As usual, some summaries of the first round of this year's National League are made. As usual, the ones to make them are "Yedioth Ahronoth" (YA), myself (MO) and "Ha'Daka Ha'91" (91). Hopefully, you will enjoy those summaries.

YA: Eli Ohana, forward, Beitar Jerusalem.

91: Agreed.

MO: No doubt about that. Eli Ohana is flourishing again at the age of 33, being a temporary "Best Scorer" and winning singlefootedly several very important games for Beitar. He's its symbol.

YA: Eli Cohen, Beitar Jerusalem.

91: Nir Levin, Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa.

MO: I will probably vote for Nir Levin, the young coach who made Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa an attractive team capable of winning any rival. A lot of warm words should be said also about Eli Gutman of Hapoel Beer-Sheva.

YA: Beitar Jerusalem.

91: Agreed.

MO: Of course, there is just one team to deserve this award - Beitar Jerusalem. This team finished the round with no losses, setting a new Israeli record of points after 15 games: +13=2-0, 33-8, 41 pts. It also showed the most attractive soccer and the best results.

YA:
                             Itzhak Korenfein
                            (Beitar Jerusalem)

   Shmuel Levi        Avi Fletcher       Sergei Tretyak     David Amsalem
(Beitar Jerusalem) (Hap. Petakh-Tikwa) (Beitar Jerusalem) (Beitar Jerusalem)

   Itzhak Zohar      Istvan Pisont      Yossi Abuksis      Giovanni Rosso
(Beitar Jerusalem) (Beitar Jerusalem) (Beitar Jerusalem) (Hapoel Beer-Sheva)

                        Eli Ohana            Manor Hassan
                    (Beitar Jerusalem)   (Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa)

Beitar Jerusalem     - 8.
Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa  - 2.
Hapoel Beer-Sheva    - 1.

MO: Agreed mostly, but not in everything. I would put Offer Talker (Hapoel Haifa) instead of Avi Fletcher - Talker is an incredible defender who knows both to defend and to score. Probably, I would replace Istvan Pisont with his Hungarian teammate, Istvan Salloi, and Yossi Abuksis with Manor Hassan, though I can accept here the decisions of YA. But it's totally ridiculous to put Manor Hassan into an attacking line, when there are 3 great candidates to fit there: Yaniv Offri (Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa), Alon Mizrahi (Bnei-Yehuda Tel-Aviv) or Offer Shitrit (Maccabee Petakh-Tikwa).

YA: Itzhak Ben-Itzhak, with a slight advantage over Haim Yaacov.

91: Itzhak Ben-Itzhak.

MO: No doubt, experience is still extremely important. Ben-Itzhak had several mediocre games, but he was still the best, and his decision not to whistle a foul on Salloi (see further) during the game between Beitar Jerusalem and Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa will be remembered for years. Had more referees like him been seen in Europe, the last European Championship of 1996 wouldn't be that severely ruined.

YA: Yaniv Offri, forward, Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa.

91: Agreed.

MO: Agreed. Offri, playing his first season in the National League, scored there 9 goals and was one of the prominent reasons for the high position of Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa. Still, hadn't it been for the 2 last games of the round with 7 goals conceded, I would've voted for Eran Scheinsinger, the 20-years-old keeper of Hapoel Kefar-Saba, conceding just 11 goals in the first 13 games despite the mediocrity of his defending line.

YA: Itzhak Zohar, midfielder, Beitar Jerusalem. His transfer from Maccabee Tel-Aviv turned out to be decisive both to the former and to the current team of his.

MO: Agreed. However, there were two great Petakh-Tikwa's forwards to be Zohar's rivals for the award: Yaniv Offri (Hapoel) and Offer Shitrit (Maccabee).

YA: Istvan Pisont (Hungary), midfielder, Beitar Jerusalem.

91: Agreed.

MO: Agreed. And again, there were several rivals: Sergei Tretyak (defender, Ukraine and Beitar Jerusalem), Istvan Salloi (midfielder, Hungary and Beitar Jerusalem), Giovanni Rosso (midfielder, Croatia and Hapoel Beer-Sheva), Siad Halilovic (midfielder, Bosnia and Hapoel Beer-Sheva).

YA: Maccabee Tel-Aviv.

91: Maccabee Tel-Aviv. Maccabee Haifa could've been there, too, but it has at least "the reason" - Eyal Berkovich, Haim Revivo and Offer Shitrit left the club. The only player transferred from Maccabee Tel-Aviv, on the contrary, was Itzhak Zohar - and the results were really and completely disastrous.

MO: Agreed with 91. I would add also Hapoel Haifa and Hapoel Tel-Aviv.

YA: Reuven Attar, midfielder, Hapoel Haifa and Maccabee Haifa.

91: Agreed.

MO: There were several more competitors, like Alexander Uvarov (keeper, Maccabee Tel-Aviv) and Gadi Brumer (defender, Maccabee Tel-Aviv); however, Uvarov had very serious problems with his little son, and Brumer was severely injured for a certain period of time.

YA: Eli Ohana, Beitar Jerusalem, 3:0 vs Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa (3:0).

91: Agreed. The other competitors were:

• Manor Hassan, Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa, 1:1 vs Maccabee Tel-Aviv (1:1).
• Eitan Taib, Hapoel Beit-Shean, 1:0 vs Maccabee Tel-Aviv (1:0).
• Avi Nimni, Maccabee Tel-Aviv, 2:2 vs Beitar Jerusalem (3:3).
• Zlatko Zupatic, Hapoel Haifa, 4:0 vs Hapoel Rishon le-Zion (4:0).

MO: Agreed. Let me cite here my description of the goal from Week 09: "But the most wonderful goal was still to come, and a word should be said about the referee Itzhak Ben-Itzhak, with "The Referee's Decision Of The Season". The attack of Petakh-Tikwa was stopped, and Beitar started its own counterattack, with Ohana heading the ball to Salloi. Salloi passed the midline and was knocked down from behind by Walid Badir, a foul justifying the yellow and probably the red card; however, Salloi made a full circle in the air to land and to get up immediately, with the ball still in his legs! And Ben-Itzhak, having delayed his call for a second or so, marked to go on playing! Salloi passed the ball to Ohana, and Eli threw the ball over one defender, ran away from another one, rushed into the box and rolled the ball to his left corner near the stunned Hess. What a wonderful effort! 3:0!"

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