A successful penalty kick by Omer Damari led to Maccabi Tel Aviv's second loss this season. Red cards for Carlos Garcia and Eliran Atar.
HaPoel Tel Aviv hosted Maccabi at Bloomfield tonight for the city's grand derby. The atmosphere generated around the 138th league derby held a great deal of promise and, eventually, after 90 minutes of dull football, HaPoel Tel Aviv won, 1-0. The game can be summarized by one point, the white point that did not favor Atar who missed a goal from that point in the first half. Omer Damari took advantage of his penalty kick in the second half and scored the only goal of the game, setting the first yellow loss after three derby games.
.jpg)
As is befitting of a suspenseful derby game, the opening was characterized by both teams testing the waters. Over 14,000 fans filled the stands and watched the first dangerous kick at Minute 13, when Atar kicked from the corner and stretched Edel's limbs. Beyond a free head bunt by Dabour, which was stopped by Edel in the first half, the football exhibition did not go very high, but the yellow team continued to be more dangerous. The yellow team's relative dominance on the field was not apparent in scoring opportunities until Minute 40. A hand call for Haimovich positioned Atar at the penalty line from which he was stopped by Edel, who has prevented a tenth goal this season.
.jpg)
The second half began where the first one left off. In Minute 49, Omer Damari raced ahead and, following a struggle with Carlos Garcia, Alon Yeffet called a penalty and removed the Maccabi Tel Aviv defender. Gordana's free kick was intercepted by Eniema and, with ten players on the field, the yellow team waited until Minute 70 for another Atar kick to the goal – once again, caught be Edel. 11 minutes to the end of the game, the ball was once again placed on the penalty line, this time for HaPoel Tel Aviv. Omer Damari beat Eniema and set the score at 1-0 for HaPoel Tel Aviv, a score that remained until the end. In addition, before the final whistle was blown, the yellow team remained with only nine players, after Eliran Atar was given his second yellow card of the game.
This is Maccabi Tel Aviv's second league defeat this season and it will return to Bloomfield on Saturday for another Tel Aviv derby against Bnei Yehuda.
.jpg)
