Beitar Jerusalem captured their first Israel State Cup in 14 years after dominating Maccabi Netanya 3-0 at Sammy Ofer Stadium. The yellow-and-black were the superior team throughout the 90 minutes as head coach Yossi Abuksis\u2019s game plan worked to perfection to record the victory. The Cup is the 8th in Beitar’s history and first since 2009 when they defeated Maccabi Haifa for the trophy at Ramat Gan Stadium. <\/p>\n
While the capital city squad won the coveted trophy, the game not only had to be halted numerous times due to the supporters throwing flares on the pitch and President Isaac Herzog had to be escorted off by heavy security following the game as thousands of fans invaded the field of play prior to the presentation of the cup. <\/p>\n
Fans took medals that were meant to be awarded to the players, cut up the netting on the goal and ran amok as the security forces lost control of the situation in an embarrassing situation for Israeli soccer as a whole. <\/p>\n
In fact, the Israel Football Association Bylaws state that a team whose fans invade the pitch will be disqualified and the other team will be awarded the cup. <\/p>\n
Beitar came out flying in the first half but the match had to be stoped three times as fans lobbed flares onto the Sammy Ofer pitch. But once play restarted, Abuksis\u2019s squad grabbed a 1-0 lead via Ion Nicolaescu as Yarden Shua and Grigori Morozov teamed up to help give the yellow-and-black the advantage ahead of the halftime break. <\/p>\n
In the 64th minute, Abuksis replaced the goal scorer with forward Fred Friday who repaid his coach\u2019s confidence with a gorgeous goal off a Shua assist just ten minutes later to double the Beitar advantage. The capital city squad kept pushing for yet another goal and were awarded a penalty deep into second half stoppage time when Danilo Asprilla was yanked down in the box. Shua who orchestrated the first two goals stepped up to take the spit kick and put the ball behind Itamar Nitzan to wrap up the victory.<\/p>\n
Moshe \u201cShino\u201d Zuaretz, the chairman of the Israel Football Association spoke about the ugly scenes that occurred following the game, \u201cI want to apologize to every soccer fan and this is not the way we wanted to end the season in which there was much violence. To see the preset being escorted off the pitch was embarrassing and I am personably embarrassed as to the scenes that took place here.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce the President left the field there would be no hoisting of the Cup. I had to personally apologize to the President and everyone needs to take a good hard look here as to what happened. We can\u2019t even give the winning team the Cup in what was an embarrassing incident. We will apply the bylaws as they are written.\u201d<\/p>\n
President Herzog commented on the situations that occurred during the game and afterwards, \u201cThe Cup is Beitar\u2019s!. I want to congratulate Beitar Jerusalem on winning the Israel State Cup and I want to recognize both teams who gave their heart on the field. I spoke to MK Miki Zohar about the flares that were thrown onto the pitch and hurt the sportsmanship of the game, as well as the invasion by the fans onto the field which unfortunately prevented the exciting and beautiful moment of the awarding of the trophy. We both agreed that it’s time to uproot the violence at the stadiums!” <\/p>\n
Head coach Yossi Abuksis also spoke about the incidents that took place, \u201cI hope that the hard work on the pitch will ensure that we will receive the Cup. I am very disappointed as to what the fans did by invading the pitch. They did a great job in this game and in the semifinal and I can\u2019t understand what would push the fans to do such a thing. It\u2019s so unfortunate as to what has happened and I have never seen anything like this in my entire life. I am so disappointed.\u201d<\/p>\n
We had such a tough season and after a very hard start. I didn\u2019t even know if I would still be with the team due to the ownership situation but I am happy that Barak Abramov came in as the new owner. But the fans here really, really disappointed us here as we couldn\u2019t celebrate the way we would have wanted to.\u201d<\/p>\n
Beitar owner Barak Abramov also discussed the situation, \u201cThe fans were a great source of pride for us during the game and the ceremony took so long to even begin, over 45 minutes. The security couldn\u2019t control the situation and this was not under our control but that of the Israel Football Association. It was an embarrassment and a disgrace as to what happened and this cup is ours, no one else. If they take away the cup form us I am done with Israeli football.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Beitar Jerusalem captured their first Israel State Cup in 14 years after dominating Maccabi Netanya 3-0 at Sammy Ofer Stadium. The yellow-and-black were the superior team throughout the 90 minutes as head coach Yossi Abuksis\u2019s game plan worked to perfection to record the victory. The Cup is the 8th in Beitar’s history and first since […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":87864,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[55,232,217],"class_list":["post-87863","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-football-israel-2","tag-beitar-jerusalem","tag-israel-state-cup","tag-maccabi-netanya","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"yoast_head":"\n