The Stars Of Israeli Soccer: ADORAM KEISI

On November 17th, 2007, the eyes of the whole world were directed to the Israeli National Stadium in Ramat-Gan. The game between Israel and Russia, already too late to mend the Israeli qualification chances for Euro'2008, was nevertheless won 2:1 by the hosts' last gasp winner and offered a life belt to England, which the lacklustre side of Steve McLaren managed somehow to throw away only 4 days later. However, an event of great importance took place at a ceremony before the game too, and it was appropriate for the whole world of soccer fans to see this event as well. Israel was saying farewell to the soccer career of Adoram Keisi, who at the age of 35.5 announced his retirement.

Born on June 17th, 1972, Adoram Keisi grew at the youth team of Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa, taken care of by a then yet relatively unknown trainer called Avraham Grant. After one season on a loan to Shimshon Tel-Aviv, he made a breakthrough in Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa at the age of 20 and left quite some impression, immediately winning a State Cup. He would stay in the team of his youth till the end of the 1995-96 season, albeit grounded for most of the last year after a horrible injury; later on he would return to Hapoel Petakh-Tikwa for the 2004-05 season and help them win a Toto Cup. However, his best years belonged to Maccabee Haifa, where he won 3 Championships, 1 State Cup and 2 Toto Cups and also participated in the finest Israeli exploitations in the European Cups (Cup Winners' Cup quarterfinals in the 1998-99 season, the Champions' League group stage in the 2002-03 season and finally 1/8 finals of UEFA Cup in the 2006-07 season). His skill as a left wing defender supporting the attacking line didn't disappear from the eyes of the coaches of the Israeli National team, for which he was capped 55 times, scoring 4 goals. During the season of 2002-03 he also set an endurance record for an Israeli player, playing for 5724 (!) minutes in 66 (!) official games.

This dry statistics summarizes in just several lines a magnificent defender's career. Let's not forget that defender (or defending midfielder) is perhaps the most ungrateful soccer amplois. The keepers are indeed criticized very often and carry a bulk of responsibility for failures, but their acrobatics and glorious saves enter our memory for ever, as well as their names. The attacking midfielders and the scorers are not very often criticized for their misses (unless those are especially bad) and are responsible for scoring goals - and the quality (or the quantity) of those stay in our memory as well, as goals are the ultimate goal of the soccer game and the main reason we love it. Playmakers are perhaps the most honored species. But defenders?.. To be remembered with warmth as such, you must be an unpenetratable wall of confidence for years and years, making virtually never a blunder, like Paolo Maldini. Or you should be like Adoram Keisi, not only participating in history, but also actively making it. For rare were the players in Israel who took part in so many spectacular and important goals at the highest level and with the biggest possible world coverage as this lean defender with remarkable attacking abilities and a rare killing instinct.

Although they already had registered remarkable victories over Torpedo Moscow and AC Parma in the Cup Winners' Cup of the 1993-94 season, the real breakthrough of Maccabee Haifa (and the Israeli soccer in general) in the European Cups came during the 1998-99 season, when in the last year of the Cup Winners' Cup existence the Greens reached its quarterfinals. The winter break departure of Alon Mizrahi to OSC Nice was deemed the main reason for the gloriless quarterfinal defeat by Lokomotiv Moscow (0:3 away and 0:1 home); however, the Greens, coached by the fresh European Vice-Champion Dusan Uhrin, could still boast two of the most remarkable performances against Paris Saint-Germain and SV Ried im Innkreis, as well as see Alon Mizrahi win "The Best Cup Scorer" award with 7 goals.

Paris Saint-Germain, coached by the French midfield legend Alain Giresse, was still a real powerhouse in those days; the Cup Winners' Cup they had won in 1996 against FC Barcelona was still fresh in memory, and the team could field great stars in its squad. Bernard Lama in the goal, Alain Goma and Christian Woerns in the defence, the Nigerian legend Jay-Jay Okocha in the midfield and Marco Simone, Nicolas Ouedec and Patrice Loko in the truly scary attacking line - what the names those were!.. However, the game in Paris, though clearly dominated by the French, was marked by a superb performance of Nir Davidovich in Haifa's net, including his stunning double save from Ouedec; and even though Marco Simone scored from a penalty spot (82), after a foul of Keisi on Bruno Carotti, the brilliant personal effort of a still unknown 18-years-old Yossi Benayoun (87) equalized the score for the Greens and put them into a good position towards the return leg.

Those thinking the Parisian miracle would be unsuppassable knew nothing yet about the drama awaiting them in the return leg. 0:0 would've been a result bringing Haifa further, but they attacked and took a lead twice in the late stages of the game - and twice the retaliation of Ouedec (72) and Okocha (86) brought the Green joy to nought. With elimination on away goals looming, the stadium moaned in disbelief as Alon Mizrahi hit the crossbar (88) - and then, in the injury time, a breathtaking "spoonful" assist of Yossi Benayoun helped Mizrahi score his 2nd goal of the night, the ball taking a fatal deflection off Alain Goma, arching over the helpless Bernard Lama and giving a sign to an eruption of joy the soccer Haifa had perhaps never experienced before. The game ended after another 5 nailbiting minutes of injury time and not before Avishai Zhano was shown a marching order - but at the end it was the green joy all over.

The happiest person on the pitch was perhaps Adoram Keisi, who managed to atone for his Parisian foul with an opener after an hour of play, one of the most delightful Israeli goals ever seen in the European competitions. Ibrahim Doro raised a free kick from the left side after a foul on Benayoun, and the Czech forward Radovan Romatko headed the ball from 9 meters to the right crossbar of a frozen Bernard Lama. The players of both teams seemed to be stunned with a near miss - and when the ball rebounded into the field, only Keisi reacted and hurled himself to make an impact. The ball jumped on the ground before reaching the defender - and Keisi, finding himself at the keepeer's box corner, threw himself into the air and connected to the ball in a perfect Negrete-style side scissors kick. The ball hit the ground and completely stunned the experienced Bernard Lama, who failed to close his near corner.

The games against the much more modest SV Ried im Innkreis also proved nailbiting and quite emotional. Gerald Strafner hit the Austrian winner in the dying minutes of the first leg, 2:1, and although Haifa knew 1:0 would be enough at home, they lost Offir Koppel to a second yellow card already after 9 minutes of play. Nevertheless, Mizrahi was stopped by Guenther Steininger in a last man foul, and the young Austrian defender was sent off just 2 minutes after Koppel's red card. Benayoun, in perhaps his best game ever for the Greens, provided 2 assists of superb quality to lead Haifa towards the victory - and then, when Michael Anicic, the future star of Hapoel Haifa, equalized the aggregate score after 70 minutes, it was the stinging personal effort of Benayoun himself (74) to bring Haifa ahead again. The 7 minutes of the injury time proved especially hot, as the Austrians were pressing the Greens to their box - but then first Faruk Hujdurovic was sent off with a straight red card for punching the allegedly slow ball boy, and then a quick and lethal counterattack saw Ibrahim Doro set the final score of 4:1 and make the historic quarterfinal qualification complete.

The second goal of Haifa came after 62 minutes of play, after Benayoun was knocked down by Helmut Zeller at the right side. Benayoun himself took the resulting free kick and raised the ball into the box - and Keisi, always a great heading talent, was there to use the chance. Raising over everybody at around the penalty mark, he headed the ball diagonally to the ground - and it raised over the desperately flying Milan Orzje and entered his right corner directly under the crossbar. What an effort!

Those two goals made Keisi's name known in Europe as well as in Israel, but he was still to score the most meaningful goal of his European Cups career. This happened in the 2002-03 season. A short reminder for the second consecutive season of Israeli glory in Europe, after the unforgettable run of Hapoel Tel-Aviv to the UEFA Cup quarterfinals a year beforehand, is perhaps recommended. In a first ever Israeli appearance in the group stage of the Champions' League, Yaniv Katan stunned the Old Trafford stadium with a quick opener, before Haifa lost 2:5 to the Red Devils, falling victim to such exquisite scorers as Giggs, Solskjaer, Veron, van Nistelrooy and Forlan. Having to play outside Israel due to the highly doubtful UEFA security decision and hosting the highly riding Olympiakos Piraeus in Cyprus in what was factually nearly a home game for the Greeks, Haifa registered an incredible victory of 3:0; Yakubu Aiyegbeni scored a hat-trick and thus recommended himself for the Premier League, where he was about to make a brilliant career with Portsmouth, Middlesbrough and Everton. Two close losses to the fresh Champions' League finalists Bayer Leverkusen, 0:2 and 1:2, ultimately denied Haifa the place in the last 16 of the Champions' League, but as a farewell greeting they made a fighting 3:3 draw in Greece; Katan, Aiyegbeni and Badir were the scorers. The most glorious result that stunned Europe was, however, a "home" devastation of Manchester United, 3:0; although the Red Devils travelled to Cyprus without many key players after having already qualified for the next stage, this result still stays one of the biggest Champions' League surprises ever. Yaniv Katan and especially Raymondas Zutautas scored two of the finest goals ever seen in the Champions' League, and Yakubu Aiyegbeni added his daily share from a penalty spot after a foul on Zutautas.

This was a time to be really proud for the Israeli clubs in Europe, and though Maccabee Tel- Aviv could somehow scratch some points off Bayern Munich, Juventus Turin and Ajax Amsterdam in the Champions' League 2 seasons later, the feats of Haifa still stay unsurpassed. But on August 28th, 2002, such a glorious season could yet hardly be foreseen. Yakubu Aiyegbeni indeed gave Haifa a relatively comfortable first leg cushion with 2 unanswered goals against Sturm Graz, but was sent off in a return leg played at Arnold Schwarzenegger Stadium. Eduard Bosner (11) scored an opener, and although another Israeli soccer legend, Giovanni Rosso, temporarily equalized (27), the later goals of Imre Szabics (58) and Guenter Neukirchner (73) brought Haifa to the brink of elimination. They hung on by the hair-thin thread of away goals - and the experienced Austrians were pressing hard with 17 minutes left to go...

The hosts needed just one goal to finish their impressive comeback and to reach the group phase of the Champions' League where they had by then become quite the routine guests. However, a rare counterattack of the Greens took the wind off the Austrian sails. A free kick from the left side was sent flatly into the box, and a feeble attempt at clearing the ball hit Adoram Keisi. The defender, surprised however he was, reacted instinctively, reaching the ball in time to bypass an Austrian defender and then sending the ball between the hands of the hosts' keeper under the roof of the net. Tears ran over Keisi's cheeks as he celebrated this goal, the dreams of the Israeli participation in the Champions' League suddenly becoming a reality. Keisi - and Walid Badir with his last minute equalizer against the brokenhearted Austrians - thus gave Haifa a chance to prove itself at the highest stage of the World Club soccer and set in motion a whole set of great private successes of Haifa's squad, be it a stellar career of Yakubu Aiyegbeni, the unforgettable double of the trainer Itzhak Shum with Panathinaikos Athens the next year, or the historic appearance of the first ever Israeli legionnaire, the Croatian Giovanni Rosso, at the pitches of Euro'2004 for 199 minutes.

The Israeli National team also made some progress over years since becoming a full-fledged UEFA member in 1992. Their first participation was marked by an unforgettable 3:2 defeat of France in Paris, ultimately preventing the Tricoleur of Cantona, Ginola and Papin from taking part in WC'1994; however, the Israelis finished last in their group, even below Finland. The later qualification cycles saw them reach the Euro'2000 qualification play-offs at the expense of Austria, which they defeated 5:0 in Ramat-Gan; the losses to Denmark in those play-offs, 0:5 at home and 0:3 away, and the subsequent call girls affair exposure stained the great achievement quite mightily, though. The era of Shlomo Sherf ended on this minor note, and there came the Danish European Champion of 1992, Richard Moeller-Nielsen. A great specialist and human being, Moeller-Nielsen was haunted by a bad luck for the latest years of his training career - and Israel under his leadership was denied yet another play-off by a revengeful Austria, a last minute free kick equalizer of Andreas Herzog in Ramat-Gan breaking many thousand an Israeli heart. The next campaign, already under Avraham Grant, was indeed a disaster of epic proportions - Israel couldn't prove a match to France and even Slovenia, and the bottom of an abyss was reached with a home draw of 2:2 against Malta. Grant, however, stayed at the helm for another trial - and although Israel was left empty-handed again, it delivered the most extraordinary campaign up to date, making its National team the hot subject all over the soccer Europe and paving Grant's way to the Premier League, where he later on replaced the legendary Jose Mourinho at FC Chelsea.

Adoram Keisi scored a very important goal in Cyprus, opening the score there and helping the Israelis finally defeat their stubborn island neighbors away (2:1) from a fourth attempt. But the real fights in "The Group Of Death" were held till the very end between France, Ireland, Israel and Switzerland. It was a sublime effort of the great Thierry Henry in Dublin finally breaking the deadlock - all the other games between "The Four Musketeers" ended in draws! Had Ireland held their ground against the future World Cup finalists, Israel would've qualified - with all teams tied at the equal points and the equal internal goal difference, the amount of scored goals would've counted. As it happened to be, though, Israel came only 3rd to the finish line, losing the 2nd place leading to play-offs to Switzerland on a goal difference. On October 8th, 2005, Israel defeated the Faroe Islands 2:1 and conquered temporarily the leadership in the group - but with all their games up, they had to watch agonizingly during the Jewish Atonement Day 4 days later, how France expectedly disposed of Cyprus with a 4:0 win and shattered the last illusion of hope for the Blues and Whites...

On March 30th, 2005, the world set its eyes to Ramat-Gan to see whether France could finally find its form without Zinedine Zidane and set itself onto the route of victories again. The French registered by that time only three disappointing goalless home draws against their main opponents in the group, whereas Israel only 4 days beforehand narrowly escaped a home defeat by Ireland, through a last minute wonder strike of Abbas Suan. And the game between the two old rivals got a bit of a political flavour as well. In an interview given before the game, the famous French keeper Fabien Barthez allowed himself some anti-Israeli comments; the Israeli spectators reacted by whistling dring the French national anthem before the game and by welcoming every touch of Barthez with cacophony of disapproving grunts. The French legend reacted each time with his trademark smirk radiating arrogance and superiority.

Despite the goalless first half, the French start dominating after the break. David Trezeguet used yet another horrendous reaction of Dudu Awwat to the high ball and headed the opener home (50), and then Sylvain Wiltord hit the bar with a killing shot. But the French momentum stopped as quickly as it appeared. Just 5 minutes after the goal, David Trezeguet got kicked down by Tal Ben-Haim in the center circle. The foul wasn't pleasant, but the experienced veteran Trezeguet chose to headbutt the defender, in a warm-up for another French headbutt the whole world could see live in a World Cup final 15 months later. The German referee Marcus Merk, close to the events, booked Ben-Haim and showed Trezeguet the immediate marching order - and the French coach Raymond Domenech decided erroneously to give any initiative up and to keep the minimal victorious score.

It looked for a while as if the "defeatist" tactics would succeed. Yossi Benayoun worked his magic in the French box, only to see Eric Abidal reaching the ball with the stopper of his boot and cleaning it away - and from a resulting corner Omri Afek hit the bar. And 15 minutes from the end Barthez delivered the home crowd yet another reason to dislike him, this time a sportive one. Pinney Balili was sent by Benayoun into the box and already overran the keeper, but got trapped by Abidal and Willy Sagnol at an angle impossible to shoot from. Shaking himself off the defenders, he managed to pass the ball to Avi Nimni just outside the box, while Barthez used the respite to run towards his goal in giant steps. Nimni comfortably directed a mighty ball from 18 meters under the right crossbar of Barthez, opposite to the keeper's rush - and Barthez, in a fantastic mixture of reflexes and acrobatics, reached the ball with his fingertips and threw it over the bar, an unearthy save immensely boosting the French morale.

Let me tell you a couple of words about Fabien Barthez. Leaving his controversial character and sportsmanship aside, one can't help admiring the ability and the achievements of one of the best keepers of the last soccer generation. The World Champion of 1998, the European Champion of 2000 and the World Cup finalist of 2006 played in two World Cup finals and let only 8 goals in the 17 played World Cup games, keeping a clean sheet 10 times and losing only twice in a regular time. He radiated an immense presence and made his defensive line confident, and he could produce saves to keep the spectators' mouth open for minutes, like the one from Nimni's shot I have just described. But unlike for other contemporary giants of keeping, Gianluigi Buffon or Iker Casillas ro name a few, predictability, reliability and stability were not the strongest of Barthez's weapons. There had passed only 9 minutes from the great save he rescued Les Blues with - and then he got to deal with Adoram Keisi...

6 minutes were left till the end of the regular time, when the Israeli left winger finally overran the stubborn challenge of Sagnol and raised the ball into the box from nearly a corner flag. And this was a moment of a sort the thriller directors use the slow motion for, for rarely does so much background action fit into the lonely moments. I imagine the usual smirk of Barthez preparing to catch the seemingly innocent ball turning into a look of disbelief and anxiety, as he realized the ball was acquiring an impossible spin and passing towards his far post out of his reach. This disbelief left Barthez grounded a fracture of a second more than necessary, which was bad enough, but when he finally reacted, the blunder was complete. Trying to intercept the ball with his right hand instead of a more naturally used left, he reached it with his fingertips - but only slowed it down without decisively changing its trajectory. Walid Badir could be only grateful for the keeper's help and coolly nodded the ball from 5 meters into the empty net, equalizing the score and keeping the Israeli hopes of qualification alive. This result - and France was lucky to stick to the result with its teeth in the remaining minutes - also gave way to the sportive trashing of France in the European media one did really not see for a long time.

Keisi also played the full 90 minutes in a legendary Lansdowne Road game on June 4th, 2005, when Israel used its only chances to force a 2:2 draw upon the frustrated Irishmen and had to thank Dudu Awwat for a game of once in a lifetime. (Staying on the field with a fractured nose after a collision with John O'Shea early in the 2nd half, Awwat made the most of it, wasting a lot of time and feigning additional impact to have Andy O'Brien sent off - but he also made at least 3 saves of impossible quality, including the point-black save from O'Shea's header in the injury time I still believe to be one of the best saves ever made). But the real test for the Blues and Whites was a September 4th, 2005 game in Basel, which I had a dubious honor of visiting. To be on a safe side, Israel needed to win the game, and against a relatively grey Swiss side it was anything but impossible - but Grant, visibly shocked by an early opener of Alexander Frei (5) and grateful for a relatively quick equalizer (20), preferred to play in a compact fashion and not to risk a fatal defeat. Benayoun, of whom the Swiss were painfully aware after his doublepack in Ramat-Gan a year before, was shadowed relentlessly by Degen and Senderos, and so the game of Israel was a painful experience. The draw was indeed kept, mostly due to a world class game of Tal Ben- Haim, but at the end it proved not to be enough for the ultimate qualification.

The only positive moment in the Israeli game was indeed the equalizer, scored by nobody else but Adoram Keisi. Idan Tal raised a free kick into the box, and Keisi raised himself over the crowd and, being with his back to the net, headed the ball backwards from 18 meters (!). The nearly 2 meters tall Swiss keeper Pascal Zueberbuehler, who in less than a year would register a no mean feat of 390 dry minutes in the World Cup, was completely dumbfounded by this effort that hit his near post and went in, silencing the St. Jacob stadium save several hundred of Israel's supporters.

Adoram Keisi also took part in another magnificent season of Maccabee Haifa in Europe, 2006- 07. The mighty Liverpool laboured past them with a last minute 2:1 at home and 1:1 away - but seeing the Champions' League participation gone, the Greens recovered to register remarkable victories over Litex Lovech, AJ Auxerre, Partisan Belgrade and the giants of CSKA Moscow on the way to reach the UEFA Cup 1/8 finals. The future finalists, Espanyol Barcelona, finally stopped them there, with a 0:0 in Haifa and a clear 4:0 at Montjuic; however, the result of the return leg could be a bit misleading, as Haifa kept the clean sheet till the 53nd minute.

The following season, or its start, began with a row between Keisi and Haifa's coach Ronnie Levi over the former's place in the Green squad and the overall tactics. On September 27th, 2007, Ronnie Levi issued a statement saying Keisi would never again play for the team he would be a manager of. Just a week later, on October 5th, Keisi decided to turn down an offer to go to Maccabee Herzliya on a loan and instead announced his retirement.

The game between Israel and Russia, in which Elyaniv Barda and Omer Golan justified their inclusion into the National team by scoring goals of great importance, could perhaps give us some hope for finally reaching a big National tournament, say, in 2010. But as the Israeli National team passes a generation change, it was also important to part in an honorable way from a person who contributed so much to putting the Israeli soccer onto a European map. Thank you, Adoram Keisi.