22 goals, 3 penalties shot and just one scored, and 1 red card to a keeper - this was a harvest of the last weekend. One game before the League ends, the last question had been finally solved - it seems like Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa is secure now as the runner-up and will earn the European berth in the UEFA Cup; as for Hapoel Beer-Sheva, its sudden home loss will move all the pressure to the Cup final game of this team against Maccabee Tel-Aviv. And if one keeper had been sent off, the 4 others made the real miracles on the pitch and became the best in their games. A great performance in the net was registered even by ... Michel Dayan, the bright midfielder of Hapoel Jerusalem!
Beitar Jerusalem, busy in celebrations instead of actually playing soccer, managed to make just a home draw vs Hapoel Rishon le-Zion, 1:1; still, Beitar was much better, and "The Man Of The Game" was Rishon's keeper, Sagi Strauss, preventing the Champions from scoring quite several times. A victory of Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa, 3:1 at home vs Hapoel Kefar-Saba, made the joy of the team's fans complete, as they knew about the Friday sensation - Hapoel Haifa, without its foreigners, managed to defeat away Hapoel Beer-Sheva without Siad Halilovic and Avi Perets, 2:0; Rafi Cohen, the National keeper, was "The Best Of The Game" there and calmed the National coach Shlomo Sherf down, 2 weeks before the crucial game in Russia. Another "Man Of The Game", Yehuda Boaron of Maccabee Herzliya, stopped 2 penalties within 6 minutes; even so, his teammates were too lazy to move in time, and Alon Offir scored the away winner for Maccabee Petakh-Tikwa with a 2nd penalty rebound. Maccabee Tel-Aviv lost its 5th consecutive game, this time at home to Hapoel Beit-Shean; here Meir Cohen, the guests' keeper, was the best. Maccabee Haifa defeated Hapoel Tsafririm Holon at home, 3:1; Haifa's net was defended by Bonnie Ginzburg, while Holon was playing without any inspiration, and the fact of its relegation was officially confirmed after 90 minutes. Hapoel Tel-Aviv doubled the number of its away goals scored throughout the season, by defeating Hapoel Taibe 2:0 away; Felix Halfon, with a good defensive work altogether with a goal and a goal pass, is our "Player Of The Week". And finally, Bnei-Yehuda defeated Hapoel Jerusalem at home, both goals scored by a wonderful Avi Tikwa; another competitor for "The Man Of The Game" was Michel Dayan. The keeper Jaroslav Baku was sent off, 14 minutes from time, and as all the substitutions of Jerusalem had been already performed, Dayan had to enter the net and managed to stop 3 opportunities of the hosts singlehandedly, with great saves. And now - to the details.
Scoring after just 4 minutes of play from another wonderful free kick of Itzhak Zohar, after the preparation of Eli Ohana, Beitar Jerusalem felt they had nothing more to play for and the victory was already in their pocket. However, lastly it's the special honor not to let the fresh Champions defeat you, and Rishon was doing their best, altogether with Beitar's wasted opportunities on the other side. Abuksis shot a frightening ball from 25 meters to the bar (28), and his shot from inside the box (44) found an excellent Sagi Strauss; Eitan Mizrahi (34) and David Amsalem (39) missed the frame by centimeters, and Strauss registered another superb saves, from the shots of Ronen Harazi (51) and again David Amsalem (58). And then Rishon performed a quick counterattack; Dani Albert passed a wide ball, and Tomacz Czibola pushed it in from 5 meters, 1:1. The rest of the events were historical. 10 minutes from time, Itzhak Korenfein got an ovation of the nearly full stadium when he was substituted by Shlomi Maman; those were the first minutes the extraordinary keeper of Beitar spent on the bench this season. And 3 minutes from time, Itzhak Ben-Itzhak passed his "flute" of refereeing to a linesman, his son Rami Ben-Itzhak, finishing for ever his refereeing career; and again, thousands of applauses accompanied the man in black, one of the best referees Israel ever saw.
In Petakh-Tikwa, there was the first time at my memory when the team catching just the 2nd place was accepted with the honour of kings - this happened after the game against Hapoel Kefar-Saba, the game that Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa won 3:1. Even a good keeping of Israel Luk could do nothing to prevent another concert of the Violets in the 1st half. Moti Kakun opened the score after 7 minutes of play, a goal pass made by Gabor Marton; in another 17 minutes, Andrei Christophick used a pass of Moti Kakun to double the score. Luk stopped in between a header of Yaniv Offri in a beautiful flight (12), but after 34 minutes of play, he could do nothing again - a fantastic double pass of Moti Kakun and Eli Abrabanel sent the latter into the center penetration, and he beat Luk with a sharp flat shot from 17 meters to a right corner. In another 3 minutes, Abrabanel performed a corner kick, and Gabor Marton shot a volley of an unbelievable force and precision from 22 meters; Luk was there with a cool save to deny Marton another competitor for "The Goal Of The Season". Unfortunately, in the 2nd half Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa disappeared; Kefar-Saba used this fact to score the goal through the header of Bogdan Ujebyak (49), after a preparation of Tomer Shem-Tov. Close to the very end, Tamir Netser found Shai Hess' bar. This way or another, nobody can take the great achievement away from the young and talented team of Nir Levin.
Petakh-Tikwa is in Europe, and let me remind you, as a tour into history, of its European experience. Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa was the first Israeli team, altogether with Maccabee Tel-Aviv, to enter the European Cups as the Israeli representative (ECWC) in 1991-92, giving a performance more than decent. Winning 2 games of preliminary round with an identical score of 2:0 against the Norwegian minnow Stromsgodset, it met the famous Feyenoord Rotterdam in the 1/16 finals. A miss of Nir Levin at one-to-one with Ed de Goey (80) was crucial - a minute from time, Joseph Kiprich managed to beat an excellent Rafi Cohen in one-to-one situation, 1:0 to the Dutch at home. And in Israel, two cool headers of Nir Levin (3) and Moti Kakun (49) put the Dutch into a trouble, but the header of Hank Fraser (59) was too precise even for Rafi Cohen. Feyenoord advanced on an away goal rule, but failed to score any other goals - Rafi Cohen's keeping was wonderful, and when he was beaten once, Bajiat Uda in an unbelievable acrobatic side scissors kick managed to clear the ball from the goal-line. Let the history be repeated!
Apropos, Rafi Cohen - yesterday the National keeper pleased Shlomo Sherf very much and paid a tribute to the team of his youth, as Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa's top rival, Hapoel Beer-Sheva, found Cohen well placed time after time. In between, Hapoel Haifa opened the score on a counterattack - the only corner of Haifa throughout the game was performed by Avi Pass (29), and Offer Talker jumped over everybody to head the ball mightily in; where was the substitute keeper Mickey Dahan?.. An unbelievable mistake of Dahan (who substituted Avi Perets suspended for the yellow cards) took place later on - he passed a ball to Zoabi 25 meters from the net, and Zoabi immediately rolled the ball into an empty frame, but missed; and in between, Dahan flew acrobatically to parry a dangerous curved free kick shot diagonally at half a height to his right corner by Alon Caplan. But all the rest of the times it was Rafi Cohen - he stopped Rosso, Sagron and Holtzman, and Alon Riff's goal was disallowed just after the break, because of Sagron's foul on the stretching keeper. Cohen reached his peak 5 minutes from time, flying incredibly to parry the deadly header of Sharov Avitan from 5 meters; and it became clear Beer-Sheva wouldn't score in this crucial game. In addition, a quick lethal counterattack of Haifa allowed the fresh substitute Moshe Eisenberg to shot an unstoppable and beautiful ball to Dahan's bar and in. Beer-Sheva played without Siad Halilovic, and as usual, it wasn't the team it used to be; it's very worth for the Princes of Negev to make the Bosnian midfielder play in the Cup final despite the injury, otherwise the European berth will remain a dream.
Unlike Rafi Cohen, Yehuda Boaron of Maccabee Herzliya didn't participate in all the games of his team this season; however, he was yesterday "The Best Of The Game", just like his Haifa counterpart. Idan Tal was knocked down in Herzliya's box after 27 minutes of play, and Offer Shitrit took the penalty kick; he shot flatly to his left, but Boaron dived greatly and sent the ball to a corner. In another 6 minutes, the referee Avner Cohen made a mistake, awarding another penalty kick for a ball that played into the hand of Alex Barmecher because of the pitch defects; this time, Alon Offir took the penalty kick, Boaron took the proper direction and parried the ball again, this time to the center of the box, and nobody from the sleeping defence of the hosts got to the ball before Offir himself. 1:0. The game was pretty dull, and until its end each team had one moment to score - Ismail Amar placed himself perfectly to head away the mighty header of Tomer Azulai from the goal-line (52), and on the other hand, Boaron got out just in time to stop the fabulous penetration of Offer Shitrit (87). Shitrit didn't score for 3 weeks, but it doesn't matter - Maccabee Petakh-Tikwa wanted desperately to finish the League in front of Maccabee Tel-Aviv, and here you see, one week before the end of the League, this mission was accomplished.
And now - to Maccabee Tel-Aviv, the huge disappointment of this season. Indeed, yesterday it suffered from a great skill of Meir Cohen, "The Man Of The Game", in Hapoel Beit-Shean's net; but can it justify the overall fact that Maccabee broke its negative record by losing 5 games in a row? Indeed, the experience and the positive record against Hapoel Beer-Sheva will be a great psychological advantage for the former Double holders this Monday in the Cup final; but will it be enough with an awful skill that the team presents lastly? Anyway, this weekend Maccabee wasn't playing with its full line-up, and still, Ron Nakhman opened the score after just 5 minutes of play, after a great assist of Claudio Vorkovic from inside the box. However, Beit-Shean reacted quickly - a wide pass of Udi Shnorman found a flying header of Hanokh Mararo that left Uvarov totally helpless (12). 5 minutes after a break, a breathtaking goal was scored - Yehuda Amar sent Sergen Culakovic into a penetration, and the Serbian midfielder calmly bounced the ball over Uvarov from 20 meters. [I will leave you in a tension about the Cup final result until the very end, but as I wrote this article after the Cup final and even after the Champions' League final, I will say - if you want to see the goal of Culakovic live, switch on your VCR and watch one more time the tremendous shot of Lars Ricken into the net of Angelo Peruzzi]. Maccabee wanted much to equalize but Meir Cohen was always at his place - he parried the header of Vorkovich to the bar (63), and he also dived incredibly to parry the dangerous close-ranged header of Amir Shelakh to a corner (84). And so, both Maccabee Tel-Aviv and Hapoel Beer-Sheva lost their final games before their battle in the Cup final; whom will it affect most? Let's wait and see...
Maccabee Haifa is also the disappointment of the season, but in a different way - seeing the team games during the last 2 months, the fans ask where the players had been before. At least, they may hope for the next season. Yesterday, Haifa devastated Hapoel Tsafririm Holon, 3:1 at home, and confirmed officially the guests' relegation. Moshe Glam, "The Man Of The Game", made 3 wonderful goal passes, and it started after just 8 minutes of play when a cool shot of Alon Harazi from the edge of the box passed Zhidkov and kissed the net under the right crossbar. In another 12 minutes, Idan Shum rolled another ball in; and the story was over 10 minutes before the break, when Hezi Shirazi passed Zhidkov and became the only Haifa's player to score the 2-digital number of goals this season. In the 2nd half, Maccabee played with no more inspiration, and Holon was too desperate to search for any additional challenge; still, it managed to score the reducer. Oren Nissim fell inside Haifa's box with no actual impact with Arik Benado, but his pretence was bought by a referee Arik Haimovich. Victor Moroz shot the penalty to his left at half a height, and Bonnie Ginzburg (pay attention, the appearance of the former National keeper is now an event to talk about) lacked several centimeters of his acrobatic flight to reach it. 3:1.
In Taibe, there was a game of the outsiders, one relegating long ago and one saving itself lastly for another season in the National League; neither of those teams had any pressure, but just one wanted to win and had enough tools for that. After a goal pass of Felix Halfon from the right wing, Yossi Madar raised his left foot and bombed with a tremendous volley from 7 meters, leaving no chance at all to Akakiy Devadze of Taibe; in another 6 minutes, Madar shot a Revivo-style curved free kick from 18 meters to his nearest corner, the left of Devadze, at half a height. After the break, Devadze was substituted by Muattaz Ashkar, but it didn't help Taibe much. Felix Halfon, "The Man Of The Week", and Sagiv Eliyahu scored another couple of goals. Lastly Hapoel Tel-Aviv registers some glorious victories, and an obvious question is asked where everybody there had been for the whole season.
And finally, it was a game of Bnei-Yehuda and Hapoel Jerusalem. The hero of the game was Avi Tikwa, the young brother of Shalom Tikwa - the youngest Israeli ever to play in Europe (his contract with Grasshoppers Zurich is on the verge of being signed), he proved his skill one more time. 10 minutes from the break, the shot of Alon Mizrahi was parried badly by Jaroslav Baku, and Tikwa was on the rebound to roll he ball in from 5 meters, 1:0. And 15 minutes from time, Dudi Stolper found Avi Tikwa inside the guests' box, and the latter passed the keeper and rolled the ball into an empty net. A minute later, a controversial moment happened - Tikwa was sent in one-to-one with Baku, the keeper went outside the box and managed to block the forward, I personally saw the block being done with the body, but the referee Moshe Atias saw a hand playing there and sent Baku off with a red card. Jerusalem found itself in a very complicated situation, since all the 3 permitted substitutions had already been done; fortunately, it had the veteran Michel Dayan to take the responsibility and to accept Baku's gloves. Dayan, usually a remarkable midfielder, saved 3 certain goals after the shots of Tikwa, Mizrahi and Avigdor.
THE NEXT (AND THE LAST) WEEK: everything is actually clear, and therefore no games deserve any special attention. A great celebration is expected in Beit-Shean, in the game between Hapoel Beit-Shean (11) and Beitar Jerusalem (1); however, most of the ceremonies will take place before the game, and not in the game of Soccer itself. Hapoel Tel-Aviv (14) hosts Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa (2), and Hapoel Tsafririm Holon (15) hosts Hapoel Beer-Sheva (3); however, nobody doubts anymore who'll take the second place leading to the UEFA Cup this year. And a matter of personal revenge - the games between Maccabee Petakh-Tikwa (4) vs Maccabee Tel-Aviv (5) and of Hapoel Kefar-Saba (8) vs Maccabee Haifa (6) will be of a special interest for me, since Haifa has an opportunity to finish the League in front of Maccabee Tel-Aviv for the first time in 3 years. The place sucks indeed, but it's still a revenge :)
Beitar Jerusalem - Hapoel Rishon le-Zion 1:1 (1:0).
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Hosts: Itzhak Zohar (4).
Guests: Tomacz Czibola (60).
THE BEST: Sagi Strauss, keeper, Hapoel Rishon le-Zion.
HAPOEL PETAKH-TIKWA - Hapoel Kefar-Saba 3:1 (3:0).
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Hosts: Moti Kakun (7), Andrei Christophick (24), Eli Abrabanel (34).
Guests: Bogdan Ujebyak (49).
THE BEST: Moti Kakun, forward, Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa.
Hapoel Beer-Sheva - HAPOEL HAIFA 0:2 (0:1).
---------------------------------------------
Hosts: -.
Guests: Offer Talker (29), Moshe Eisenberg (89).
THE BEST: Rafi Cohen, keeper, Hapoel Haifa.
Maccabee Herzliya - MACCABEE PETAKH-TIKWA 0:1 (0:1).
------------------------------------------------------
Hosts: -.
Guests: Alon Offir (33).
THE BEST: Yehuda Boaron, keeper, Maccabee Herzliya.
On the 27th minute Offer Shitrit (Maccabee Petakh-Tikwa) missed a penalty
kick - Yehuda Boaron saved.
On the 33rd minute Alon Offir (Maccabee Petakh-Tikwa) missed a penalty kick -
Yehuda Boaron saved. Offir was the first on the rebound to score.
Maccabee Tel-Aviv - HAPOEL BEIT-SHEAN 1:2 (1:1).
--------------------------------------------------
Hosts: Ron Nakhman (5).
Guests: Hanokh Mararo (12), Sergen Culakovic (50).
THE BEST: Meir Cohen, keeper, Hapoel Beit-Shean.
MACCABEE HAIFA - Hapoel Tsafririm Holon 3:1 (3:0).
----------------------------------------------------
Hosts: Alon Harazi (8), Idan Shum (20), Hezi Shirazi (35).
Guests: Victor Moroz (78 pen).
THE BEST: Moshe Glam, forward, Maccabee Haifa.
BNEI-YEHUDA TEL-AVIV - Hapoel Jerusalem 2:0 (1:0).
----------------------------------------------------
Hosts: Avi Tikwa (35, 75).
Guests: -.
RED: Jaroslav Baku, keeper, Hapoel Jerusalem, 76.
THE BEST: Avi Tikwa, midfielder, Bnei-Yehuda Tel-Aviv.
Hapoel Taibe - HAPOEL TEL-AVIV 0:4 (0:2).
-------------------------------------------
Hosts: -.
Guests: Yossi Madar (29, 35), Felix Halfon (56), Sagiv Eliyahu (77).
THE BEST: Felix Halfon, defender, Hapoel Tel-Aviv.
THE WEEK'S TEAM:
----------------
Sagi Strauss
(Hapoel Rishon le-Zion)
Felix Halfon Gabor Marton Avi Danan David Amsalem
(Hapoel Tel-Aviv) (Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa) (Hap. Beit-Shean) (Beitar Jerusalem)
Yossi Madar Itzhak Zohar Avi Tikwa Tomacz Czibola
(Hapoel Tel-Aviv) (Beitar Jerusalem) (Bnei-Yehuda Tel-Aviv) (Rishon le-Zion)
Moshe Glam Moti Kakun
(Maccabee Haifa) (Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa)
Beitar Jerusalem, Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa,
Hapoel Rishon le-Zion, Hapoel Tel-Aviv - 2.
Maccabee Haifa, Bnei-Yehuda Tel-Aviv, Hapoel Beit-Shean - 1.
PLACE TEAM G W T L Goals Points
1 (1) Beitar Jerusalem 29 20 6 3 59-18 66 EC1
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2 (2) Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa 29 18 6 5 55-31 60 EC3
3 (3) Hapoel Beer-Sheva 29 18 3 8 43-25 57 (EC2)
4 (4) Maccabee Petakh-Tikwa 29 14 9 6 39-22 51
5 (5) Maccabee Tel-Aviv 29 13 6 10 47-34 45 (EC2)
6 (6) Maccabee Haifa 29 12 9 8 43-33 45
7 (8) Hapoel Haifa 29 12 6 11 33-32 42
8 (7) Hapoel Kefar-Saba 29 11 7 11 33-34 40
9 (10) Bnei-Yehuda Tel-Aviv 29 10 8 11 31-38 38
10 (9) Hapoel Rishon le-Zion 29 10 7 12 33-46 37
11 (12) Hapoel Beit-Shean 29 9 7 13 27-31 34
12 (11) Hapoel Jerusalem 29 9 6 14 29-40 33
13 (13) Maccabee Herzliya 29 9 4 16 18-27 31
14 (14) Hapoel Tel-Aviv 29 7 9 13 23-30 30
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15 (15) Hapoel Tsafririm Holon 29 4 9 16 17-42 21
16 (16) Hapoel Taibe 29 4 2 23 18-65 14
IN BRACKETS - the places of the teams before this week.
BEST PLAYER: Felix Halfon, defender, Hapoel Tel-Aviv.
TOP SCORERS: Moti Kakun (Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa) 19(4) 1
*********************************************************
Alon Mizrahi (Bnei-Yehuda Tel-Aviv) 17(8)
*********************************************************
Offer Shitrit (Maccabee Petakh-Tikwa) 15(3)
*********************************************************
Eli Ohana (Beitar Jerusalem) 14(1)
Itzhak Zohar (Beitar Jerusalem) 14(3) 1
*********************************************************
Yaniv Offri (Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa) 12(0)
Avi Nimni (Maccabee Tel-Aviv) 12(4)
*********************************************************
Shai Holtzman (Hapoel Beer-Sheva) 11(4)
*********************************************************
Hezi Shirazi (Maccabee Haifa) 10(0) 1
Istvan Salloi (Beitar Jerusalem) 10(0)
Yaniv Avvargeal (Hapoel Kefar-Saba) 10(4)
*********************************************************
Guy Itzhak (Maccabee Petakh-Tikwa) 9(0)
(2 in H. Haifa) Amir Turgeman (Maccabee Haifa) 9(0)
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 |
| Hapoel Beit-Shean (11) | Beitar Jerusalem (1) |
| Hapoel Tel-Aviv (14) | Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa (2) |
| Hapoel Tsafririm Holon (15) | Hapoel Beer-Sheva (3) |
| Maccabee Petakh-Tikwa (4) | Maccabee Tel-Aviv (5) |
| Hapoel Kefar-Saba (8) | Maccabee Haifa (6) |
| Hapoel Haifa (7) | Maccabee Herzliya (13) |
| Hapoel Rishon le-Zion (10) | Bnei-Yehuda Tel-Aviv (9) |
| Hapoel Jerusalem (12) | Hapoel Taibe (16) |
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