21 goals, 3 red cards and 1 scored penalty - that was the story of the last weekend. However, those dry numbers can't fully describe everything that happened on the fields. The total disaster that happened to Maccabee Haifa at home, the developments afterwards, the surprising loss of Hapoel Haifa in Rishon le-Zion, several great goals and the unbelievable sportive heroism of Beitar Jerusalem against all odds - this story is much closer to the full version of the last League events.
Being down 0:2 away during the break and suffering from other unpleasant consequences as well (or, better, as badly), Beitar registered one of the best 2nd halves ever seen in Israel, scoring 5 unanswered goals to the net of the miserable outsider Hapoel Beer-Sheva and making the impossible. Unfortunately for the capital club, its top rival Hapoel Tel-Aviv secured the victory of its own vs Hapoel Beit-Shean and stayed at the top, preserving the gap of 3 points. However, the two other top rivals were thrown back - Hapoel Haifa was beaten in Rishon le-Zion, 1:2, and Maccabee Haifa was all of a sudden devastated at home by the pleasantly surprising Hapoel Kefar-Saba, 0:4. Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa and Maccabee Tel-Aviv parted with a 1:1 draw, with Eli Driks and Moti Kakun improving their positions in "The Best Scorers List". And finally, all the other games ended with beautiful home winners and nothing more - 1:0 was the victorious score of Hapoel Ashkelon (vs Maccabee Ironi Ashdod), Hapoel Jerusalem (vs Bnei-Yehuda Tel-Aviv) and Maccabee Herzliya (vs Maccabee Petakh-Tikwa).
The start of Beitar Jerusalem was totally disastrous, and the start of Hapoel Beer-Sheva at home could hardly be better. 16 seconds in the game (!), during the first attack, Marco Di Constanza penetrated at the left wing and tried to pass the ball into the box; no danger could be seen from any of Beer-Sheva's players around, but Itzhak Korenfein, going down to handle the ball, suddenly fell awkwardly and pushed the ball in! 1:0 to Beer-Sheva in the quickest goal of the Championship! And this was just the beginning - as Beitar's players ran towards Korenfein in order to console him, they saw to their utter horror that the keeper was unable to get up! 7 minutes were needed to give one of the League best keepers the needed injections, and when he tried to stand steadily on his feet and failed to conceal the pain, it was clear the substitution was inevitable. As Guy Griff, Beitar's 2nd keeper, was injured as well, his younger brother Moshe Griff, a person with nearly no experience in the official Soccer, had to take the responsibility. The most disastrous opening of Beitar this year has just happened.
You still haven't heard it all. Beer-Sheva was attacking, Beitar tried to counterattack; Griff wasn't bad at all, but here Beitar faced yet another bad luck, or irresponsibility if you please. In the collision of the 2 talented Yossis of the Israeli Soccer, Benayoun of Beer-Sheva knocked Abuksis of Beitar down, and the National midfielder found nothing better than to retaliate with a kick to the boy's sensitive area; the red card of Amit Klein was perfectly justified, and as if Beitar hadn't enough troubles, it also lost one of its key players. And seconds before the break, it was Marco Di Constanza again, with a great turn and a brilliant flat shot from 18 meters; Moshe Griff dived well and reached the ball, but unfortunately, it went just to the post, and Dudu Heffer pushed the rebound home, 2:0.
The disaster? Yes, for Beer-Sheva. The surprise? Yes, for all the reasonable persons who've seen the miracle on the pitch during the 2nd half - Nir Sevilla registered one of the best performances of the year, helped immensely by the 3 Hungarian midfielders of Beitar. 46: Istvan Pisont gave a brilliant pass from the midline to Nir Sevilla in the box, and the latter shot a flat ball diagonally without stopping to the right corner of diving Shaul Smadja, 2:1. 14 minutes have passed, and Istvan Hamar raised the ball to Sevilla at the right edge of the box - the young forward, entering the game 7 minutes before the break, headed it to Istvan Salloi, and the charming Hungarian forward conquered the top of "The Best Scorers' List" with a great half-scissors kick, 2:2. Another 9 minutes, and the comeback was completed - it was Sevilla again who rolled the ball into the box from the right wing, and Istvan Hamar touched the ball mildly before the helpless Smadja and under the nose of the dreaming Ehud Kahila, 3:2! But this was now far from being enough for Beitar - it wanted to be remembered in Beer-Sheva as well as Barcelona was, for scoring 12 goals in the 2 face-to-face games, and it indeed reached this incredible aim. A mirror reflection of the 3rd goal followed 7 minutes from time - Hamar made a pass from the left wing, and Sevilla managed to push the ball in between the keeper and the defender. And the last goal came one minute from time - Shmuel Levi bounced the ball from the right, Smadja was too tired to follow after it, and Istvan Pisont quit his draught with an easy header to an empty net. 5:2 in the game that seemed to be totally lost! If Beitar doesn't take the title after such a performance, it can be seen as an unjustice. As well, it can be seen as an unjustice if Beer-Sheva stays in the National League after losing every possible advantage in the game seeming already to be so easy. I usually don't take such a harsh stand in favor of one team or against the other, but this was the only impression that could've been obtained after such a show.
However, Hapoel Tel-Aviv registered a good performance as well, defeating Hapoel Beit-Shean 2:0 at home. Indeed, the game was quite equal in some parts as Beit-Shean had the numerous opportunities of its own; however, Sergen Culakovic wasted most of them mercilessly by being too unconcentrated, and when it came to a real threat (like after Primoz Gliha's shot after 81 minutes), Shavit Elimelekh proved us once again this season he was the hot name of the Israeli goalkeeping. Offer Shitrit, missing 2 golden opportunities after 9 and 17 minutes of play, managed to fix his own mistakes, 5 minutes before the break - Sebastian Simerotic's penetration through the center was stopped by the guests' defence, but the ball went to Shitrit, who rushed into the box and had no problemd to score with his left, 1:0. And 10 minutes in the 2nd half, Simerotic rushed into the box, after a double pass with Felix Halfon at the right wing, and shot it mightily to the close corner that the keeper Meir Cohen should have closed better, 2:0. Cohen himself managed to atone for his sin later on (61) - Shalom Tikwa shot a perfect whipping killer at half a height from 18 meters, but the flying keeper's fingertips reached the ball and parried it to his right post, "The Save Of The Week".
Devastating Hapoel Kefar-Saba away just a week ago, Hapoel Haifa had a feeling its game in Rishon le-Zion would be nothing but a spring trip as well - unfortunately for the top team, this wasn't the case. After just 18 minutes, its prominent midfielder Dmitriy Ulyanov was sent off with a 2nd yellow card, and Rishon seemed to be better than the guests. Moshe Sebeg opened the score in a great solo penetration - he got the ball 40 meters from the net, overjumped Ran Ben-Shimon and headed the ball forward, overran the defender that rushed after him, entered the box and shot a bomb from 14 meters diagonally; Dudu Awwat reacted well and reached the ball in a desperate flight, but could parry it just further to his right corner, 1:0. 5 minutes in the 2nd half, it was another great combination of Rishon - Eyal Cohen raised the ball into Haifa's box, Avi Pitusi appeared from nowhere, screwed himself between the 2 stunned defenders and left no chance to Awwat, 2:0. Haifa started to attack desperately even in 10 players, but managed only to reduce the score, when Liron Basis mirrored the brilliant effort of the Nigerian forward Daniel Amokachie against Greece in WC'94 - his diagonal shot from 18 meters found the right upper corner of Sagi Strauss, 2:1. Haifa also had a great opportunity to equalize during the last minute of play, when its Croatian midfielder Goran Milenko shot a surprising flat shot from 18 meters to Strauss' right post - Ronen Harazi was on a rebound with his header, but Strauss recovered and caught the ball, preventing Haifa from taking any points.
But the small failure of Hapoel Haifa was nothing in comparison to the disaster that happened to Maccabee Haifa at home, vs Hapoel Kefar-Saba. Two saves by Eran Scheinsinger, a miss by Hezi Shirazi and another opportunity created by Vladimir Niederhaus and wasted by Alon Mizrahi - this was the whole pathetic story of the Greens, while the other Green team was clearly dominant. In just 18 minutes, Niv Tal got a pass from Sharon Mimer and rolled the ball past Nir Davidovich to his left corner, 1:0; the similar goal came after another 13 minutes from Francisco Washington de Santos, after the preparation of the 1st goal scorer. A minute before the break, when another Haifa's attack was stopped, Laszlo Komodi launched a deadly guests' counterattack with a great pass to Yaniv Avvargeal, and the latter overran the anemic defenders and scored the 3rd goal of Avi Cohen's team. And the best goal was still to come, half an hour in the 2nd half - Washington kidnapped a ball in the midcircle, passed 3 defenders and released a threatening diagonal bomb from 25 meters to the bar of Davidovich and in, "The Goal Of The Week".
However, the main development happened at the press-conference after the game - Maccabee Haifa's President Yaacov Shakhar made an announcement about the end of the manager Giora Spiegel's work in the team. This was the first time in the coaching career of Giora Spiegel when he was fired; as well, it was the first time since 1983 any coach was fired from Maccabee Haifa. During the 5.5 seasons of Spiegel in Haifa, the team won 1 Championship (1993-94), 2 Israeli Cups (1992-93, 1994-5), 1 Toto Cup (1993-94); in addition, in 1993-94 it registered the best Israeli team performance ever in Europe, with the sensational victories over Torpedo Moscow at home and Parma away in EC2. This is really unfortunate such a coach had to finish his work this time in such a disgusting way. By now, Daniel Brailovsky will lead the team until the end of the season, and he'll probably be helped by another prominent International player of the past, Andrei Bal.
Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa and Maccabee Tel-Aviv parted with a 1:1 draw - Eli Driks was left undisturbed in Shai Hess' box and needed nothing more to open the score, 5 minutes after the break, and Moti Kakun scored an equalizer (76) after a very dubious penalty had been awarded by the referee Meir Levi for the foul of Kefir Haim on Andrei Christophick. Petakh-Tikwa had several early opportunities to score, but Alexander Uvarov was always well-placed; Petakh- Tikwa's best player, the defender Gabor Marton, was sent off (72) after getting a yellow card and protesting against it loudly in front of the referee.
A good shot of Nissim Avitan from the air, after just 8 minutes of play, became a long awaited winner of Hapoel Ashkelon, over Maccabee Ironi Ashdod at home. Another great winner happened in Jerusalem - 6 minutes from time, Assaf Tubi came with a mighty diving header after Gili Levi's marvellous preparation, and the ball launched from 11 meters left no chance for the reacting National keeper Rafi Cohen. In that game, Liran Strauber didn't play in Hapoel's net because of the disciplinary problem, and his substitute Moti Mizrahi was far from leaving a bad impression.
And finally, it was the game in Herzliya between Maccabee Herzliya and Maccabee Petakh-Tikwa. There, a fantastic shot of Santos Sierra from 30 meters under the bar of the guests (54) became the only goal of the game, giving the hosts an air to breathe after the mini-crisis during the last games; Ohad Cohen, the young keeper of Maccabee Petakh-Tikwa, can see himself responsible for this goal, as his reaction for the shot (surprising as it definitely was) was far from being satisfactory. But the hot story was Yehuda Boaron, the 2nd keeper of Maccabee Herzliya - getting an opportunity, he seized it with both hands and didn't let it go, registering a great performance and becoming our "Man Of The Game" and "Keeper Of The Week". The peak happened after 82 minutes of play, when Tsakhi Shemariyahu reached the wide ball 5 meters diagonally from the net and tried to push it in - the ball seemed to go in, but Boaron suddenly sprang out of nowhere to dive greatly and to parry the danger.
NEXT ROUND (in a fortnight): an interesting game is taking place in Jerusalem, where Beitar Jerusalem (2) faces Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa (5). The Haifa teams face the outsiders, while Hapoel Tel-Aviv (1) will play away vs Maccabee Petakh-Tikwa (10), led by Tel-Aviv's former coach Moshe Sinai.
HAPOEL TEL-AVIV - Hapoel Beit-Shean 2:0 (1:0).
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Hosts: Offer Shitrit (40), Sebastian Simerotic (55).
Guests: -.
THE BEST: Shalom Tikwa, midfielder, Hapoel Tel-Aviv.
Hapoel Beer-Sheva - BEITAR JERUSALEM 2:5 (2:0).
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Hosts: Marco Di Constanza (1), Dudu Heffer (45).
Guests: Nir Sevilla (46, 83), Istvan Salloi (60), Istvan Hamar (69),
Istvan Pisont (89).
RED: Yossi Abuksis, midfielder, Beitar Jerusalem, 20.
THE BEST: Nir Sevilla, forward, Beitar Jerusalem.
HAPOEL RISHON LE-ZION - Hapoel Haifa 2:1 (1:0).
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Hosts: Moshe Sebeg (35), Avi Pitusi (50).
Guests: Liron Basis (62).
RED: Dmitriy Ulyanov, midfielder, Hapoel Haifa, 18.
THE BEST: Moshe Sebeg, defender, Hapoel Rishon le-Zion.
Maccabee Haifa - HAPOEL KEFAR-SABA 0:4 (0:3).
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Hosts: -.
Guests: Niv Tal (18), Washington de Santos (31, 75), Yaniv Avvargeal (45).
THE BEST: Washington de Santos, forward, Hapoel Kefar-Saba.
Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa - Maccabee Tel-Aviv 1:1 (0:1).
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Hosts: Moti Kakun (76 pen).
Guests: Eli Driks (50).
RED: Gabor Marton, defender, Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa, 72.
THE BEST: Eli Driks, forward, Maccabee Tel-Aviv.
MACCABEE HERZLIYA - Maccabee Petakh-Tikwa 1:0 (0:0).
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Hosts: Santos Sierra (54).
Guests: -.
THE BEST: Yehuda Boaron, keeper, Maccabee Herzliya.
HAPOEL ASHKELON - Maccabee Ironi Ashdod 1:0 (1:0).
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Hosts: Nissim Avitan (8).
Guests: -.
THE BEST: Nissim Avitan, forward, Hapoel Ashkelon.
HAPOEL JERUSALEM - Bnei-Yehuda Tel-Aviv 1:0 (1:0).
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Hosts: Assaf Tubi (84).
Guests: -.
THE BEST: Assaf Tubi, forward, Hapoel Jerusalem.
THE WEEK'S TEAM:
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Yehuda Boaron
(Maccabee Herzliya)
Felix Halfon Michael Zemlinskiy Moshe Sebeg Eyal Ben-Ami
(Hap. Tel-Aviv) (Hapoel Kefar-Saba) (Hapoel Rishon le-Zion) (Hap. Tel-Aviv)
Andrei Christophick Yaniv Avvargeal Shalom Tikwa Istvan Hamar
(Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa) (Hapoel Kefar-Saba) (Hap. Tel-Aviv) (Beitar Jerusalem)
Nir Sevilla Washington de Santos
(Beitar Jerusalem) (Hapoel Kefar-Saba)
Hapoel Tel-Aviv, Hapoel Kefar-Saba - 3.
Beitar Jerusalem - 2.
Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa, Maccabee Herzliya, Hapoel Rishon le-Zion - 1.
THE BEST GOAL:
MO: Washington de Santos (the 2nd).
ALSO - Liron Basis, Moshe Sebeg, Assaf Tubi,
Istvan Salloi, Santos Sierra.
THE BEST SAVE:
MO: Meir Cohen, from Shalom Tikwa, 61.
ALSO - Yehuda Boaron, from Tsakhi Shemariyahu, 82.
PLACE TEAM G W T L Goals Points
1 (1) Hapoel Tel-Aviv 21 14 5 2 22- 8 47
2 (2) Beitar Jerusalem 21 12 8 1 52-24 44
3 (3) Hapoel Haifa 21 10 8 3 38-21 38
4 (4) Maccabee Haifa 21 11 4 6 34-26 37
5 (5) Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa 21 9 6 6 30-24 33
6 (7) Hapoel Kefar-Saba 21 8 5 8 27-27 29
7 (6) Hapoel Jerusalem 21 7 8 6 24-25 29
8 (8) Maccabee Ironi Ashdod 21 6 8 7 26-33 26
9 (11) Maccabee Herzliya 21 6 7 8 24-27 25
10 (9) Maccabee Petakh-Tikwa 21 5 9 7 15-20 24
11 (10) Maccabee Tel-Aviv 21 5 8 8 23-24 23
12 (12) Hapoel Rishon le-Zion 21 6 5 10 27-35 23
13 (13) Bnei-Yehuda Tel-Aviv 21 4 7 10 17-24 19
14 (14) Hapoel Beit-Shean 21 4 7 10 19-30 19
15 (16) Hapoel Ashkelon 21 4 6 11 17-29 18
16 (15) Hapoel Beer-Sheva 21 3 7 11 24-42 16
IN BRACKETS - the places of the teams after the last week.
BEST PLAYER: Nir Sevilla, forward, Beitar Jerusalem.
TOP SCORERS: Eli Driks (Maccabee Tel-Aviv) 12(0) 1
Istvan Salloi (Beitar Jerusalem) 12(1) 1
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Liron Basis (Hapoel Haifa) 11(0) 1
Alon Mizrahi (Maccabee Haifa) 11(1)
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Nir Sevilla (Beitar Jerusalem) 10(0) 2
Istvan Pisont (Beitar Jerusalem) 10(0) 1
Moti Kakun (Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa) 10(5) 1(1)
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Offer Shitrit (Hapoel Tel-Aviv) 8(2) 1
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Igal Zrihen (Maccabee Ironi Ashdod) 7(0)
Assaf Tubi (Hapoel Jerusalem) 7(1) 1
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Yossi Benayoun (Hapoel Beer-Sheva) 6(2)
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 |
| Maccabee Petakh-Tikwa (10) | Hapoel Tel-Aviv (1) |
| Beitar Jerusalem (2) | Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa (5) |
| Hapoel Haifa (3) | Hapoel Beer-Sheva (16) |
| Bnei-Yehuda Tel-Aviv (13) | Maccabee Haifa (4) |
| Hapoel Kefar-Saba (6) | Hapoel Rishon le-Zion (12) |
| Hapoel Beit-Shean (14) | Hapoel Jerusalem (7) |
| Maccabee Ironi Ashdod (8) | Maccabee Herzliya (9) |
| Maccabee Tel-Aviv (11) | Hapoel Ashkelon (15) |
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