit-Shean, as well as partly in Kefar-Saba. Besides, 2 red cards were shown, and 4 penalties were shot, 2 of which were mercilessly missed.
Beitar Jerusalem registered one of its worst games this season, but still was able to win away, with two superb goals of Ronen Harazi and David Amsalem (who also scored the last Israeli goal of 1996). Nothing seems to be able to stop the capital team, and it has no rival anymore - there is a gap of 7 points now from the 2nd place, as Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa slipped a 3:0 early advantage in a fantastic game in Kefar-Saba. Hapoel Beer-Sheva beat Hapoel Haifa away through the winner of Oren Sagron, and Maccabee Haifa was only a bit more successful than its city counterpart - a dull and eventless nil draw in Holon. Maccabee Petakh-Tikwa defeated Maccabee Herzliya 2:0, and the same was the score in the bottom game between Hapoel Tel-Aviv and Hapoel Taibe, another wasted credit to Tel-Aviv's manager, Moshe Sinai. The Oranges of Bnei-Yehuda defeated Hapoel Jerusalem away, 1:0, and even despite the penalty miss of Alon Mizrahi, this extraordinary forward managed to score with a winning header. And the surprise was registered in Beit-Shean, where the locals managed to defeat Maccabee Tel-Aviv! And now - to the details.
Beitar Jerusalem was very dull yesterday - Eli Ohana wasn't concentrated, and the Hungarian charm of Istvan Pisont and Istvan Salloi was left injured on the bench. Nevertheless, it had another 2 stars to do the job. Itzhak Zohar, who met a painful refusal from the side of the Prime-Minister Netanyahu to appear in his radio program, didn't score yesterday, but was skillful enough to make two goal passes. First, he penetrated in the center and made a great pass to Ronen Harazi; the talented forward, not signed in Sunderland because of the leg problems, scored for the first time since Week 02, shooting greatly from the box line past Sagi Strauss. Rishon's keeper saved his net several times, but close to the end, the 2nd goal came, as Asi Domb made a pass to the left wing, Zohar opened his legs to let the ball pass, and David Amsalem got it right in time, to overthrow Sharon Martsiano with his left and to bounce the ball from the box line over the keeper with his right. What a great effort! Beitar is the Winter Champion, and now it seems no one can stop this fantastic team of Eli Cohen.
Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa seemed to preserve the top gap quite easily after just 28 minutes of play, having a promising away lead of 3:0 in Kefar-Saba. These were undoubtedly the minutes of Eli Abrabanel - first he curved a free kick above the wall, then he earned the penalty scored by Moti Kakun, and finally, he made a truly Maradona-style move, passing 4 defenders and the keeper Eran Scheinsinger and rolling the weak ball into an empty net, between the legs of 2 Petakh-Tikwa players and the defender of the hosts. But then Kefar-Saba recovered all of a sudden. A great header of Washington de Santos from 15 meters above the hesitant Shai Hess cost him a broken jow in a late air collision with the keeper, but made Kefar-Saba rebirth. In the 2nd half, Gabor Marton made a goal pass to a fresh substitute, Nir Reichman, who bounced the ball above Shai Hess; and finally, Reichman was knocked down in the guests' box by Nir Arbiv to let Yaniv Avvargeal equalize from the penalty spot. 3:3! In between, Tomer Shem-Tov of Hapoel Kefar-Saba was sent off for arguing with the referee, and later on, Nir Arbiv was also sent off with his 2nd yellow card. The last opportunity was of Yaniv Offri, but a great save of Scheinsinger left the draw intact. Kefar-Saba deserves all the compliments.
Opposite to the abovementioned game, the game between the Hapoels of Haifa and Beer-Sheva was extremely dull, especially after Tal Banin nearly broke the leg of Giovanni Rosso. But the slightly better team still was to take all the points - Gadi Hazut made a fantastic goal pass for 50 meters to Oren Sagron, the fresh substitute, who stopped the ball with his chest, entered the box and rolled the ball past Rafi Cohen. Beer-Sheva seems to find the right way again, and Hapoel Haifa registers a 2nd consecutive home loss.
But if that game had no surprising result, the great surprise was registered in Beit-Shean. Maccabee Tel-Aviv came there to win, but its numerous misses and a huge game of Meir Cohen (our "Keeper Of The Week") and Eitan Taib (our "Player Of The Week") left the hosts' net clean. Meir Cohen reached his peak, parrying the badly performed penalty of Avi Nimni after 49 minutes of play (for Nimni, it was the 2nd consecutive week when he missed the penalty), and reaching the volley shot of Nimni several minutes later in a true flight of a panther, sending the ball to a corner. Maccabee reached the peak of its misses when the shot of Nimni into an empty net found the head of Tibor Shallai to send it to a corner, and when a corner was performed, Eli Driks sent a ball to the post and out. And then the shock came. Beit-Shean performed a free kick, Alon Brumer cleared the ball away from the box, and Eitan Taib was on the rebound with an unbelievable right-footer from 30 meters to hit the bar of Uvarov and to go in, "The Goal Of The Week" and a serious contender for "The Goal Of The Season". Taib is famous for his magnificent last minute far-rangers against the top teams - last year, it was his injury time equalizer vs Beitar Jerusalem, and this year he scored the reducer vs Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa (Week 03) and yesterday's winner vs Maccabee Tel-Aviv. What a cool goal, indeed!
Maccabee Petakh-Tikwa wanted to break the line of its victoriless games, and yesterday it had a very good start against Maccabee Herzliya, when Alon Offir penetrated at the right wing and found a flying header of Najouan Grayib. It seemed like Herzliya's keeper, Shuli Gilardi, was to blame in a certain way for this goal, but later on he registered a series of several great saves to leave the score minimal. However, Petakh-Tikwa scored another goal - it was Alon Offir with a goal pass again, this time to Offer Shitrit, and the latter had no problems, being alone in the box. No Championship dream is relevant for Maccabee Petakh-Tikwa anymore, but this team can surely struggle for the medals.
Another team that registers quite a good performance this year is Bnei-Yehuda Tel-Aviv, even though yesterday it was no problem for any team to collect the 3 easy points in Jerusalem against Hapoel. Jaroslav Baku was booked for knocking Alon Mizrahi down inside the box, but he himself fixed the mistake, taking the weakly shot penalty kick of Mizrahi. Nevertheless, the forward still brought a winner, heading it home after a penetration of Offer Levi at the right wing and a goal pass. Mizrahi is our "Man Of The Game", and for Hapoel Jerusalem it was the 7th consecutive loss.
Nothing can be said against the really dull nil draw of Hapoel Tsafririm Holon and Maccabee Haifa - it was a real shame for the Israeli soccer. And in a no better bottom game between Hapoel Tel-Aviv and Hapoel Taibe, Sergei Pogodin and Yossi Madar at least scored the goals and brought the hosts 3 very vital points.
NEXT ROUND (in a week): the last week of the first half of the season, before the recess of 4 weeks, will feature the game of edges, between Beitar Jerusalem (1) and Hapoel Beit-Shean (15). Another interesting game to be held: Maccabee Tel-Aviv (4) vs Maccabee Petakh-Tikwa (5). And at the bottom: Hapoel Taibe (16) hosts Hapoel Jerusalem (13).
Hapoel Rishon le-Zion - BEITAR JERUSALEM 0:2 (0:1).
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Hosts: -.
Guests: Ronen Harazi (20), David Amsalem (89).
THE BEST: Tomacz Czibola, forward, Hapoel Rishon le-Zion.
Hapoel Kefar-Saba - Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa 3:3 (1:3).
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Hosts: Washington de Santos (38), Nir Reichman (75),
Yaniv Avvargeal (85 pen).
Guests: Eli Abrabanel (23, 28), Moti Kakun (26 pen).
RED: Tomer Shem-Tov, midfielder, Hapoel Kefar-Saba, 72.
Nir Arbiv, defender, Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa, 87.
THE BEST: Gabor Marton, midfielder, Hapoel Kefar-Saba.
Hapoel Haifa - HAPOEL BEER-SHEVA 0:1 (0:0).
---------------------------------------------
Hosts: -.
Guests: Oren Sagron (80).
THE BEST: Giovanni Rosso, midfielder, Hapoel Beer-Sheva.
HAPOEL BEIT-SHEAN - Maccabee Tel-Aviv 1:0 (0:0).
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Hosts: Eitan Taib (84).
Guests: -.
THE BEST: Eitan Taib, defender, Hapoel Beit-Shean.
On the 49th minute Avi Nimni (Maccabee Tel-Aviv) missed a penalty kick -
Meir Cohen saved.
MACCABEE PETAKH-TIKWA - Maccabee Herzliya 2:0 (1:0).
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Hosts: Najouan Grayib (6), Offer Shitrit (78).
Guests: -.
THE BEST: Alon Offir, midfielder, Maccabee Petakh-Tikwa.
Hapoel Jerusalem - BNEI-YEHUDA TEL-AVIV 0:1 (0:0).
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Hosts: -.
Guests: Alon Mizrahi (71).
THE BEST: Alon Mizrahi, forward, Bnei-Yehuda Tel-Aviv.
On the 36th minute Alon Mizrahi (Bnei-Yehuda Tel-Aviv) missed a penalty
kick - Jaroslav Baku saved.
Hapoel Tsafririm Holon - Maccabee Haifa 0:0.
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Hosts: -.
Guests: -.
THE BEST: Haim Silbas, midfielder, Maccabee Haifa.
HAPOEL TEL-AVIV - Hapoel Taibe 2:0 (0:0).
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Hosts: Sergei Pogodin (73), Yossi Madar (84).
Guests: -.
THE BEST: Sergei Pogodin, midfielder, Hapoel Tel-Aviv.
THE WEEK'S TEAM:
----------------
Meir Cohen
(Hapoel Beit-Shean)
Offer Levi Eitan Taib Roman Pets Ami Azulai
(Bnei-Yehuda) (Hapoel Beit-Shean) (Tsafririm Holon) (Hapoel Beit-Shean)
Tomacz Czibola Gabor Marton Alon Offir Offer Cohen
(Rishon le-Zion) (Hapoel Kefar-Saba) (Mcb. Petakh-Tikwa) (Hapoel Kefar-Saba)
Eli Abrabanel Alon Mizrahi
(Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa) (Bnei-Yehuda Tel-Aviv)
Hapoel Beit-Shean - 3.
Bnei-Yehuda Tel-Aviv, Hapoel Kefar-Saba - 2.
Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa, Maccabee Petakh-Tikwa,
Hapoel Tsafririm Holon, Hapoel Rishon le-Zion - 1.
PLACE TEAM G W T L Goals Points
1 (1) Beitar Jerusalem 14 12 2 0 32- 8 38
2 (2) Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa 14 9 4 1 30-16 31
3 (3) Hapoel Beer-Sheva 14 9 1 4 21-11 28
4 (4) Maccabee Tel-Aviv 14 7 4 3 22-15 25
5 (5) Maccabee Petakh-Tikwa 14 7 3 4 18-14 24
6 (6) Bnei-Yehuda Tel-Aviv 14 7 3 4 16-15 24
7 (8) Hapoel Kefar-Saba 14 6 2 6 16-14 20
8 (7) Hapoel Haifa 14 6 1 7 21-19 19
9 (9) Maccabee Haifa 14 4 6 4 14-15 18
10 (10) Hapoel Tsafririm Holon 14 3 5 6 10-14 14
11 (14) Hapoel Tel-Aviv 14 3 4 7 9-16 13
12 (11) Maccabee Herzliya 14 4 1 9 7-14 13
13 (12) Hapoel Jerusalem 14 4 1 9 11-21 13
14 (13) Hapoel Rishon le-Zion 14 4 1 9 13-27 13
15 (16) Hapoel Beit-Shean 14 3 3 8 10-15 12
16 (15) Hapoel Taibe 14 3 1 10 10-26 10
IN BRACKETS - the places of the teams before this week.
BEST PLAYER: Eitan Taib, defender, Hapoel Beit-Shean.
TOP SCORERS: Eli Ohana (Beitar Jerusalem) 10(0)
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Yaniv Offri (Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa) 9(0)
Offer Shitrit (Maccabee Petakh-Tikwa) 9(2) 1
Alon Mizrahi (Bnei-Yehuda Tel-Aviv) 9(4) 1
Moti Kakun (Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa) 9(4) 1(1)
*********************************************************
Itzhak Zohar (Beitar Jerusalem) 8(2)
Avi Nimni (Maccabee Tel-Aviv) 8(3)
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Shai Holtzman (Hapoel Beer-Sheva) 7(3)
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Eli Abrabanel (Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa) 6(0) 2
Istvan Salloi (Beitar Jerusalem) 6(0)
Yaniv Avvargeal (Hapoel Kefar-Saba) 6(1) 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 week):
| Hosts | Guests |
| Beitar Jerusalem (1) | Hapoel Beit-Shean (15) |
| Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa (2) | Hapoel Tel-Aviv (11) |
| Hapoel Beer-Sheva (3) | Hapoel Tsafririm Holon (10) |
| Maccabee Tel-Aviv (4) | Maccabee Petakh-Tikwa (5) |
| Bnei-Yehuda Tel-Aviv (6) | Hapoel Rishon le-Zion (14) |
| Maccabee Haifa (9) | Hapoel Kefar-Saba (7) |
| Maccabee Herzliya (12) | Hapoel Haifa (8) |
| Hapoel Taibe (16) | Hapoel Jerusalem (13) |
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