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.

Did you have a lot of snow this time ?

As expected Beitar beat Hapoel Tel-Aviv, a superb performance by Hapoel's GK earned Hapoel an honorable 1-0 defeat. From what I've seen it was supposed to end 5 or 6. It seems as if Beitar are on their way to a 2nd consecutive championship and Hapoel are on their way to the 2nd division.

Maccabi Haifa - Toto cup winner 2007-2008!!!

1st title of the year goes to Haifa!!!
A 2-0 victory over Sakhnin in the league's cup final with 2 goals by Renato. The 1st on the 54th minute from the penalty spot after Refaelov was braught down inside the box and the 2nd in the 86th minute to seal off the match. Great victory for Haifa giving us a happy winter break.

After a 3 week vacation Israeli football is back. On saturday Maccabi Tel-Aviv (now with their new Canadian owner) continued improving and beat Kfar-Saba 3-0 away. Hapoel Tel-Aviv got their 2nd win of the season, this time a 1-0 victory agaisnt Bney-Yehuda causing the two to switch place in the table. The rest of the games, which included teams from the higher half of the table ended in draws.
Beitar drew 1-1 with Herzelia, Natanya and Sakhnin ended their game with a boring 0-0 as did Ashdod and Kiryat-Shmona.
Since all of the upper half teams drew Haifa had an opportunity last night to advance to 2nd place but they blew it. We played away agaisnt Petah-Tikva and in 90 minutes Petah tikva only managed 2 strikes at goal, one got in on the 54th minute after a bad pass back from Bokoli found Tsemah free infront of goal. 19 minutes later Katan scored the equalizer. On the 87th minute Arbeitman had a great chance of winning the game for us but he stumbled and the game ended at 1-1.

After 14 games the table is like this:

1.Beitar Jerusalem____34__+23
2.Maccabi Natanya____25___+10
3.Maccabi Haifa____24___+10
4.M.Petach Tikva_____24___+6
5.Kiryat Shmona_____24___+6
6.Sakhnin___________24___+3
7.Kfar Saba_________20___-2
8.M.Tel-Aviv_________14___-4
9.Herzeliya__________12___-10
10.Ashdod___________12___-17
--------------------------------------------------
11.H.Tel-Aviv________9___-10
12.Bney Yehuda______8___-15

You're back at the top, there are 5 maccabi in your league. Hapoel have won but it's against a team who is in the bottom.

I'm a little hammered so I hope I dont make too many mistakes...
Anyway Beitar finally lost, 1-0 to Skahnin at home after Maor Buzaglo scored on the 89th minute. This with 3 other top half wins by Kiryat-Shmona (2-1 at home agaisnt Petah-Tikva), Netanya (3-0 at home agaisnt Ashdod) and Haifa's 3-1 agaisnt Maccabi Tel-Aviv (goals by Rosso, Afek and Gita) made the gap between Beitar and the runner ups only 6 points, the league is open again.
Also Hapoel Tel-Aviv are back to losing, this time 2-1 against Kfar-Saba. Hapoel missed a penalty kick in the 91st minute. Bney Yehuda got a chance to push Hapoel back to last place but they concided they're 10th loss in a row (1-0 at home to Herzeliya) and finshed the 15th day in the last place.
The table is now like this:

1.Beitar Jerusalem____34__+22
2.Maccabi Natanya____28___+12
3.Maccabi Haifa____27___+12
4.Kiryat Shmona_____27___+7
5.Sakhnin___________27___+4
6.M.Petach Tikva_____24___+5
7.Kfar Saba_________23___-1
8.Herzeliya__________15___-9
9.M.Tel-Aviv_________14___-6
10.Ashdod___________12___-19
--------------------------------------------------
11.H.Tel-Aviv________9___-11
12.Bney Yehuda______8___-16

Ashdod are pretty low which sucks, i like to consider them my israeli team

Ashdod? Why'd you pick them???
People from Ashdod didnt pick them!

That'l be why then!!

Years ago i had a poster to make in RE(Religious education) we did it on Ashdod(because at the time we were immature and liked the name), our justification was it had something to do with judaism

Needless to say the teacher wasnt impressed!

Ever since ive looked out for their results really.

Haifa is finaly close to the top. After watching Natanya end their game with Petah-Tikva in a goaless draw Haifa went to Kfar-Saba and beat the loacal team 3-0 with Refalov scoring the 1st on the 6th minute and Kfar-Saba's defense doing the rest with 2 own goals on the 21st and 92nd minutes.
Maccabi Tel-Aviv managed to score a late equalizer agaisnt Kiryat-Shmona in the 91st minute ending tehir game 2-2.In the bottom Bney Yehuda took a point away from Sakhnin and stopped a 10 losses strik, and Hapoel Tel-Aviv won a crucual match agaisnt Herzelia 3-2 with a dodgy penalty kick on the 85th minue. This win sent them back above the red line after Beitar managed a 2-1 away win agaisnt Ashdod.

So, 16 days into the league and the table is like this:

1.Beitar Jerusalem____37__+23
2.Maccabi Haifa____30___+15
3.Maccabi Natanya____29___+13
4.Kiryat Shmona_____28___+7
5.Sakhnin___________28___+4
6.M.Petach Tikva_____25___+5
7.Kfar Saba_________23___-4
8.M.Tel-Aviv_________15___-6
9.Herzeliya__________15___-10
10.H.Tel-Aviv________12___-10
--------------------------------------------------
11.Ashdod___________12___-20
12.Bney Yehuda______9___-16

What do you think? Does Haifa has a chance of winning it?