Teddy Stadium, January 4 - Hapoel Beit-She`an visited Teddy yesterday, gave a good fight and witnessed yet another weak game of Eli Cohen's team. There weren't many striking opportunities, but one good combination between Amsalem and Ohana set the bottom line to 1:0. Istvan Pison was back on the opening squad, but Beitar Jerusalem's play was a replication of the last week's poor performance. 8000 spectators in Teddy booed their team at halftime, but cheered at the end knowing that the victory over Beit-She`an left Beitar in the first place with a 7 point lead of the team in the second place. Itsik Zohar had a particularly weak game, and consequently the Jerusalem midfield was the starting point for most of the opponent's attacks. Itsik Kornfein was hurt during the second half, after an unsuccessful run-in with... Jean Talesnikov, who had a pretty good game himself, fighting hard in the defense and trying to make-up for Zohar's mistakes in the offense. Yossi Abuxis was his usual aggressive self, and some commentators said that he was lucky not to be expelled by referee Meir Levy with a second yellow card. The goal that set the match's result was scored on the 52nd minute. Abuxis found Pisont on the left side of Beit-She`an's half of the field, and Istvan continued the pass to David Amsalem. Amsalem turned sharply toward the penalty area, and saw an open space of about 7 meters in front of the goal keeper. He sent the ball in that direction, and by the time the ball was in front of the keeper, the space was already occupied by Eli Ohana, who sent his left foot forward to divert the ball toward the net. Ohana, who played very well throughout the game, set up both Harazi and Pisont in attractive scoring positions, but both players shot wide off the goal. Eli himself found himself 4 meters from the goal line on the 88th minute, but the keeper stopped his shot in an acrobatic leap. The final striking chance was missed by Amsalem, who received a wonderful assist from Harazi, and shot diagonally, from left to right, a ball that passed inches away from the left post.
Beitar opened with Kornfein, Trittiak, Amsalem, Mizrahi, Kahila, Talesnikov, Abuxis, Zohar, Pisont, Harazi and Ohana. Raanan De`ri replaced Zohar on the 84th minute.