Yet another win for Haifa, 3rd in a row! This time a 1-0 home win agaisnt Kiryat Shmona. Omri Afek scored the only game in the match on the 85th minute after coming from the bench on the 59th minute to make his 1st appearance on the team.
Probably the best start a player can have.

In other games, Hapoel Tel-Aviv keeps losing, this time 1-0 away at Sakhnin. They are now 2nd to last. Beitar came from behind to win 2-1 (agaisnt Maccabi Petah-Tikva) for the 4th time in 6 matches and are still undefeted and at the top.
Maccabi Tel-Aviv will be playing Natanya today to complete the 6th day of matches.

Other results:

Kfar Saba 2-3 Herzelia
Ashdod 3-0 Bney Yehuda

And the Table:

1.Beitar Jerusalem___16__+12
2.Sakhnin__________11___0
3.Maccabi Natanya___10___+6 (missing game)
4.Kiryat Shmona_____10___+2
5.Maccabi Haifa____9___+2
6.M.Petach Tikva_____9___+1
7.Kfar Saba_________8___0
8.Bney Yehuda_______8__-1
9.Ashdod___________7___-7
10.Herzeliya_________6__-5
--------------------------------------------------
11.H.Tel-Aviv________3__-4
12.M.Tel-Aviv________1__-6 (missing game)

It's good for you because Kiryat Shmona is 4th and you 5th. They don't take points while you take 3 pts.

Next week we are going to Natanya (3rd) and the week after Beitar are coming to Haifa. 6 points from those 2 would be soooo great. Would take us to at least 3rd place.

Haifa is back to losing, this time away at Natanya. We went ahead at the 32nd minute but got 2 goals on the 72nd and 76th minutes to end the game 2-1 to Natanya. Poor display by the Haifa defense and even poorer from Boccoli and Renato. Both players are out of shape and our lousy coach does nothing.
In 7 games we played 4 times in green and lost 4 times, the other 3 we played in black and won, odd

Beitar beat Maccabi Tel-Aviv 2-0 and still ranked 1st while Maccabi Tel-Aviv has 6 losses and a draw in 7 games. It looks as if they are on their way to the 2nd divison for the 1st time in their history. Hapoel Tel-Aviv will play Ashdod tonight to end the 7th day of games.

Other results:

Kiryat Shmona 2-2 Kfar Saba
Bney Yehuda 0-1 Maccabi Petah-Tikva
Herzelia 0-1 Sakhnin

And the Table:

1.Beitar Jerusalem___19__+14
2.Maccabi Natanya___16___+9
3.Sakhnin__________14___+1
4.M.Petach Tikva____12___+2
5.Kiryat Shmona_____11___+2
6.Maccabi Haifa____9___+2
7.Kfar Saba_________9___0
8.Bney Yehuda_______8__-2
9.Ashdod___________7___-7 (missing game)
10.Herzeliya_________6__-6
--------------------------------------------------
11.H.Tel-Aviv________3__-4 (missing game)
12.M.Tel-Aviv________1__-10

The coach of Hapoel looks young, how old is he ?

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