His name is Guy Luzon, and he was 32 last August.
(I'm guessing you meant Hapoel Tel-Aviv's coach)

Yes it's Hapoel Tel-Aviv.

Haifa drew at home 0-0 against Beitar. We were the better team but the ref decided to interfere and disqualified a legal goal for Haifa. Gustavo Boccoli (Haifa) had also managed to miss a penalty kick on the 42nd minute after Kalle (Beitar's GK) kicked him in the penalty box. Other than that football wasnt the main issue last night. Last night was 12 years since Yitshak Rabin (Israel's prime minister back in 1995) was murdered. As I mentioned in a diffrent post an U-17 Player of Haifa was murdered last week so there was a minute of silence before the game to honur them both. During that minute Beitar fans (not a few but hundreds of them) Booed Rabin and hailed his murderer.
This provoked a number of responses in the press, government, Knesset (Israeli parliament) and the Israeli FA. Hopfully Beitar will have to play some games with no crowd and maybe even lose some points over that.

Maccabi Tel-Aviv won for the 1st time this season (3-1 at home against Bney-Yehuda) and advanced to the 11th place. Hapoel Tel-Aviv on the other hand lost again (1-2 away at Petah-Tikva) and replaced Maccabi at the bottom.

Other results:

Ashdod 0-1 Herzelia
Kiryat Shmona 0-0 Natnya
Kfar Saba 0-0 Sakhnin

And the table after 8 matches:

1.Beitar Jerusalem___20__+14
2.Maccabi Natanya___17___+9
3.M.Petach Tikva____15___+3
4.Sakhnin__________15___+1
5.Kiryat Shmona_____12___+2
6.Maccabi Haifa____10___+1
7.Kfar Saba_________10___0
8.Ashdod___________10___-7
9.Herzeliya__________9___-5
10.Bney Yehuda______8___-4
--------------------------------------------------
11.M.Tel-Aviv________4___-8
12.H.Tel-Aviv________3___-7

It's not a bad result for you because you played against the first.

Hello Asi,

I watched the match on JumpTV, like you recommended. I think that Maccabi Haifa really outplayed Beitar Jerusalem. Too bad we missed both penalty kicks, but I see we moved up one position, from 7 to 6.

If we can beat Bnei Yehuda next, we will move up even higher!!

-Hillel

A 3-0 away win, that's what Haifa did this weekend at Bloomfield stadium against Bney-Yehuda (their 4th consecutive loss). Goals from Renato (3rd minute), Keinan (13) and Afek (60) made that win possible. Boccoloi finally gave a good game, I hope he can keep his level up for Hapoel Tel-Aviv in 2 weeks.
Beitar was held to a 0-0 at home agaisnt Kiryat-Shmona. This is the 1st time this season they dont win at home. Unfortenety Natanya, who were 2nd before this day of games, lost 3-2 at home to Kfar-Saba after leading 2-0 at the 17th minute and left Beitar at the top. Sakhnin with a convinsing 3-0 home win agaisnt Ashdod took Natanya's place at 2nd.

Tonight the 2 poor team of Tel-Aviv meet head to head to find out who's the weakest. I think Maccabi is going to win this match although I really wish they didnt. I really want to see Maccabi Tel-Aviv in the 2nd division next year.

Next week there are no games due to the Israel - Russia game.

Other results:

Herzelia 1-1 Petah-Tikva

And the table after 9 matches:

1.Beitar Jerusalem___21__+14
2.Sakhnin__________18___+4
3.Maccabi Natanya___17___+9
4.M.Petach Tikva____16___+3
5.Maccabi Haifa____13___+4
6.Kiryat Shmona_____13___+2
7.Kfar Saba_________13___+1
8.Herzeliya_________10___-5
9.Ashdod___________10___-10
10.Bney Yehuda______8___-7
--------------------------------------------------
11.M.Tel-Aviv________4___-8 (missing game)
12.H.Tel-Aviv________3___-7 (missing game)

how is Yaniv Katan getting on? he was supposed to be a good player but i never got to see much of him!?

He's Haifa's co-captain (with GK Davidovich). Scored twice and added 1 assist in the 6.5 games he played in the league this season. He had a bad begining to the season (like the rest of the team) but he's getting back in shape (again, like the rest of the team). He's a good player but he needs to learn to cope with pressure and if he didnt manage to do that by now (he's almost 27) he probably never will.

BTW, good to see some1 besides Lens and Hillel is reading my posts here. Thought I had a crowd of 2

You go up while the clubs of Tel Aviv stay at the bottom. Have they already known a situation like that ?

Hapoel had their ups and downs but Maccabi was never relegated. I think every1 hopes it happens this year.
By the way, Bney Yehuda are also from Tel-Aviv so all 3 Tel-Aviv clubs are last

Asi,
Am I right that Roni Levy did not start Paulinho yesterday? Who took his place? Maybe the team has better chemistry without Paulinho? What do you think?

Yes Hillel, you are right. Paulinho wasnt in the starting 11. Boccoli was sent back to do his job while Kial took Boccoli's job on the left.
I dont think it's chemistry, I think Paulinho is a poor excuse of a defensive midfielder. If we still had Dircao I beilve we would have won (or at least draw) the 1st 3 games of the season and would have been right at the top.

no no, i like to take an interest in other leagues etc, particularly when it is well produced and simple to follow like you do. (there you go, a compliment for you mate!)

being as West Ham have a bit of a history with Israeli players its always nice to hear how they are getting on.

(Eyal Berkovic, Yossi Benayoun, Yaniv Katan)

'Ha-Kosem' was actually my favourite player at the time we had him, he had amazing skill and vision.

Tnx for the compliment than
I guess you know that but if you dont I'll say it anyways. The last club in Israel for all 3 of these players was Maccabi Haifa. Benayoun Played for us for 3 years but both Katan and Berkovic played for Haifa since they were little kids.
I think we've talked about Berkovic a while ago, he was a great player but he still needs to learn to keep his mouth shut.

After finishing the Euro 2008 qualifiers with 2 wins and jumping to the 26th plave in the FIFA ranking Israel went back to the domestic football puddle.
Haifa beat the sinking H.Tel-Aviv ship at home 2-0 with 2 1st half headers from Keinan and Renato. This made H.Tel-Aviv's coach quit his job with no replacment yet. M.Tel-Aviv lost the derby 2 weeks ago but won an important match agaisnt Herzelia this weekend, 2-0 at home. On the higher part of the table Petah-Tikva beat Sakhnin 2-0 at home causeing Sakhnin to complain (again) the ref was against them only because they are arabs. This and the fact that Natanya lost to Beitar at home 1-0 took Petah-Tikva to 2nd place and Beiatr kept their 1st place making the margin from 2nd 5 points.

Other results:

Kiryat-Shmona 2-1 Bney Yehuda (This is Bney Yahuda's 6th lose in a row!)
Kfar Saba 3-1 Ashdod

And the table after 10 matches:

1.Beitar Jerusalem____24__+15
2.M.Petach Tikva_____19___+5
3.Sakhnin___________18___+2
4.Maccabi Natanya____17___+8
5.Maccabi Haifa____16___+6
6.Kiryat Shmona_____16___+3
7.Kfar Saba_________16___+3
8.Herzeliya__________10___-7
9.Ashdod___________10___-12
10.Bney Yehuda______8___-8
--------------------------------------------------
11.M.Tel-Aviv________7___-7
12.H.Tel-Aviv________6___-8

I was in Milano last weekend so I missed the games so I'll just give you the improtant score, Haifa beat Herzelia 1-0.
This weekend Haifa traveled to Sakhnin and scored the 1st on the 21st minute (Katan, penalty). At the 59th the ref went crzay and sent off 2 Haifa players (Keinan - cenetr back and Mesilela - left back) leaving Haifa with 9 men. 31 minutes later the game ended 1-1 mainly due to the heroic performance by our goal keeper Davidovich.
Hapoel Tel-Aviv changed their coach and still lost, this time 1-0 to Natanya. Beitar kept on winning and beat Bney-Yehuda 3-0 with a little help from the ref who disallowed a legal goal for Bney-Yehuda and allowed an ilegal goal for Beitar (all when it was still 0-0).
Maccabi Tel-Aviv drew with Ashdod in the most boring game ever and due to Bney-Yehuda's lost they are now above the red line. Also Petah Tikva and Kfar saba ended thier game 0-0 after Omer Golan (of Petah Tikva) missed a penalty kick on the 84th minute and Herzelia lost to Kiryat-Shmona 3-1.

So after 12 games the table is like this:

1.Beitar Jerusalem____30__+22
2.Maccabi Natanya____23___+10
3.M.Petach Tikva_____23___+7
4.Kiryat Shmona_____22___+6
5.Sakhnin___________22___+3
6.Maccabi Haifa____20___+7
7.Kfar Saba_________17___-1
8.Ashdod___________11___-14
9.Herzeliya__________10___-10
10.M.Tel-Aviv________8___-8
--------------------------------------------------
11.Bney Yehuda______8___-12
12.H.Tel-Aviv________6___-10

I was in Milano last weekend so I missed the games so I'll just give you the improtant score, Haifa beat Herzelia 1-0.
This weekend Haifa traveled to Sakhnin and scored the 1st on the 21st minute (Katan, penalty). At the 59th the ref went crzay and sent off 2 Haifa players (Keinan - cenetr back and Mesilela - left back) leaving Haifa with 9 men. 31 minutes later the game ended 1-1 mainly due to the heroic performance by our goal keeper Davidovich.
Hapoel Tel-Aviv changed their coach and still lost, this time 1-0 to Natanya. Beitar kept on winning and beat Bney-Yehuda 3-0 with a little help from the ref who disallowed a legal goal for Bney-Yehuda and allowed an ilegal goal for Beitar (all when it was still 0-0).
Maccabi Tel-Aviv drew with Ashdod in the most boring game ever and due to Bney-Yehuda's lost they are now above the red line. Also Petah Tikva and Kfar saba ended thier game 0-0 after Omer Golan (of Petah Tikva) missed a penalty kick on the 84th minute and Herzelia lost to Kiryat-Shmona 3-1.

So after 12 games the table is like this:

1.Beitar Jerusalem____30__+22
2.Maccabi Natanya____23___+10
3.M.Petach Tikva_____23___+7
4.Kiryat Shmona_____22___+6
5.Sakhnin___________22___+3
6.Maccabi Haifa____20___+7
7.Kfar Saba_________17___-1
8.Ashdod___________11___-14
9.Herzeliya__________10___-10
10.M.Tel-Aviv________8___-8
--------------------------------------------------
11.Bney Yehuda______8___-12
12.H.Tel-Aviv________6___-10

It was difficult to win with only 9 players, so it's a good result in this case. Where will go the young coach of Hapoel ?

He's unemployed for now

When there are some bad results, it's always the coach that the clubs put out.

This time I agree with the decision to kick the coach out. He buit the team poorly, after they sold 3 main players to belgian clubs he kicked thier captain out. When a team losses 3 important players they need their familiar captain to keep the rest together. It was a very poor decision to kick him out.

Last night we had the smei-fianls of the league cup (Toto cup). In the 1st match Sakhnin beat Bney-Yehuda 3-1 at penalties after 1-1 at the end of 120 minutes. The 2nd match was Beitar Vs. Maccabi Haifa. Haifa came to this match without 8(!!) out of the opening 11 due to injuries and red/yellow cards. After 17 minutes the ref gave Beitar an unjustified penalty which Idan tal scored. At the 20th minute Beitar was left in 10 men after Tomer Ben-Shushan fouled Renato when he was the last men in the defence. 41st minute and Shay Maimon scored for Haifa, half time 1-1.
On the 59th minute the oddest goal I've ever seen. Davidovich (Haifa's GK) wanted to kick the ball forward, Gal Alberman of Beitar shoved his leg in the pass and the ball hit him and went in, 2-1 for Beitar. 75th Minute and Renato with a supereb right foot scored to end the 90 minutes at 2-2. That was also the score after 120 minutes sending the teams to a penalty shoot-out.
After 18 (!!) penalty kicks the game ended 8-7 to...................Haifa!!!
The final is next week I'm thinking Sakhnin will beat us but a man can dream

And another win for Haifa! This time 3-0 at home agaisnt Ashdod. Renato scored with a little chip above the GK on the 10th minute, an own goal on the 88th minute and Mesilela, with his 1st goal for Haifa, on th 92nd. Sakhnin and Kiryat-Shmona ended their game with no goals as did Natanya and Herzelia. Maccabi Tel-Aviv are finally waking up and last night they beat Maccabi Petah-Tikva 2-1 at home and went up to the 8th place. All these results gave Haifa the 3rd place. Finally we're getting somewhere, although we still have 10 points less than Beitar at the top.
Kfar-Saba beat Bney-Yehuda 2-0 starting Bney-Yehuda's new coach on the wrong foot.

Tonight first and last get to meet in Jerusalem as Beitar host Hapoel Tel-Aviv for a sure win for Beitar. Hapoel doesnt have it in them to even draw this match.

Israeli football is going on it's "winter break" for the next 2 weekends so the Toto cup final this wednesday will be the last match for 2007.
It's odd how one of the few non-christian countries in europe (not that Israel is really in europe but that's another subject) Israel is the only one not playing football on christmas.

Anyway, after almost 13 games the table is like this:

1.Beitar Jerusalem____30__+22 (missing game)
2.Maccabi Natanya____24___+10
3.Maccabi Haifa____23___+10
4.M.Petach Tikva_____23___+6
5.Kiryat Shmona_____23___+6
6.Sakhnin___________23___+3
7.Kfar Saba_________20___+1
8.M.Tel-Aviv_________11___-7
9.Herzeliya__________11___-10
10.Ashdod___________11___-17
--------------------------------------------------
11.Bney Yehuda______8___-14
12.H.Tel-Aviv________6___-10 (missing game)

A good win for you.

In France there is a winter break too, we will play next week end and the next time will be on January 12th.

But you guys actually have a winter. Here when it gets REALLY cold it gets to 6-7 degrees celcius. We almost never get snow in places other than Mt. Hermon. My whole life (26 years) it snowed in Haifa once and in Jerusalem 4 or 5 times.