Roberto Collauti opened the game in a blast with a huge goal, Haifa slightly overcame its’ tiredness, but gave in to an equalizer by Gal Alberman. 1:1 in the dual of giants and everything is still open
By: Yitzhak Haberman
All those who expected the games in Europe to exhaust Haifa’s players, were proved partly wrong. Haifa, only 60 hours after its’ appearance against Glasgow Rangers on Thursday (2:0 to the Scots) enlisted all of its’ reserves, fought bravely and with a little luck would have returned home with the full three points.
19 thousands fans, a record number for the Israeli’s league this year, crowded in Teddy Stadium and watched a stressful game, but one that did not raise to a high level. Both coaches, Haifa’s Rony Levi and Jerusalem’s Yossi Mizrahi, knew that the game might have repercussions for the rest of the season, although this is only the eighth game. Haifa opened the game in a storm and scored on the fourth minute. A smoke grenade that was thrown caused a cloud of smoke from which Collauti was able to kick from 25 meters and land the ball in the center of Beitar’s goalpost. Its’ goalie, Itzik Korenfine, could not even respond.
Through out the first half Haifa moved the ball well and busted Jerusalem’s enthusiasm that was looking for a way to exploit Haifa’s weariness. Only in the second half, and for merely fifteen minute, the hosts endangered Davidovich’s goalpost, Haifa’s goalie still maintains a high level even though his thumb has been broken for the past two weeks.
Beitar’s pressure proved useful on the 63rd minute when Gal Alberman finished a nice run on the right wing, received the ball in the box and scored. The score satisfied Jerusalem’s coach, but Haifa’s coach sounded disappointed at the end of the game. The Brazilian midfielder, Gustavo Boccoli, did not disappoint anyone and was excellent through out the entire game, he moved from defense to offence and vice versa and contributed a lot to Haifa’s organized game. Haifa’s players have to split their time between the league games and the European ones, and “spend” tens of hours in flights.
Right now, Haifa is eight points behind first place, with one missing game against Bnei-Yehuda that will be held in December. The league will be on a break for two weeks due to the national team’s game against Croatia (November 15th). When the games will renew, Haifa will return home and host Hapoel Petach-Tikva.
