‘13 ⚽️ 1-0 Max Russell goal, Nacho Duek assist
'65 ⚽️ 1-1 Spartak goal
‘83 ⚽️ 2-1 Tom Printac goal, Titi Cabuli assist
'90 🔴 Red Card: Spartak
Top row (from left to right): Sam Sank, Martin Siber, Nacho Duek, Tal Sharon, Tom Printac, Niv Gittelman, Martin Lagman, Max Russell and Uriel Benita.
Bottom row (from left to right): Kevin Packer, Daniel Rubio, Titi Cabuli, Gabi Bruck, Guile Meyer, Gaston Fratesi and Didi Hovav.
After 3 weeks without a win, Saturday's fixture against Spartak Tel Aviv was a good chance to get back to winning ways over the team sitting just one place below us in the IFLI2 table.
Ravaged by COVID, injuries and players abroad, a makeshift squad was strung together by stand-in coach Sam Sank; giving debuts to Tal Sharon and Daniel Rubio, while Guile Meyer and Gaston Fratesi also came in from our Liga Gimmel team, the latter featuring in goal despite being a central midfielder!!
Gasti had very little to do in goal during the first half as we dominated the game and controlled proceedings. Despite the unfamiliar squad, the team looked extremely balanced on the pitch and played good football throughout the opening 45 minutes.
A foul on Nacho Duek outside the box inside the opening 15 minutes, gave Max Russell the opportunity to fire on goal with his favoured left foot. The English left-back made no mistake, scoring his second free-kick of the season.
As the rain poured down we went into the break 1-0 up, knowing that we would need to continue our dominance if we were to secure all three points. The second half proved a far tougher affair and Gaston was finally put to use in goal.
Spartak equalised just after the hour mark, an outrageous volley from outside the box left Gaston watching the ball, which hit the post and came back out to a Spartak player to hit into the net. There were calls for offside, but the referee was not interested.
With the match reaching its closing stages, we pressed forward to try and win. A chipped ball from Titi Cabuli reached Tom Printac, who outsprinted his marker before lobbing the ball over the outrushing goalkeeper.
In the final minutes, Spartak was reduced to 10 men as their goalkeeper brought down Titi as we counter-attacked but it had no effect on the final score. The win means we remain in 8th place, but victory in our game in hand would take us up to 5th.
Comments