Beitar Jerusalem 3:1 Hapoel Kfar Saba

With tons of pressure on the Jerusalem side and their coach Slobodan Drapic, the Beitar players put on a clinic during the first 45 minutes of their home match. Playing against a game but overmatched newly promoted Kfar Saba scoring three goals and getting the proverbial monkey off of their back was exactly what the doctor ordered for the Yellow-and-Black.

Dov Halickman Photography

At Teddy Stadium tonight, Eli Tabib was in attendance sitting in the VIP box and Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat found a seat in the stands due to their ongoing conflict. However, everyone tonight would be pleasantly surprised by the offensive output that Beitar would provide for all of the supporters with goals by Liroy Zairi, Jesus Rueda and Nikita Rukavytsya.

Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat, Courtesy Dov Halickman Photography

What happened this evening that everything seemed to jell on the pitch while there are definitely problems off of it?

Beitar Fans Courtesy Dov Halickman

The fans have been calling for Tabib to leave the team, a continuous sparring session between Tabib and Mayor Barkat and players who had seemed to have lost confidence in their coach somehow all came together and put on their best performance of the year.

Was it in spite of everything? Was it just luck? Or was it that Kfar Saba was easy fodder for a team like Beitar to finally pick up their first win against?

Probably it was a combination of everything above. With a team as talented as Beitar there should have been no reason for them to succumb to a club that had just been promoted with limited resources. But the most important thing for Beitar at this point going forward would be some quiet off of the pitch in order for the team to continue with their performance against the Greens of Kfar Saba.

Beitar fans Courtesy Dov Halickman Photography

Can the supporters just let things be as is? Can they lay off the anti-Tabib rhetoric? Can Mayor Barkat calm down and let the club just play and for the city to provide what they usually do? Can Tabib lay low and just let the club and it’s coach do what needs to be done? Especially when they have to travel to Sakhnin a week from tonight to play in a Stadium in which they haven’t won it was seems to be decades?

Every time Beitar heads to Sakhnin there’s always a circus atmosphere that follows it. First at Australia Park where the fans get escorted to Doha Stadium in Sakhnin. Then it’s the actual security checks to get into the stadium which invariably takes fifty times longer than at any other match. Once inside the facility it’s the intimidation by the Sakhnin fans and their signs and curses at the Beitar players and supporters. And of course then it’s actually heading home and unfortunately it’s usually on the wrong side of the match with another loss.

Let’s see if Beitar and all those that surround it can give the players a break and let them prepare in peace and quiet for arguably their biggest regular season match of the year.

That is truly the real test that is upon us all.