Maccabi Rishon Lezion recorded 20:29 on the team from Sharon, which continued to fake against the big ones • Hapoel Rishon Lezion defeated Hapoel Ashdod 22:26, MK Holon defeated Bnei Herzliya 28:32 • Women: Israel defeated Luxembourg in the World Cup qualifiers
Ashdod vs. Hapoel Rishon LeZion. The first ones won
Photo:
Hadar Van Kula
A group in severe crisis.
This is how AS Ramat Hasharon can be defined, for which in three games of the season, against Hapoel Rishon Lezion, Hapoel Ashdod and Maccabi Rishon Lezion, they scored only 65 goals in total - and scored only one point.
Worse, rival coaches seem to have learned how to neutralize the team offensively, and Assaf Levy is still having a hard time finding solutions.
And now, one round to finish - Hapoel Rishon Lezion knows that a derby victory in the last round in the top house will ensure the home advantage.
On the other hand, Maccabi Rishon Lezion knows that a loss in the derby could lead to the end of the regular league in fourth place - and to a meeting with Hapoel in the playoff semifinals.
The last time such a situation occurred, in the 2017/18 season, Hapoel won a double.
Still, Joe Matthias has every reason to be optimistic.
On Friday, his team provided its best performance of the season at 29:20 against AS Ramat Hasharon.
Niv Fishlovitz was just wonderful with 50% stops (16/32) and the attack was very effective.
Already at the start of the game it was possible to understand "where the wind is blowing in this game. Fishlovitz finished the first half with 65% stops, while Ramat Hasharon lost Milan Pavlovich due to injury. Levy who chose to complain to the judges.
This is the same mistake by Levy that also occurred in the team's game against Lithuania that ended in a loss.
Instead of conveying to his players faith in themselves, since they led the regular league throughout most of its stages, he did not stop complaining to referees Yaron Ben Dan and Assaf Paran that they were certainly not the reason for the heavy defeat his team suffered.
Rather, in one of the timeouts - instead of calling his players to the bench, he approached the referees, and in the same way took after the finish.
If so, it's no wonder that Stefan Terzic, who was "gambled" on by Ramat Hasharon at the beginning of the season and seemed remarkably weak, joined the referees' complaints at the end. In fact, what can players expect that is what their chairman and coach convey to them?
The one who managed to take advantage of Ramat Hasharon's bad game (three bad games in a row is no longer coincidental) is Hapoel Rishon Lezion who played a wonderful away game in Ashdod - and defeated the local Hapoel 26:22, after striking the local attack with only seven goals in the first half.
A very bad time for the professional team of the Israeli team, Oleg Botenko and Assaf Levy, both in the team game in which Israel had to win, and in their teams.
In another game at the top house, MK Holon defeated Bnei Herzliya 28:32.
The two teams will meet again in the first round of the State Cup on Monday.
At the same time, in the lower house it seems that there is already a team that is already a foot and a half in the national league.
This closes the table for Urbani Rehovot, which lost 34:30 to Maccabi Dimona, which went above the red line at the expense of MK Beer Sheva.
Although Beer Sheva gave Hapoel Kiryat Ono a "fight", and finished the first half 14:10 behind, Gilad Maor's players went up to the second half with proper adjustments - on the way to 34:23 at the end.
Following the league structure in the shadow of the Corona, in the next round MK Beer Sheva will not play - while Maccabi Dimona will host AC Ness Ziona, while Maccabi Tel Aviv will play an away game against Urbani Rehovot.
If Dimona and Maccabi Tel Aviv win then, first and foremost, Rehovot will officially go down, but beyond that - Beer Sheva will be a foot and a half in the sub-league, since the distance between it and Mivtachim Beach will grow to three points, with four points left in the box office.
In another game in the lower house, Maccabi Kiryat Motzkin defeated AK Nes Ziona 30:33 in an important battle for the two tickets from the lower house to the playoffs.
On Monday, the first round of the State Cup will take place, in which Hapoel Rishon Lezion, AS Ramat Hasharon and Hapoel Ashdod, who finished in the first three places at the end of the first round, will not participate.
Those who will join them in the quarterfinals are the five winners of the first round games that will take place on Monday: MK Beer Sheva - Hapoel Kiryat Ono (19:30);
A.K. Ness Ziona - Maccabi Dimona (20:00);
Maccabi Rishon Lezion - Urban Rehovot (20:15);
Maccabi Tel Aviv - Maccabi Kiryat Motzkin (20:30);
MK Holon - Bnei Herzliya (20:30).
Meanwhile,
the women's team opened last night (Friday) the World Cup qualifiers in Luxembourg
with an 18:22 victory over the host team, just before they face Slovakia today and tomorrow in the third and decisive game against Ukraine (Slovakia defeated Ukraine in the game that opened the tournament 28:31 ).
The team, led by Reuven Yospolsky and Johnny Oleinik, controlled the pace from the start and led 6:11 at the half time break.
The host shrank later, but the team did not drop the advantage and achieved a first victory.
Conquered for the Israeli team - Shir and Kart 6, Amit Isaac and Mor Shaul 5 each, Kim Levy 3, Nelly Aminov 2 and Shir Gabza 1. Daniel Boronovsky stood out in the goal, when Isaac was the best in Israel.
"We won and that's the most important thing. The girls gave their souls, and I'm very proud of them. Tomorrow is a story after all against Slovakia. We will sleep well and get ready," Jospolski concluded.
