Tell me, are four games already a European campaign? Behind the success at Beitar Jerusalem
All the ingredients for a European tragedy were present: Caraballo missed Gadrani, Kalo provided a strange performance, and Almog Cohen didn't help. Then came Omer Atzili, for whom every piece of grass is a tile, and every tile is his. Moshe Ziat rejoices at the shattering of Beitar's stigmas in Europe, but begs: can we finally part ways with Miguel Silva?
I felt like I was on a journey that evening. I watched the previous match in a sauna in Cyprus, I watched the return leg in magical humidity on the shores of the Sea of Galilee, so this time too I finished the match sweatier than Daniel Worku. In my head, I was already running a text about elimination, starting with a simple 'bummer' or maybe 'painful elimination', because painful it was indeed shaping up to be.
All the ingredients for a European tragedy were here, an almost lazy script. The first match was a precise, organized performance, with nerves of steel and minimal mistakes; and this time it seemed everyone was waiting for their turn to make a mistake. Boris Enow, in a bad game, contributes a penalty, that one doesn't jump in the wall, and we will get to the drama at the end. The miss from the end of the previous match - how Kalo didn't pass, how we didn't score the second against ten players - was just coarse salt stinging the sour feeling at the end, to emphasize the missed opportunity.
Almog Cohen managed the away game perfectly, but came with the same cautious approach to the home game. Beitar didn't reach the goal until it conceded a goal, and the caution feels unnecessary when players try to remove us from Europe themselves. The substitutions didn't help fix it either, and disappeared into the general mediocrity.
Brian Caraballo clung to a deep longing for his partner, Luka Gadrani. Yarden Cohen continued the downward trend. Gil Cohen, well, he has been Gil Cohen for a while now. Kalo in another one of his strange performances, Noam Muche didn't rise to the level of the game. And yet, we know: if Omer Atzili arrives, such evenings end with Omer Atzili and that's it. A penalty we've seen him win dozens of times, and another bomb into the top corner from his 'tile'. I mean, it's not exactly from his 'tile', but when he appears, every piece of grass is a tile, and every tile is his. You can't get used to it.
But don't forget Miguel Silva's mistake.
Yes, it's against instinct: he saved the penalties that moved us to the next stage, so dopamine is an eraser that destroys all previous evidence. No. Beitar must think about the goalkeeper position. It's certainly not worth a foreign player spot, no matter how connected he is to the club. A serious team cannot afford a goalkeeper like Miguel Silva, despite the affection for the man. Don't forget.
Precisely out of exile, Israeli football rose this week and became. And in such two days, when all the other Israeli teams advanced, who if not Beitar is capable of excluding itself from the camp. The one that is never capable in Europe, too 'folksy' to hold on, a sketch of 'HaGashash HaHiver' repeating itself from a music box. But in the end, we deserved to pass, unequivocally. Don't say 'we don't fit', say 'we will improve'. Also in Vienna, this time in the cradle of Western culture, don't say 'we did our part'; say 'it's possible'. Maybe there will be Luka, maybe there will be Yosefi, maybe there will be Shua in his full power. Say 'we will succeed', what could possibly happen?
