5’ ⚽️ 1-0 Mati Yelen goal
12’ ⚽️ 1-1 Emek Yisrael goal
18’ ⚽️ 1-2 Emek Yisrael goal
69’ ⚽️ 1-3 Emek Yisrael goal
83’ ⚽️ 1-4 Emek Yisrael goal
87’ ⚽️ 1-5 Emek Yisrael goal
Top row (from left to right): Guile Meyer, Zequi Lubocki, Uriel Benita, Martin Siber, Alan Kaler, Niv Gittelman, Mati Cabuli, Tom Printac, Ran Sarusi, Nico Grinberg and Martin Lagman.
Bottom row (from left to right): Yoav Greenberg, Misha Marianoff, Kevin Packer, Gato Schwalb, David Salem, Nacho Duek, Mati Yelen and Daniel Geron.
Saturday's game was one in which the result did not reflect the performance of the team. We left it all on the pitch yesterday, fought for every ball and to be fair came up against a very good opponent.
In the first half, we came out running out of the gate. At around the 5th minute, Mati Yelen scored early to make it 1-0 for us. Mati took a free-kick from about 30 meters out, which went directly towards the net. The keeper misjudged it, allowing the ball to go over his head and into the goal - giving us an early lead.
Over the next 10-15 minutes, Emek found their rhythm. They had pace up front and great synchronized movement in the wings. During that time, they were able to get in behind our defence and score two goals to regain the lead. Generally, all over the pitch though we were solid and matched up very well against a physically strong and fit side.
Throughout the second half, we battled well. We put on a tremendous amount of work against a team that continued to move off the ball nonstop and had a lot of skill on the ball as well. We kept the game at 2-1 for quite a long stretch of time in the second half. On our end, we also had a number of chances throughout the half from Dani Geron and Tom Printac in particular, and a header from Niv Gittelman that went over the bar.
Towards the latter part of the second half, Emek did show their fitness levels as they kept the same level of play during 90 minutes while we began to push for a result with our legs also being a little bit shot. Ultimately, they capitalized on a number of chances late in the match, making it 5-1.
Head Coach Zequi Lubocki said, ''Overall, I thought we put in a hell of a performance and gave them an early scare. We worked hard, as a team and showed that we can compete with anyone in this league. I strongly believe that with that type of effort, attitude and commitment we will continue climbing the standings as the season progresses.''