ISRAELI NATIONAL LEAGUE (LEAGUE A), ROUND 1 SUMMARY, 1998-99

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), "Shirim u-Shearim" (SS) and "Ha'Daka Ha'91" (91). Hopefully, you will enjoy those summaries.

THE PLAYER OF THE ROUND

SS: Giovanni Rosso, midfielder, Hapoel Haifa.

YA: Agreed.

91: Agreed.

MO: Agreed. No one deserved the title better than this incredible legionary, courted by Lazio and the other European clubs. If Hapoel Haifa takes its first historic Championship, it will be mostly due to its great midline, led by Rosso. The other serious contenders were: Najouan Grayib, defender, Hapoel Haifa; Alon Mizrahi, forward, Maccabee Haifa; Andrzej Kubica, forward, Maccabee Tel-Aviv.

THE COACH OF THE ROUND

SS: Eli Gutman, Hapoel Haifa.

YA: Agreed.

MO: Agreed. Many words were said about his army methods and his Prussian discipline, but he gives the creative players in his team a chance to show their skills well, and the team he built, except maybe for the forwards, is just a perfect machine, also enjoyable to watch. Dusan Uhrin, the European Vice-Champion who brought the Greens of Maccabee Haifa to an historic European Cup Winners' Cup Quarterfinal, prepared also a good team which knew how to take all the points during the bad games as well; however, it wasn't as sparkling as its urban rival.

THE TEAM OF THE ROUND

YA: Hapoel Haifa.

MO: Definitely, Hapoel Haifa, for all the above-said. Maccabee Haifa is also something to be watched, however, and the Haifa derby in a month will finally get all the deserved credit. And as for Beitar Jerusalem, it has some points to improve, but it scores - oh God, it scores! 43 goals in 15 games - this is quite an achievement, in every possible scale.

THE 11 OF THE ROUND


SS:
                                Dudu Awwat
                              (Hapoel Haifa)

 Offer Talker       Arik Benado       Ran Ben-Shimon    Najouan Grayib
(Hapoel Haifa)    (Maccabee Haifa)    (Hapoel Haifa)    (Hapoel Haifa)

        Giovanni Rosso            Walid Badir             Yossi Benayoun
        (Hapoel Haifa)       (Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa)       (Maccabee Haifa)

          Alon Mizrahi      Andrzej Kubica          Amir Turgeman
        (Maccabee Haifa)  (Maccabee Tel-Aviv)  (Maccabee Ironi Ashdod)

Hapoel Haifa           - 5.
Maccabee Haifa         - 3.
Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa    - 1.
Maccabee Tel-Aviv      - 1.
Maccabee Ironi Ashdod  - 1.


YA:
                                Dudu Awwat
                              (Hapoel Haifa)

 Offer Talker         Arik Benado         Ran Ben-Shimon      Najouan Grayib
(Hapoel Haifa)      (Maccabee Haifa)      (Hapoel Haifa)      (Hapoel Haifa)

Giovanni Rosso       Walid Badir        Yossi Benayoun        Avi Nimni
(Hapoel Haifa)  (Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa)  (Maccabee Haifa)  (Maccabee Tel-Aviv)

                      Alon Mizrahi       Andrzej Kubica
                    (Maccabee Haifa)   (Maccabee Tel-Aviv)

Hapoel Haifa         - 5.
Maccabee Haifa       - 3.
Maccabee Tel-Aviv    - 2.
Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa  - 1.


MO:
                                Dudu Awwat
                              (Hapoel Haifa)

 Offer Talker        Arik Benado        Ran Ben-Shimon     Najouan Grayib
(Hapoel Haifa)     (Maccabee Haifa)     (Hapoel Haifa)     (Hapoel Haifa)

Dmitriy Ulyanov    Giovanni Rosso    Yossi Benayoun         Avi Nimni
 (Hapoel Haifa)    (Hapoel Haifa)   (Maccabee Haifa)   (Maccabee Tel-Aviv)

                     Alon Mizrahi       Offer Shitrit
                   (Maccabee Haifa)   (Beitar Jerusalem)

Hapoel Haifa       - 6.
Maccabee Haifa     - 3.
Beitar Jerusalem   - 1.
Maccabee Tel-Aviv  - 1.

THE REFEREE OF THE ROUND

SS: Dani Koren.

YA: Dani Koren.

THE DISCOVERY OF THE ROUND

SS: Yaniv Katan, forward, Maccabee Haifa.

YA: Agreed. Barukh Dego is "The Surprise Of The Round".

MO: Katan was great for his age, both in the League and in Europe, but I'd personally go for Barukh Dego, midfielder, Maccabee Ironi Ashdod.

THE MOST JUSTIFIED PURCHASE OF THE ROUND

YA: Yossi Benayoun, midfielder, Maccabee Haifa. Only $620K did Yaacov Shakhar pay to Hapoel Beer-Sheva to loan "the Israeli Michael Owen" for 2 years, and he's already returned all the investments, with 7 goals and 5 assists in the League, 2 goals (amongst them the masterpiece scored in Paris) and 3 assists in Europe, and a wonderful quality of play that brings the spectators to the tribunes.

MO: Agreed. With all the Round 1 disappointments belonging to the Yellows of Maccabee Tel-Aviv, it still provided us with the 2 contenders for this nomination - Andrzej Kubica (Poland), forward, and Michael Emenalo (Nigeria), defender.

THE BEST FOREIGNER OF THE ROUND

YA: Giovanni Rosso (Croatia), midfielder, Hapoel Haifa.

SS: Agreed.

91: Agreed.

MO: Agreed. The best player who is a foreigner, automatically becomes "The Best Foreigner" as well :-) The other contenders - Andrzej Kubica (Poland), forward, Maccabee Tel-Aviv; Dmitriy Ulyanov (Russia), midfielder, Hapoel Haifa; Goran Milenko (Croatia), midfielder, Hapoel Haifa; Michael Emenalo (Nigeria), defender, Maccabee Tel-Aviv; Victor Pacha (Albania), forward, Hapoel Jerusalem; Samson Siasiah (Nigeria), forward, Hapoel Tsafririm Holon. The great moments were given also by the recent purchases, Georgi Daraselia (Georgia), midfielder, Hapoel Tsafririm Holon, and Alberto Naveda (Argentina), midfielder, Maccabee Ironi Ashdod.

THE GREATEST DISAPPOINTENT OF THE ROUND (TEAM)

YA: Hapoel Tel-Aviv.

91: Agreed.

MO: Definitely Hapoel Tel-Aviv, with Maccabee Herzliya coming very close. Beitar Jerusalem and Maccabee Tel-Aviv could've done better as well, but they lose to the first two in this unpleasant category by far.

THE GREATEST DISAPPOINTMENT OF THE ROUND (PLAYER)

SS: Rafi Cohen, keeper, Maccabee Tel-Aviv.

YA: Agreed.

MO: Agreed. Vladimir Niederhaus (Russia), midfielder, Maccabee Herzliya, and Sebastian Simerotic (Slovenia), forward, Hapoel Tel-Aviv, come quite close to the former National keeper who stopped seeing the field and lost his place to the veteran Alexander Uvarov.

THE GOAL OF THE ROUND

YA: Giovanni Rosso, Hapoel Haifa, 2:1 vs Beitar Jerusalem (2:1).

91:

1) Giovanni Rosso, Hapoel Haifa, 2:1 vs Beitar Jerusalem (2:1).
2) Istvan Salloi, Beitar Jerusalem, 1:1 vs Maccabee Yaffa (7:1).
3) Avi Nimni, Maccabee Tel-Aviv, 3:0 vs Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa (3:0).
4) Alberto Naveda, Maccabee Ironi Ashdod, 1:0 vs Hapoel Haifa (3:2).
5) Tibor Balog, Maccabee Ironi Ashdod, 3:1 vs H. Petakh-Tikwa (4:1).
6) Avishai Zhano, Maccabee Haifa, 6:0 vs Hapoel Jerusalem (6:1).
7) Alon Mizrahi, Maccabee Haifa, 1:0 vs Maccabee Petakh-Tikwa (4:0).
8) Offer Shitrit, Beitar Jerusalem, 3:2 vs Hapoel Kefar-Saba (3:2).
9) Oren Flash, Hapoel Tsafririm Holon, 1:1 vs Beitar Jerusalem (2:1).
10) Gabor Marton, Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa, 2:1 vs Beitar Jerusalem (3:2).

MO: That's hard to disagree to such a remarkable list, including the winner (let's not forget, in addition to its beauty, also the minute it was scored at), but I still lack here several great goals, in my opinion. I'll list another 20 of those, in a chronological order:

Yossi Abuksis, Beitar Jerusalem, 2:2 vs Hapoel Rishon le-Zion (2:2).
Offer Shitrit, Beitar Jerusalem, 4:1 vs Maccabee Haifa (4:2).
Yaniv Biton, Hapoel Beit-Shean, 1:1 vs Hapoel Tsafririm Holon (1:1).
Nidal Mahamid, Maccabee Yaffa, 1:3 vs Bnei-Yehuda Tel-Aviv (1:6).
Shlomi Danino, Hapoel Jerusalem, 2:2 vs Maccabee Tel-Aviv (3:2).
Moti Kakun, Hap. Petakh-Tikwa, 2:1 vs Bnei-Yehuda Tel-Aviv (2:1).
Samson Siasiah, Hapoel Tsafririm Holon, 2:1 vs Beitar Jerusalem (2:1).
Igal Entebbi, Maccabee Herzliya, 2:1 vs Maccabee Tel-Aviv (2:3).
Walid Badir, Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa, 1:1 vs Beitar Jerusalem (3:2).
Yossi Benayoun, Maccabee Haifa, 1:0 vs Bnei-Yehuda Tel-Aviv (4:0).
Sebastian Simerotic, Hapoel Tel-Aviv, 1:0 vs Maccabee Petakh-Tikwa (3:1).
Adrian Ungur, Hapoel Kefar-Saba, 1:0 vs Maccabee Herzliya (1:0).
Shalom Tikwa, Hapoel Tel-Aviv, 7:3 vs Hapoel Rishon le-Zion (7:3).
Goran Milenko, Hapoel Haifa, 1:0 vs Beitar Jerusalem (2:1).
Walid Badir, Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa, 3:0 vs Hapoel Kefar-Saba (4:2).
Yair Simhon, Maccabee Herzliya, 2:2 vs Hapoel Rishon le-Zion (2:2).
Giovanni Rosso, Hapoel Haifa, 2:0 vs Hapoel Kefar-Saba (6:0).
Goran Milenko, Hapoel Haifa, 1:1 vs Maccabee Ironi Ashdod (2:3).
Alon Mizrahi, Maccabee Haifa, 1:1 vs Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa (3:1).
Cobi Refua, Bnei-Yehuda Tel-Aviv, 1:1 vs Hapoel Tsafririm Holon (1:3).


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