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

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

MO: Agreed. No one deserved the title better than this incredible legionary, courted by Lazio and the other European clubs. Even with his worse skill during Round 2, Hapoel Haifa took its first historic Championship title due to its great midline, led by Rosso. The other serious contenders were: Najouan Grayib, defender, Hapoel Haifa, who moves to Tottenham Hotspurs and becomes one of the greatest Israeli promises of the last years, after Berkovich and Revivo; and Andrzej Kubica (Poland), forward, Maccabee Tel-Aviv, a killing scoring machine, who (together with Avi Nimni) gave no minute of rest to the League's defences.

YA: Eli Gutman, Hapoel Haifa.

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. Nobody else this year was equal to the magician of Haifa.

YA: Hapoel Haifa.

MO: Definitely, Hapoel Haifa, for all the abovementioned reasons. Maccabee Haifa was a huge disappointment after Alon Mizrahi deserted it, and Beitar Jerusalem failed to get any title. Maccabee Tel-Aviv was impressive, indeed, but it started the rush too late, and it was enough only for the 2nd place.

YA (and MO):
                                Dudu Awwat
                              (Hapoel Haifa)

 Offer Talker     Ran Ben-Shimon       Michael Emenalo       Najouan Grayib
(Hapoel Haifa)    (Hapoel Haifa)     (Maccabee Tel-Aviv)     (Hapoel Haifa)

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

                   Andrzej Kubica            Nir Sevilla
                 (Maccabee Tel-Aviv)      (Beitar Jerusalem)

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

YA: Kefir Edri, midfielder, Maccabee Tel-Aviv. Another talent from Dimona, not a man with a touch of Benayoun, but a player of incredible physical qualities and a big wish to give himself to the game.

MO: Agreed. The other competitors - Barukh Dego, midfielder, Maccabee Ironi Ashdod; Mahmoud Salman, forward, Hapoel Jerusalem; Lior Asulin, forward, Maccabee Herzliya.

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 16 goals and 9 passes 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. And he can do even better.

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

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

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.

YA: Beitar Jerusalem and Maccabee Haifa. Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa wasn't a picnic, either.

MO: Agreed, with Hapoel Tsafririm Holon coming very close. A very promising team played dreadfully in the 2nd round, drowning under the red line only for 2 weeks, and in the worst timing possible. As for the first two, a season with no titles and no European participation is a definite disappointment for the 2 empires. Benfica and PSG can breathe evenly now :-)

YA: Ronen Harazi, forward, Maccabee Haifa.

MO: One of the real contenders, but presumably not the winner. Rafi Cohen, keeper, Maccabee Tel-Aviv, stays the leading candidate of mine: from a National team he made all the way deep to the bench of Maccabee Tel-Aviv. Well, at least Alexander Uvarov could give us another great season and obtain the Israeli citizenship... As for the other disappointments, Vladimir Niederhaus (Russia), midfielder, Maccabee Herzliya, and Victor Pacha (Albania), forward, Maccabee Haifa, definitely come to mind; however, Pacha can be excused for his great Round 1 made still in Hapoel Jerusalem.

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

• 2) Alon Mizrahi, Maccabee Haifa, 1:0 vs Maccabee Petakh-Tikwa (4:0).
• 3) Avi Nimni, Maccabee Tel-Aviv, 1:1 vs Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa (2:3).
• 4) Goran Milenko, Hapoel Haifa, 2:0 vs Hapoel Rishon le-Zion (4:0).
• 5) Gabor Marton, Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa, 2:1 vs Beitar Jerusalem (3:2).

91: Giovanni Rosso, Hapoel Haifa, 2:1 vs Beitar Jerusalem (2:1).
Other competitors, in no particular order:

• Gabor Marton, Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa, 2:1 vs Beitar Jerusalem (3:2).
• Goran Milenko, Hapoel Haifa, 2:0 vs Hapoel Rishon le-Zion (4:0).
• Offer Shitrit, Beitar Jerusalem, 3:2 vs Hapoel Kefar-Saba (3:2).
• Oren Zeituni, Hapoel Haifa, 1:1 vs Maccabee Tel-Aviv (3:2).
• Avi Nimni, Maccabee Tel-Aviv, 3:0 vs Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa (3:0).
• Oren Flash, Hapoel Tsafririm Holon, 1:1 vs Beitar Jerusalem (2:1).
• Avishai Zhano, Maccabee Haifa, 6:0 vs Hapoel Jerusalem (6:1).
• Alon Mizrahi, Maccabee Haifa, 1:0 vs Maccabee Petakh-Tikwa (4:0).
• Avi Nimni, Maccabee Tel-Aviv, 1:1 vs Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa (2:3).

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).
• Alon Mizrahi, Maccabee Haifa, 1:0 vs Maccabee Petakh-Tikwa (4:0).
• Samson Siasiah, Hapoel Tsafririm Holon, 2:1 vs Beitar Jerusalem (2:1).
• Igal Entebbi, Maccabee Herzliya, 2:1 vs Maccabee Tel-Aviv (2:3).
• Yossi Benayoun, Maccabee Haifa, 1:0 vs Bnei-Yehuda Tel-Aviv (4:0).
• Goran Milenko, Hapoel Haifa, 1:0 vs Beitar Jerusalem (2:1).
• Tibor Balog, Maccabee Ironi Ashdod, 3:1 vs Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa (4:1).
• Samson Siasiah, Hapoel Tsafririm Holon, 1:0 vs Maccabee Yaffa (1:1).
• Adrian Ungur, Hapoel Kefar-Saba, 3:2 vs Maccabee Petakh-Tikwa (3:2).
• Georgi Daraselia, Hapoel Tsafririm Holon, 1:3 vs Hapoel Haifa (1:3).
• Gabor Marton, Hapoel Tel-Aviv, 1:0 vs Maccabee Tel-Aviv (2:0).
• Avi Nimni, Maccabee Tel-Aviv, 4:0 vs Maccabee Yaffa (4:0).
• Reuven Attar, Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa, 1:0 vs Maccabee Tel-Aviv (3:2).
• Michael Zandberg, Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa, 2:2 vs Maccabee Tel-Aviv (3:2).
• Hezi Shirazi, Bnei-Yehuda Tel-Aviv, 1:0 vs Hapoel Jerusalem (2:0).
• Oren Zeituni, Hapoel Haifa, 2:1 vs Maccabee Tel-Aviv (3:2).
• Yaniv Avvargeal, Hapoel Kefar-Saba, 5:2 vs Hapoel Haifa (7:3).

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