‘12 ⚽️ 1-0 Sam Sank, Nico Perge assist
Top row (from left to right): David Martane, Nadav Izmirili, Leo Gewertz, Evgeny Kart, Jaime Kauffman, Vlad Kart, Azanao Aristo, Andy Gabay, Andre Walker, Ariel Peretz, Eli Falkon, Faris Abdulrasul, Ron Sharifi, Gaston Hilman and Gabo Terkieltaub.
Bottom row (from left to right): Yuval Levi, Beni Polnauer, Nico Perge, Sam Sank, Roey Sartov, Tal Amar, Ilan Flax and Evyatar Erez.
After an inspiring win over Shikma Hen last weekend, expectancy was high for the rescheduled match against Beitar Yafo on Tuesday afternoon. A comfortable win was the plan over our opponents, one of the weaker sides in the league, yet the reality was far from it.
Head Coach David Martane made a few changes to the team that beat Shikma and they started to dominate Yafo from the kick-off. Ron Sharifi was bundled inside the box within the first 10 minutes and he stepped up to take the resulting penalty. After the Yafo goalkeeper saved his first attempt, the referee ordered a re-take but Ron then blasted the second one wide.
However, we did break the deadlock shortly after, Sam Sank connecting to a Nico Perge corner and somehow guiding the ball over the keeper's head. We continued to entrench ourselves in the Yafo half for the remainder of the first 45 minutes but rarely tested their keeper again in a very stop-start game.
David was understandably disappointed with the first-half performance and urged his team to stay patient and play football, but the message was not received and the rest of the game followed in the same manner as the first half.
Our best chances came from set-pieces but we failed to add to Sam's opening goal. As the game went on, the pressure intensified, leading to substitute Beni Polnauer receiving two quick yellow cards and we were down to 10 men for the final part of the game.
Yafo did have a couple of chances late on, with one even hitting the crossbar but miraculously we survived and took home the three points. An afternoon to forget, yet the win does keep us in 2nd place in the table.