Before the Friday game between Hapoel Taibe and Bnei-Yehuda Tel-Aviv, Taibe's coach Rifat Turk read the line-up in Taibe's cloakroom. Wahib Jebarra was in the opening squad, returning after a red card shown to him 2 games beforehand, during the match against Maccabee Herzliya. Turk said: "I give you a chance, and I want you to take it"; Wahib answered: "You know that for the team I'm ready to die on the pitch". Nobody could've thought in his worst dreams that those words of Jebarra would become a prophecy...
The game started sportively - after 5 minutes, Avi Tikwa opened the score for the guests, and both teams created opportunities. After 30 minutes of play Jebarra collided with Moti Sason, hit his leg and indicated to Turk he'd like to be substituted. But no substitution was made - in another 4 minutes, Jebarra collapsed unconscious on the pitch. Yuval Naim, close to the place of tragedy, immediately called the referee Arik Haimovich to stop the game, and the first aid was being given to Taibe's player for 20 minutes, with the help of ambulance and the professional equipment. After those minutes, Haimovich declared the game over: "The game has no sportive value anymore, since we all fear for the player's health. Naturally, this matter is far more important than the game... We all wish the quick recovery to Wahib Jebarra." However, those wishes didn't fulfill - Jebarra died in the ambulance, on the way to Afula's hospital.
The first results of the investigation showed the best possible aid (in the means of a football field) had been given to Wahib Jebarra (of blessed memory), and that had he even got the most professional medical aid ever possible, life couldn't have been returned to him. It is, though, still to be revealed, how could the player with a heart disease pass the health tests in his team. But the bitter fact remains - Wahib Jebarra died, 16 days before his 23rd birthday... The Israeli Soccer experienced the deaths of Shaul Bason, the Luzon brothers, etc. on the pitch; however, it never happened in the National League. The Israeli National League experienced the deaths of its most wonderful players, Maccabee Haifa's keeper Avi Ran in 1987 and Bnei-Yehuda's forward Nikolai Kudritskiy in 1994; however, those came as a result of the tragic accidents and not the death on the pitch. The Soccer fans in Israel are shocked with the death of a talented young man, the death which could've probably been prevented... May Wahib Jebarra's memory be blessed.
The memory of Wahib Jebarra was honoured with the minutes of silence in all the Israeli stadia, but the Saturday games were still played. And those 7 games brought us 17 goals, 5 (!) red cards (all of them to the foreign players!) and several goals of a real beauty. Those were also 2 missed penalties denied by the 2 best keepers of the last year, Alexander Uvarov and Jaroslav Baku; the missers were the "professional" penalty takers of the Haifa teams, Sergei Kandaurov of Maccabee and Tal Banin of Hapoel. And another interesting point about the keepers - 2 keepers registered yesterday the really brilliant performances, but this was enough to bring their teams just 1 point out of the 6 possible.
Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa, losing its height after the last games, managed yesterday to defeat Beitar Jerusalem at home, 2:1; and hadn't it been for the wonderful Itzhak Korenfein in the future Champions' net, the score could've been really humiliating. I used here the expression "the future Champions", since Hapoel Beer-Sheva lost a wonderful opportunity to close the gap, giving all the points in Bloomfield to Hapoel Tel-Aviv! The situation at the bottom suddenly became very complicated - Hapoel Tsafririm Holon also registered a victory, at home over Hapoel Beit-Shean, and both Maccabee Herzliya and Hapoel Rishon le-Zion lost, the former to Hapoel Kefar-Saba away, and the latter to Maccabee Petakh-Tikwa at home. In the other games, Hapoel Haifa managed to defeat Hapoel Jerusalem away, despite the red card shown to Mario Oliveira and a missed penalty kick of Tal Banin; and Maccabee Haifa was far better than Maccabee Tel-Aviv in "The Game Of Empires", but achieved just a draw because of the fantastic skill of Alexander Uvarov, our "Player Of The Week", in the Double holders' net. And now - let's turn to the details.
Itzhak Korenfein registered yesterday a magnificent show to make the National Team coach Shlomo Sherf state: "I loved very much the game of Itzhak today, the game which probably paved his way back to the National Team". But still, he was the only one in Beitar to play during the game, and against the recovering squad of Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa away, it wasn't enough. A wonderful save of Korenfein from the shot of Offri at one-to-one after just 20 seconds of play (!) was followed by a save of a sharp shot of Alon Maya (4) to a corner; when the corner was performed and a huge hole in Beitar's defence was revealed, Korenfein still managed to parry the ball of Offri before Avi Fletcher shot from a rebound into an empty net, 1:0 to Hapoel. A magnificent shot of Gabor Marton from 30 meters (25) was met with a no less spectacular flight of Korenfein to send the ball to the bar and then to the corner. Korenfein also saved the one-to-one situations vs Offri (31), Abrabanel (76) and Kakun (90), and saved a dangerous ball of Maya (65) and a free kick of Avi Fletcher (41). However, once more even Korenfein could do nothing - Offri (49) passed Sergei Tretyak at the right wing and managed to shoot it wide between the legs of Ehud Kahila and the hands of Korenfein; and Moti Kakun was as usual at the right place, stopping the ball and sending it home, 2:1.
Just two moments of Beitar, in addition to Korenfein's saves, can be mentioned - one for good and one for bad. The good one was a wonderful equalizer - Ohana managed to reach the ball before Alon Cohen and Gabor Marton and to roll it with his heel to Istvan Salloi, the Hungarian midfielder penetrated at the left wing and shot the ball wide, and there came Itzhak Zohar with a perfect bomb under the bar, his 12th goal this season and the 3rd one in the last week. And the bad one came 4 minutes from time, when Istvan Salloi was booked for a dirty foul over Abrabanel and then was sent off immediately after slapping the lying Abrabanel on his face. Something really extraordinarily disgusting from the side of Salloi, usually a very fair player. And Beitar shouldn't be that frustrated - its way to the Crown is still very secure.
The luck of winners consists of devastating the opponents in the games when you play better, defeating the opponents in the games when you play dully, and also enjoying the rival's loss of points when you lose them yourself. Beitar of this year seems to enjoy all the components, and yesterday it was the turn of the 3rd one. Hapoel Beer-Sheva gave up yesterday against the wonderful shot of Krasimierz Muskal - if anyone of you saw once "European Football" TV magazine and still remembers the goal recorded to end it constantly, you will get an exact picture of this beauty, a curved flat free kick from 17 meters a little bit diagonally to enter the left corner of Avi Perets, touching the left hand of a diving keeper. Muskal, the best player of Hapoel Tel-Aviv, got an appetite with his opening goal of this season, and his tremendous shot from 30 meters whistled centimeters near the left crossbar of Avi Perets. The enjoyable game of Hapoel Tel-Aviv was, however, spoiled by the referee Dani Koren - the man in black sent Muskal off after 41 minutes of play for a foul near the midline on Dudu Heffer that hardly justified even booking. However, Beer-Sheva didn't press enough to equalize. Ironically, this game showed us beyond any doubt "The Best Foreigner Of This Year" - Siad Halilovic didn't play, suspended for yellow cards, and Beer-Sheva was not half a team it used to be with the wonderful Bosnian midfielder in its rows.
The joy of Hapoel Tel-Aviv, making "The Surprise Of The Week", was spoiled by the victory of Hapoel Tsafririm Holon, its bottom rival, at home over Hapoel Beit-Shean. The substitute Tomer Barzilai scored after a good pass of Itzhak Swissa, 20 minutes from time. Both keepers, Meir Cohen of the guests and Alexander Zhidkov of the hosts, showed a secure game and denied the score from being bigger.
What can probably cause those two winning teams a little bit joy is the fact that now the bottom struggles are opened for a wide range of teams again. I told you already about the loss of Hapoel Beit-Shean, but those were also Maccabee Herzliya and Hapoel Rishon le-Zion to lose. The loss of the latter to Maccabee Petakh-Tikwa at home could be called "Everything You Wanted To Know About Humiliation" - 0:6! A header of the young Tsakhi Shemariyahu after just 42 seconds of play was just the start; soon Offer Shitrit gave his 2nd goal pass, this time to Alon Offir, and the latter stopped the ball, shot it from the air at half a height from 18 meters to the right corner of Sagi Strauss, ran towards the guests' fans and took a deep bow, inventing one of the most original ways to celebrate a goal. A wonderful dribbling of Guy Itzhak ended in the net of Strauss after 3 defenders and the keeper had been left lying on the ground; and here came the break. And after the break, nothing has changed; Tomacz Czibola was sent off after 59 minutes of play, and in another 17 minutes, Guy Itzhak gave a goal pass to Offer Shitrit who advanced and scored. Shitrit, "The Man Of The Game", gave a goal pass to a magnificent shot of Haim Shabo from 30 meters, hitting the left post of Strauss and going in. As for the last accord, it was played by Guy Itzhak several seconds before the end - Offer Shitrit tried to score, Sagi Strauss parried the ball badly, and Guy Itzhak rolled the ball into an empty net. 6:0 to the guests, a really incredible score!
In the game played in Friday, the guests from Herzliya opened the score - Oleg Naduda found Ilan Bakhar inside Hapoel Kefar-Saba's box, and the guests' attacking defender bombed the ball mightily past Eran Scheinsinger. The hosts had no answer during the 1st half, but after the break, they scored twice to win. First, the young Niv Habani found Bogdan Ujebyak inside Herzliya's box, and the latter curved the ball in a trial to center it; however, this failed trial turned into a rare in its beauty goal, surprising Gilardi as well as the wide shot of Andoni Goicoechea surprised Bodo Illgner 3 years ago in a WC'94 game between Germany and Spain. And 15 minutes from time, Kefar-Saba's comeback was completed - Itai Koren passed the ball into the box, Washington de Santos shot it weakly, and Shuli Gilardi made a severe mistake and pushed the ball into his own net. 2:1 to the hosts.
A midtable game between Hapoel Jerusalem and Hapoel Haifa gave the victory to the guests, after a corner performed by Tal Banin and a following double pass of Mario Oliveira and Ran Ben-Shimon enabled the latter to find a net of Jaroslav Baku from a close range. Jerusalem had several opportunities to equalize the score, but the National keeper Rafi Cohen was always well-placed, showing to Shlomo Sherf the competition for the keeper's position in the National team would be tough as never before. During the 2nd half, Oliveira was sent off after kicking the face of Amir Gola; and still, it was Hapoel Haifa to have the best chance of the 2nd half. Moti Ohayon performed a foul on Offer Talker inside the box, and the referee Yosef Benishti showed with no hesitation to the penalty spot. Tal Banin shot sharply a flat ball to the keeper's right corner, but Jaroslav Baku read the direction well and used all his height of nearly 2 meters to parry the ball in a great diving. Still, 1:0 to Haifa, the result of no real importance for any of the teams.
Last but not the least, it was "The Game Of Empires" in Kiryat-Eliezer, between Maccabee Haifa and Maccabee Tel-Aviv. And indeed, it was pretty close to the wonderful games between the two that we used to see during the last years. Haifa scored a wonderful goal, when Kandaurov registered a great penetration into the box and passed the ball to Hezi Shirazi who shot from the air to the close corner of Uvarov; and beforehand, Haifa wasted a golden opportunity to score, when Alon Brumer fouled Hezi Shirazi inside the box, but Uvarov managed to grasp a weak and flat penalty shot by Kandaurov. Uvarov, definitely the best on the pitch despite his "old" age of 37, parried 2 very dangerous balls of Ronnie Levi and Amir Turgeman; and between those two shots an equalizer of the guests came 50 seconds after the break, when Haim Hageage used a terrible mistake by Moshe Glam to score from 2 meters. 25 minutes from time, it was Sergei Belianchuk with a rare in its beauty left-foot curved shot diagonally from 18 meters; the flying Uvarov was beaten for the 2nd time but the ball hit the bar, "The Best Almost Goal Of The Season". And beforehand, it was the sliding header of Nir Klinger after a corner to hit the bar of Haifa. A great game, with tens of opportunities and a good quality of play. A little bit of nostalgy.
This is also the time to tell you about the funny moment in this game - after the taken penalty, Amir Shelakh came to congratulate Uvarov and hugged him. Unluckily, the ball fell out of Uvarov's hands and rolled towards the net. Uvarov, in a great instinct, managed to cover the ball with his hands seconds before the line, denying "The Most Ridiculous Goal Of This Season". What he said afterwards to Shelakh would remain history, though it was quite understandable by Shura's articulation.
THE NEXT ROUND (in a week): Beitar Jerusalem (1) hosts Maccabee Haifa (9), NOT TO BE MISSED! A cool game is also expected between Bnei-Yehuda Tel-Aviv (8) and Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa (3), in Shkhunat-ha'Tikwa. And two very important games will take place at the bottom part of the table, where Hapoel Taibe (16) hosts Hapoel Tsafririm Holon (14), and Maccabee Herzliya (12) hosts Hapoel Tel-Aviv (15). In Taibe, a psychologist joins the team, trying to diminish an awful trauma caused to the players by Wahib Jebarra's death.
HAPOEL PETAKH-TIKWA - Beitar Jerusalem 2:1 (1:1).
---------------------------------------------------
Hosts: Avi Fletcher (4), Moti Kakun (49).
Guests: Itzhak Zohar (18).
RED: Istvan Salloi, midfielder, Beitar Jerusalem, 86.
THE BEST: Eli Abrabanel, midfielder, Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa.
HAPOEL TEL-AVIV - Hapoel Beer-Sheva 1:0 (1:0).
------------------------------------------------
Hosts: Krasimierz Muskal (24).
Guests: -.
RED: Krasimierz Muskal, midfielder, Hapoel Tel-Aviv, 41.
THE BEST: Tomer Eliyahu, defender, Hapoel Tel-Aviv.
Maccabee Haifa - Maccabee Tel-Aviv 1:1 (1:0).
-----------------------------------------------
Hosts: Hezi Shirazi (27).
Guests: Haim Hageage (46).
RED: Claudio Vorkovic, midfielder, Maccabee Tel-Aviv, 89.
THE BEST: Alexander Uvarov, keeper, Maccabee Tel-Aviv.
On the 15th minute Sergei Kandaurov (Maccabee Haifa) missed a penalty kick -
Alexander Uvarov saved.
Hapoel Rishon le-Zion - MACCABEE PETAKH-TIKWA 0:6 (0:3).
----------------------------------------------------------
Hosts: -.
Guests: Tsakhi Shemariyahu (1), Alon Offir (16), Guy Itzhak (38, 89),
Offer Shitrit (76), Haim Shabo (79).
RED: Tomacz Czibola, midfielder, Hapoel Rishon le-Zion, 59.
THE BEST: Offer Shitrit, forward, Maccabee Petakh-Tikwa.
Hapoel Jerusalem - HAPOEL HAIFA 0:1 (0:1).
--------------------------------------------
Hosts: -.
Guests: Ran Ben-Shimon (33).
RED: Mario Oliveira, forward, Hapoel Haifa, 57.
THE BEST: Tal Banin, midfielder, Hapoel Haifa.
On the 65th minute Tal Banin (Hapoel Haifa) missed a penalty kick -
Jaroslav Baku saved.
HAPOEL KEFAR-SABA - Maccabee Herzliya 2:1 (0:1).
--------------------------------------------------
Hosts: Bogdan Ujebyak (63), Washington de Santos (75).
Guests: Ilan Bakhar (12).
THE BEST: Bogdan Ujebyak, midfielder, Hapoel Kefar-Saba.
Hapoel Taibe - Bnei-Yehuda Tel-Aviv PP:PP.
--------------------------------------------
Hosts: -. || The game was stopped after 34 minutes because of
Guests: Avi Tikwa (5). || the tragic death of Taibe's midfielder, Wahib
THE BEST: -. || Jebarra (of blessed memory), on the pitch. It'll
|| be played on April 23rd.
HAPOEL TSAFRIRIM HOLON - Hapoel Beit-Shean 1:0 (0:0).
-------------------------------------------------------
Hosts: Tomer Barzilai (70).
Guests: -.
THE BEST: Ronen Feigenbaum, defender, Hapoel Tsafririm Holon.
THE WEEK'S TEAM:
----------------
Alexander Uvarov
(Maccabee Tel-Aviv)
Avishai Zhano Shimon Gershon Tomer Eliyahu Avi Fletcher
(Maccabee Haifa) (Hapoel Tel-Aviv) (Hapoel Tel-Aviv) (Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa)
Bogdan Ujebyak Tal Banin Guy Itzhak Eli Abrabanel
(H. Kefar-Saba) (Hapoel Haifa) (Maccabee Petakh-Tikwa) (Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa)
Offer Shitrit Moti Kakun
(Maccabee Petakh-Tikwa) (Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa)
Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa - 3.
Maccabee Petakh-Tikwa, Hapoel Tel-Aviv - 2.
Maccabee Tel-Aviv, Hapoel Haifa, Hapoel Kefar-Saba, Maccabee Haifa - 1.
PLACE TEAM G W T L Goals Points
1 (1) Beitar Jerusalem 24 18 4 2 53-14 58
2 (2) Hapoel Beer-Sheva 24 16 2 6 37-20 50
3 (3) Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa 24 14 6 4 41-24 48
4 (4) Maccabee Tel-Aviv 24 13 6 5 43-24 45
5 (5) Maccabee Petakh-Tikwa 24 12 6 6 35-20 42
6 (7) Hapoel Haifa 24 10 5 9 28-24 35
7 (8) Hapoel Kefar-Saba 24 9 6 9 26-26 33
8 (6) Bnei-Yehuda Tel-Aviv 23* 9 6 8 23-26 33
9 (9) Maccabee Haifa 24 7 9 8 27-27 30
10 (10) Hapoel Jerusalem 24 8 5 11 25-33 29
11 (11) Hapoel Beit-Shean 24 7 5 12 20-26 26
12 (12) Maccabee Herzliya 24 8 2 14 15-23 26
13 (13) Hapoel Rishon le-Zion 24 6 6 12 24-43 24
14 (14) Hapoel Tsafririm Holon 24 4 9 11 15-32 21
15 (15) Hapoel Tel-Aviv 24 4 8 12 12-24 20
16 (16) Hapoel Taibe 23* 3 1 19 13-51 10
* - missing game
IN BRACKETS - the places of the teams before this week.
BEST PLAYER: Alexander Uvarov, keeper, Maccabee Tel-Aviv.
TOP SCORERS: Alon Mizrahi (Bnei-Yehuda Tel-Aviv) 14(6)
*********************************************************
Eli Ohana (Beitar Jerusalem) 13(1)
Offer Shitrit (Maccabee Petakh-Tikwa) 13(3) 1
*********************************************************
Itzhak Zohar (Beitar Jerusalem) 12(3) 1
Moti Kakun (Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa) 12(4) 1
Avi Nimni (Maccabee Tel-Aviv) 12(4)
*********************************************************
Yaniv Offri (Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa) 11(0)
*********************************************************
Istvan Salloi (Beitar Jerusalem) 10(0)
*********************************************************
Guy Itzhak (Maccabee Petakh-Tikwa) 9(0) 2
Shai Holtzman (Hapoel Beer-Sheva) 9(3)
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) | Maccabee Haifa (9) |
| Hapoel Beer-Sheva (2) | Hapoel Jerusalem (10) |
| Bnei-Yehuda Tel-Aviv (8) | Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa (3) |
| Maccabee Tel-Aviv (4) | Hapoel Kefar-Saba (7) |
| Maccabee Petakh-Tikwa (5) | Hapoel Beit-Shean (11) |
| Hapoel Haifa (6) | Hapoel Rishon le-Zion (13) |
| Maccabee Herzliya (12) | Hapoel Tel-Aviv (15) |
| Hapoel Taibe (16) | Hapoel Tsafririm Holon (14) |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Previous, Week 23 | Main Page | Soccer Page | 1996-97, History | Next, Week 25 |