Amit Karko
Adir Levy and Shlomi Azulai (Shahar Gross)
This has not happened since the 2011/12 season – MS Ashdod last night (Monday) officially, closed and completely secured its place in the top playoff after a draw against Hapoel Hadera.
It was in the air already at the beginning of the season and everyone knew it was going there with the ability that Ran Ben Shimon’s team displayed. Although Ashdod had already celebrated the immigration to the big six in the previous game against Hapoel Kfar Saba, there was still one point missing to secure its place in the final.
The club did not hide the fact that they came up to play with a different team than usual for two main reasons. One, injured players who avoided endangering them and the main reason, keeping players from accumulating yellow cards and distributing loads towards the next goal, the cup game against Betar Jerusalem next week. Therefore, key players like Nenad Svetkovic and Roi Gordana, who are also among the leaders in the team in terms of minutes of the season, sat on the bench and the coach insisted on not using them.
The one who did play is Shlomi Azulai who was in danger of yellows ahead of the cup game while opening the game with four in his balance. The contact received a yellow card during the game and knew full well that it would prevent him from playing in the cup but in the extra time of the game he received a second yellow and red card, which would prevent him from playing in the next league game but is available to Betar. Azoulay was seen talking to Ben Shimon about the issue, which raised the point that he did it on purpose, when his coach also admitted at the end “it kept him busy.”
Back to the game itself. In Ashdod, they claimed discrimination on the part of referee Eitan Shmuelevich due to a claim to Pendel that was not burned to its credit in the first half and were also disappointed by a number of additional whistles made by the referee. In addition to extra time, the team was close to a turnaround after Fahd Bayou’s equalizer, with the team’s orderly attack ending with another shot by the Ugandan striker but the top goalkeeper penetrating and despite the doubt the ball crossed the line, the refereeing team on both pitch and VAR decided not to Gate, which greatly angered the club members.
Apart from the disappointment from the refereeing, the team complimented the young players who started in the team as well as those who participated during the game, the most prominent of whom was Oz Bilu, who provided a good game for him and even cooked the goal for Bayo. Adir Levy and Hamza Moassi also received praise for their integration.
The team intends to allow the players a rest as today they are scheduled to go out for a team fun fast, and will rest at least until Thursday when they are scheduled for training in the evening, in preparation for the game against Hapoel Haifa this coming Saturday. Ashdod really wants to keep third place leading to Europe and Rabash is expected to return to using all his tools to meet this task.
