In order to win a championship, there are going to be games that a team will need to suffer through, not play their best and just gut out in order to take the victory and collect the points.

That’s exactly what Beitar Jerusalem did on Wednesday night when they just got by Hapoel Tel Aviv 1-0.

It wasn’t pretty, it wasn’t a masterpiece or a Picasso, but it was a ton of heart, a ton of sweat and a ton of tears in order to chalk up another win to stay atop of the table with five so called “finals” to go.

The victory kept Beitar in first place by a point as Hapoel Beer Sheva had the “Football Gods” shine on them as they received a late corner that wasn’t and Javon East headed home the winner for a 1-0 win at Maccabi Haifa. The southern reds Head Coach Ron Kozuk sprinted down the Sammy Ofer sidelines just as Barak Itzhaki had done a number of months ago when he went to celebrate Ziv Ben Shimol’s winner.

Perhaps there is something special at the stadium for visiting clubs and coaches?

However, the “Football Gods” were also present in Beitar’s win as Barak Itzhaki explained at the end of the match. He knows full well that this was a game that the yellow-and-black could have easily lost points or even lost against a Hapoel Tel Aviv team that was down to ten men for an entire half.

After a first half that Beitar was the better team, although not dominant in which Johnbosco Kalu stripped the ball off of Chico and went in all alone to score the lone marker of the match, Elyaniv Barda’s team was the much better side with chances galore to find the equalizer and even win the game while playing a man down.

Loizos Louzou missed a wide open goal. The net was so open it was as if the Red Sea had parted but for some reason, unknown to man, the Cypriot couldn’t put the ball in. It’s still unclear how he missed.

Then there was Stav Turiel who had a certain 110% goal on his foot after beating the Beitar defense and keeper Miguel Silva. But somehow, somewhere Luka Gadrani stuck his foot out and deflected the ball to safety to save the Portuguese shot stopper’s bacon to say the least.

These two instances were miracles. There is no other rational or reasonable explanation as to how the ball in both cases didn’t find its way into the back of the goal.

The Football Gods were there.

But, if Itzhaki wants some more help from the Football Gods, he needs to help himself as well. As the saying goes, “The Football Gods help those who help themselves.”

Itzhaki has not rotated his players despite having one Championship Playoff match after the next. The bench boss keeps rolling out the same players game after game. On one hand it’s great that he has trust in his charges to do the job. There is no greater compliment a head coach can give his players.

But, it’s also clear that more than one, actually probably more than half of the starters were not playing at their best against Hapoel Tel Aviv as they eventually succumbed to their first home loss of the campaign. They were exhausted and it wasn’t difficult to see it with the naked eye.

Whether it was Omer Atzily who had no speed and no power in his shot, Yarden Cohen, Ziv Ben Shimol and Yarin Levy who looked as if they had no legs, or Brayan Carabali, Luka Gadrani and Nana Antwi who also looked as if they needed a break, it was a miracle that they were able to escape Bloomfield with a win.

Itzahki is grinding his players down to the bone and while they all want to give their best, when one is tired, mistakes will happen both mentally and physically and that could cost Beitar the league title.

Substitutions should have occurred earlier on in order to bring on fresh legs and perhaps the system in place in which Itzhaki eventually switched to a 5 man back line, should have been done way earlier in order to create a bit more quiet on the defensive end. This may have stopped those two wonderful missed opportunities to have never come to fruition.

“I saw the game starting to fall apart,” Itzhaki said to The Sports Rabbi’s question about not changing formations earlier on. “I knew toward the end of the game, they would send one of their defenders up to play like a striker. If I remember correctly, we were losing balls, so I wanted more density and players to pack the box. I didn’t want us to drop back too far tactically, but I wanted to bolster the defense so we wouldn’t be surprised by headers or second chance balls.”

This is what happened in Beitar’s loss to Hapoel Tel Aviv way back in September when they played at Bloomfield and blew a 2-1 lead in the last few minutes.

“That happened to us in a previous game, if you remember, the 3-2 game, where a random ball was sent towards Omri Altman, leading to a foul and a red card and we conceded in the 90th minute. I knew they would try that, so I wanted to secure the game and just win it,” explained Itzhaki.

Itzhaki likes to wait to make substitutions and usually makes them later on in games and while that may work when a team plays once a week, it’s much more difficult when the games are coming at a fast and furious pace every three or so days. The same is true about rotating the squad and giving other players the chance to pick up the pace when others are tired.

With five games to go, three of which will be on the road and not at Teddy Stadium where the fans can give the players an extra super-duper push, it will be imperative for Itzhaki to mix up his lineup a bit.

In the game coming up at Maccabi Haifa on Saturday night he will have no choice but to do just that. Gadrani will be out due to yellow card accumulation which means Ori Dahan will step in to take his place. Gonzalez who didn’t start the past two games should get an opportunity to do so once again while maybe it’s time to rest Yarden Cohen who has been an all-star all season long and play an equally capable Grigori Morozov at left back.

Timoti Muzie who was out this past game on yellows will be available and should start as well, but Dor Micha who would have been an excellent candidate to find himself in the Starting XI will be out due to yellows.

Without a doubt the upcoming game against the greens won’t be a masterpiece just like the win over Hapoel Tel Aviv, but Itzhaki needs to make sure he wins and also readies his side for another “Match of the Season” on Tuesday night when Hapoel Beer Sheva comes to town.

This season is going down to the wire and what will separate the men from the boys will be the little things, the small decisions that will go a long, long way in deciding the title race.

With five games to go the championship is tight and will go right down to the wire and if Beitar wants to bring home the title for the first time since the 2007/08 season they will need to leave it all on the pitch the way they did in the win over Hapoel Tel Aviv. However, they will need some help, from Itzhaki and without question also from the “Football Gods”.
They will have their say as well.