Maccabi Netanya 2-0 Beitar Jerusalem

Maccabi Netanya played the perfect match against struggling Beitar Jerusalem as Roni Levy and his tight defense dominated the visitors in every facet of the match both on and off the pitch. Larry Kayode sliced and diced the Beitar midfield constantly ripping down the sidelines creating havoc as well as scoring chances. Kayode was of course the catalyst on Netanya’s first goal as he raced down the right side of the pitch, turned Beitar captain Ofir Kriaff inside out and placed the perfect pass to Ron Roll for a beautiful strike just before the end of the first half.

One could compare Kayode to a Coyote. Fast. Cunning. Lightning quick reflexes. Intelligent. He has all of those aspects all rolled up into one.

Unfortunately for Beitar the start of half number two went from bad to worse when striker Yitzik Cohen smashed Netanya’s Eyad Abu Abaid in the neck and face sending him to ground. Referee Guy Berger issued a straight red card to Cohen as the Jerusalem supporters began to launch all kinds of drinks, projectiles and more at the players targeting Abu Abaid which prompted him to almost want to walk off the pitch. Berger needed to consult with the 4th official and Israel FA personnel as racists chants rained down onto the pitch which was subsequently reported in the referee’s report of the match.

But it was Netanya captain Eran Levy who restored order standing up for his teammate as the teams resumed play. Of course who would slam home the 2nd goal for Maccabi? None other than the aforementioned Levy with an absolute BOMBA of a goal rifling the ball off the side of his left foot hard into the top left hand corner of Boris Kleiman’s goal giving the ‘keeper absolutely no chance to make a save. The goal will definitely be a goal of the candidate and one that Levy said after the game what kind of great feeling it was to be able to hit the ball, but he’ll only really know how good it was until he sees the replay.

The win picked up a valuable 3 points for Netanya as they now sit level on points in 4th place along with Beitar, Raanana, Ashdod & Maccabi Petach Tikva. Meanwhile Beitar will face disciplinary action from the Israel FA for a number of causes including those mentioned above from Berger’s report. It will be interesting to see the punishment levied against Beitar considering those that have been handed out to Maccabi Haifa and the two Tel Aviv clubs. The question is, when will the Jerusalem fans learn that their actions just harm the club.