Maccabi Haifa slipped by Hapoel Petach Tikva 2-1 as Bruninho’s late stunner proved to be the difference maker as the greens collected the 3-points and the win. After a goalless first half, Andrija Novakovich headed home the first goal but Boni Amian drew the visitors even, however, as the game wound down Bruninho sent a scorcher into the back of the goal to give the hosts the win.

Haifa took control of the pace of play early on and created a few chances while Petach Tikva also had a couple of opportunities that amounted to little at the other end. Kenny Saief and Ali Mohammed had their attempts taken care of while Pedrao’s header just missed the target as Cle’s and Alex Moucketou-Moussounda shots were deflected out.

However, Karim Kimvuidi‘s attempt in the box resulted in a handball by Tsunami off allowing the visitors a prime chance to take the lead off of a penalty but Cle’s spot kick was brilliantly saved by Omri Glazer as he dove to his right to keep the ball out of the net and send the sides into the break goalless.

The Greens finally broke the ice early on in the second half when Andrija Novakovich headed home a terrific Bruninho ball to give the hosts a 1-0 lead in the 55th minute. After a number of substitutions by both sides, Cle had a wonderful chance in the box but Glazer was up to the task, however, he couldn’t stop Boni Amian’s strike from 30 meters out to draw Omer Peretz’s team even at 1-1 in the 78th minute.

As time ticked off the clock Haifa went on the attack and quickly broke the deadlock as Bruninho rifled home a stunning marker to give the greens a 2-1 advantage in the 85th minute to close out the victory.

Barak Bachar looked back at the win, “The most important thing is to win and that’s what we did. It wasn’t perfect and we have plenty of work to do but we did what we needed to. We controlled the game and came way with the result. We saw a lot of good things from a number of players but we need to get more players involved as we saw Bruninho who was great again and that has to influence the others.”

Omer Peretz spoke about the defeat, “We were close here and it was a tactical game. We needed to take advantage of our chances a bit better. After we made it 1-1 we wanted to keep the result and we lost concentration and we lost the point. We are missing a player after losing Songa and we had a tough tike all summer bringing in players.”

Hapoel Jerusalem downed Kiryat Shemona 4-2 as Andrew Idoko scored a second half brace to give the capital city Reds their first win of the season. Niv Gabbay helped the northerners to a 1-0 lead after taking advantage of an brutal defensive error by reds captain Omer Agvadish, however, Christ Tiehi knotted the game up early on in the second half.

Ariel Sheratzky put Shay Barda’s team ahead in the 56th minute but just seconds later Idoko scored his first of the match to draw Jerusalem even again at 2-2. From that moment on it was all Lior Zada’s side as Abdulsalam Sani gave Jerusalem the 3-2 lead while Idoko scored his second of the game to close out the victory.

Lior Zada spoke about the win, “This game was a roller coaster, a scandal and a festival. We came back well with a lot of character and there are things we need to fix. The substitutes came on well, bringing a lot of energy and momentum. The quick goal in the second half helped us and even when we conceded, we quickly came back to make it 2-2. Our attacking play was pretty good but you can’t say the same about the defense.

Kiryat Shmona coach Shay Barda added his thoughts, “We made every possible mistake and deserved to lose. After we made it 2-1, we went into a downward spiral, with mistakes that don’t characteristic us and we were punished for them.”

Ironi Tiberias downed Maccabi Petach Tikva 2-1 as Ari Cohen scored the winner with only ten men to take the 3-points and the victory. Nene Gbamble gave the Kineret based squad the early lead but soon thereafter lost Bar Cohen after a reckless foul in the 27th minute leaving Alon Ziv’s team down a man for more than an hour. With the advantage Jose Cortes drew Ziv Arie’s team even but Chris Kouakou sent Ari Cohen a perfect ball that he put in to the back of the goal to take the win.

Alon Ziv said following the game, “A weight has been lifted off our shoulders now that we’ve erased the point deficit that we began the season with. The players put in an incredible display of fighting spirit with 10 men. We played really good football and there were stages when there was only one team on the pitch. We reacted fairly quickly to the equalizer with three substitutions.”

Ziv Arie shared his thoughts, “We were punished for a very poor, soft start. I was really afraid of that. It can happen, but you must not concede goals from starts like that. A draw wouldn’t have been a terrible result.”