Olim League week four review

The fourth week of Olim League action included a ten-goal thriller between Athletico and Jaffa, while there was a five-star performance from Modiin…

MS Bambi 4 Jerusalem 2
The game started at a good pace. In the first half Jerusalem broke past Bambi with a long ball sent to their striker who scored. After conceding,  Bambi began to press against Jerusalem and scored twice through Bar Blumberg and Aviv Zemer. Then Bambi took control of the game and had a few chances to score whilst Jerusalem  had the occasional counter-attack. Jerusalem equalised early in the second half with a beautiful shot outside the box. Bambi responded by again attacking aggressively and scored twice with Bar Blumberg getting his second and Gil adding his name to the score sheet. The game ended 4-2. Yoni Sarig Bambi’s manager commented after the game: “It was a very competitive match and there were plenty of chances created by both teams. We now go into our second week at the top of the table and as I have said before, we plan on staying there!”

Athletico 4 Jaffa 6
Jaffa’s terrible start to the season ended with a pulsating 6-4 win over revamped Athletico Jerusalem. The game started at a furious pace, and within 11 minutes, Jaffa were ahead.  A clever through ball from Rani Madmon saw Liverpool-born Josh Silverberg score his first goal for Jaffa. A few minutes later, Silverberg scored again nodding a Nir Ha’Cohen corner in. Jaffa were looking to kill the game when a hotly disputed penalty was buried by Athletico’s Carlos Mazzini.  Minutes later, Yonatan Journo equalised when his shot wasn’t handled by Jaffa’s goalie, Omer Devir. With Jaffa deflated, Athletico pushed on but a superb individual run by Ha’Cohen was buried by Sam Silverberg, giving Jaffa a slender 3-2 lead at half-time.

Within 30 seconds after the re-start, another Ha’Cohen pass found Madmon one-on-one with the keeper. The striker left Daniel Boestra with no chance, and gave Jaffa a two-goal cushion. Athletico responded within a minute through Netanel Fattal, and six minutes later, an unstoppable shot from Inon Nissim knotted the score at 4-4.  Both teams continued to push forward in this exciting affair looking for a winner. Josh Silverberg would settle the game with a smart finish off a corner to get his hat-trick, and a two-goal cushion was again restored by a smart Madmon finish off a Sam Silverberg pass.

At the final whistle, Jaffa had won 6-4, leaving both teams with a 1-0-3 record. Athletico Assistant David Bernstein said after the game: “It was 4-4 with 20 minutes to go and we threw it away by being both mentally and physically not good enough. The league is very competitive this year and I expect a much more focused approach when we face our local rivals Real Jerusalem next Saturday night.”

Modiin 5 Ashdod 2
Elsewhere Modiin continued its fine form with a 5-2 mauling of Ashdod. Real Jerusalem added to England’s woes beating them 5-2 leaving the league holders at the bottom of the table with almost a quarter of the season played. Raanana and Aviv played out a fiercely contested 3-3 draw that saw Aviad Ben Meir again score a hat-trick.

Team Of The Week:

GK Eden Sharma (Real)
D Daan Baker (Aviv)
D Lanre (Modiin)
D Asaf M (Jaffa)
D Akiva Ben Yehuda (Real)

M Aviv Zemer (MS Bambi)
M Josh Silverberg
M Bar Blumberg (MS Bambi)

F Aviad Ben Meir (Raanana)
F Peter Emola (Aviv)
F Nati Hasson (Real)

Manager: Fran Salgado (Real)