Enough with the excuses: how long will Beitar Jerusalem pay "tuition fees"?
It's already the third week dragging on in a continuous lethargy. The chiseled facial features of Bellingham have long been forgotten alongside the sweaty mane of Cucurella, and we are gathering again in front of the screen to understand if we will catch a cold again this winter or if a "warm winter" awaits us. Well, it's not that Doron Jamchi is still warming up the handle and Burko Radovic is certainly not waiting there in the corner to thread another one over the head of the Kinder Bologna fingers, but even a negligible Europa League that will arrange for us meetings with teams that Roi Kahat and Roi Bakal played in week after week, is a warm winter, sort of.
It's already the third week dragging on in a continuous lethargy. The chiseled facial features of Bellingham have long been forgotten alongside the sweaty mane of Cucurella, and we are gathering again in front of the screen to understand if we will catch a cold again this winter or if a "warm winter" awaits us. Well, it's not that Doron Jamchi is still warming up the handle and Burko Radovic is certainly not waiting there in the corner to thread another one over the head of the Kinder Bologna fingers, but even a negligible Europa League that will arrange for us meetings with teams that Roi Kahat and Roi Bakal played in week after week, is a warm winter, sort of.
After the game last night in Bucharest, it seems that in Jerusalem they still prefer the chill. The draw on Monday against Braga took some of the sting out of the meeting against Vienna. The Portuguese team is one of those that it's not exciting enough to meet, you have no chance of eliminating them and you only know the city itself because some local Joao decided he wanted football. Back in 2008, when Barcelona was waiting in the next stage, Beitar received a "hamsa" from Krakow; which is a bummer, but you can appreciate the comedic element in it, hamsa rhymes with Barca, there is something to work with. But you wanted Braga, you got what, Swaga? David Manga? In any case, we wanted Braga, and we will get, I don't know, probably something that is not Braga. Maybe a goalpost.
First half, Beitar is several levels above. In the science of European travels, someone will always report a few days before the game that "the opponent's big star is injured", really the Mojtaba Khamenei of the Danube, and it's so frequent that I think everyone who gets injured at the opponent is immediately promoted to the level of "team star" even if they completed two passes recently in the youth team. But here it seemed that this was actually the case: Beitar dominated indisputably, and initiated with some objections, and even scored.
And it would have scored more, I believe, if we were sharp enough in the attack or if at least we were playing on a proper football pitch. If you've already been dragged into choosing a home pitch in Europe, and you are a team that controls the ball, why play in a place that evokes associations with a stable, with the uncompromising Kiryat Eliezer, with Vasermil, you got the point. Why play in a pasture and not how Nolan intended, right on a grass pitch?
We scored one, but here the ball jumps on a bump, bounces off the defender, we received a goal from nothing. The second one already came from something. The changes made by the Austrian coach dismantled Almog Cohen's ideas and the defense looked, well, like Beitar's defense for 20 years with a few breaks. Vienna played without embellishment and with very few mistakes and surpassed Beitar in this half. I can't think of one player of ours on the grass who was really good for a long time, just this one a little, and then that one a little, and then the Austrians a lot. In such performances, the blame falls, just like in the previous game, on the coach.
And the thing is, when Barak Yitzhaki arrived at Beitar at the bottom of the table, we heard again and again about his "tuition fees" that we are paying on the way up. Enough, we finished financing the academy, this is an excuse that cannot be acceptable. I am not ready to hear about Almog Cohen's "tuition fees" as an excuse for shirking on the grass. Beitar will have to improve, and with a squad of such a level it will have to fight for titles, no less. You can learn at Universidad de Chile, this is a season where we will need to be and compete.
The floor of Beitar this season is supposed to be the ability of Boris Ino: if he is okay, we are supposed to be at the very least okay. He is the alpha in the center of the field, and when he looks bad, Beitar has no way out of it. You can compare it to Ventura in Be'er Sheva: even in games where it doesn't really go there, he maintains a level that doesn't let the team really fall. It's already been two weeks that Ino hasn't shown up. Maybe he needs assistance, an alpha male next to him. On the other hand, a defender moonlighting as a left back also seems necessary given the last two games; but even if only one of them arrives, this squad should be enough. I complain in principle about the idea that if we didn't look good for two games then we need to purchase and consume; certainly with a squad like Beitar's. You can always strengthen but don't talk about who is missing, there is enough for us to look like a shell and also for a long time. Not only in the league, but also in the return leg.
We are capable, obviously. In the previous season, we were the best away team in the league. Also this season we have already managed to win at Herzliya in Cyprus and I believe that in Vienna the grass will allow a flowing game. Although it is hard to see the league stage of the Conference even without the moisture, a serious team will go up to Vienna and do everything to win. A non-serious team, and we have been there for too long, will suffer a defeat. If this team demands to shed the Beitar of the past, let them be honored under a rickety bridge, and let them be fried in Vienna. There was one half in the pasture that proved to us that it is possible.
