Olim League review week ten
The latest round of Olim League action included a five-star performance from Jerusalem and Modiin scoring seven…
Jerusalem 5 Raanana 1
Jerusalem continued their march up the table with a 2nd convincing 5-1 victory over a strong Ra’anana side.
A few weeks ago, Jerusalem flew out the traps scoring after just 23 seconds in an entertaining 4-4 draw between the same two sides.
Although not quite so quick off the mark this time, the hosts almost took the lead within the first two minutes, when Zack Lewis’s goal bound shot was expertly tipped over by the Ra’anana keeper for a corner. Calev Ben Dor returning to the side took the corner and make shift centre-back Eyal Toledo headed the ball in to the net, with 2 mins 43 seconds on the clock.
Ra’anana almost hit back immediately with a free-kick on the edge of the box that was tipped over by Daniel Boestra, their recent signing from Athletico Jerusalem (who folded a couple of weeks ago), who then again came to Jerusalem’s rescue after a misunderstanding in the Jerulsam midfield allowed the away side to break again.
Jerusalem then played their best half hour of football this season, as they went on attack after attack, only to be thwarted time and again by the phenomenal Ra’anana keeper.
The deserved 2nd finally came when Akiva Zneimer released Moishe Lewis after a great run, whose shot hit the back of the net. 2-0. A minute later it was almost three, but Lollu Hibbert’s wicked shot from another corner was stopped on the line by a Ra’anana defender, who knew very little about it, resulting in a nose bleed and enforced substituion.
Jerusalem continued to attack, and four minutes before the interval, after some great passing, Zneimer made it 3-0.
Ra’anana started the second half the stronger and almost pulled one back when Danny Rebuck’s shot from 30 yards was tipped onto the bar by Boestra. Jerusalem soaked up the first five minutes of Ra’anana pressure and started getting back in their free-flowing game. A series of shots were well saved by the Ra’anana keeper, but Jerusalem got their fourth when Gav Cohen scored at the second attempt, after his first effort was well saved.
In the 70th minute, Ra’anana pulled one back, when an excellent through ball found Nathan Ben Ari, whose composed finished gave the away side a glimmer of hope. They almost clawed back a second four minutes later, but the free-kick came back off the post.
With 15 minutes to go, Zack Lewis put the game to bed with a great piece of individual skill, juggling the ball in the area over a defender before lobbing the keeper – 5-1 Jerusalem.
In the closing quarter of an hour, Ra’anana had two shouts for a penalty. The first wrongly turned down by the referee, the second correctly awarded as a free-kick on the edge of the area. Either way, the decisions would not have changed the result as Jerusalem finished the stronger with another guilt edge chance missed by Moishe Lewis, before the final whistle went and three well earnt points for the hosts.
Jerusalem:
Daniel Boestra; Yoel Finches, Eyal Toledo, Dan Kosky, David Preston; Calev Ben Dor, Gav Cohen, Lollu Hibbert, Amit Dinowitz; Daniel Cohen, Zack Lewis
Subs: Yigal Grayeff, Akiva Zneimer, Moishe Lewis
Modiin 7 England 1
The game started with high expectations from both sides. Modiin wanted to continue its good form so far this year and chase the league leaders Bambi, whilst England, after a rocky start to the season wanted to move up the league table.
The game started with a strong push from Modiin and after only two minutes a great through ball from Itai Saidoff to Amichai Friedman ended with a great shot to the inside of the far post – 1-0 to Modiin
In the ninth minute a foul on a Modiin payer was the cause of a straight red card and England were down to ten men. However, England did not give up and looked dangerous even with one man less. The England attack forced multiple saves from the Modiin keeper Ran Hazon.
After 25 minutes, Joni Reiner, scored a great goal to make the score 2-0 to Modiin. Almost immediately England upped the work rate and scored to make it 2-1. Just before the half-time break, Yonatan Journo, a new signing from the old Athletico side latched on to a ball deep in the England half and clinically finished to make in 3-1 to Modiin at the Half.
The second half started with England moving well around the pitch, throwing themselves into tackles and trying to get a goal back. However, soon after the restart Matan Kroizer crossed the ball from the left hand side deep in the England half which met Joni Reiner’s foot on a sweetly hit volley straight into the net, 4-1. Modiin continued to push and a great one-two by MatanKroizer ended by him scoring a superb goal. 5-1.
A short time later Adi Meiyuri ran forward to latch on to a cross across the England goal area and headed in another goal to bring the score to 6-1. In the 65th minute England had another sending off and yet again in the 79th minute for abusing the referee.
Just before the end of the game the youngest player on the Modiin team, Beni Sragif surged forward and put away the final goal of the evening. Final score 7-1.
Jaffa 2 Aviv 1
FC Jaffa continued their strong run with their third win in the last five games beating Aviv City 2-1, which included celebrity debutant Aki Avni.
All the goals were scored in a frantic first half which saw both teams constantly attacking. Aviv broke the deadlock in the 20th minute through the excellent Peter Emolla, fed the ball into the box for Naor Lisha to beat debutant Gilad Becker with a well placed shot.
Jaffa were creating opportunities, and eventually found the equaliser through Nir Ha’Cohen, who collected an Eyal Hoffman pass and expertly finished past Rob Bradman. With the game approaching half-time, Rani Madmon broke into the box and was felled by Ari Kahn. Nir Ha’Cohen made no mistake with the spot kick to give Jaffa a 2-1 lead heading into half-time.
The second half saw Aviv get the upper hand. Emolla was at the center of most of their attacks, and he saw his brilliant free-kick expertly deflected onto the post by Becker. With Aviv pouring more and more men forward, Jaffa countered and found Bradman in excellent form as he saved Ha’Cohen and Sam Silverberg’s goal-bound shots. In the fifth minute of extra time, Aviv City had a huge penalty shout turned down by the refeee and with that, the game ended 2-1 in Jaffa’s favour.
“It was a critical win for us,” an ecstatic Simon Berkley commented after the game. “We still want to be in the running for a top-four finish and wins like this will give us that opportunity.”
Man of the match, Nir Ha’Cohen, was happy with the team’s effort saying: “The team gave everything for 90 minutes, and we deserved this win. We’re looking forward to Modi’in this coming weekend.”
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