Israeli soccer world mourns death of Dror Kashtan at 79

Former Israel national team head coach Dror Kashtan passed away on Monday at the age of 79.

Kashtan, who won trophies with six different club teams in Israel was known as one of the country’s stalwarts on the bench winning three league titles with Beitar Jerusalem, in addition to winning a pair of doubles, capturing the League championship and State Cup with both Hapoel Tel Aviv and Maccabi Tel Aviv.

The Petah Tikva native also led the Reds to the quarterfinals of the UEFA Cup in the 2002/03 season.

“Dror was one of the most prominent people in Israeli soccer for many years,” said former Israel star Yossi Benayoun. “Without a doubt one of the greatest coaches in Israel's history and I am happy that I had the privilege of playing under him.”

Kashtan started his career in the Israeli soccer world in 1962 playing with Hapoel Petah Tikva and then moved to Hapoel Kfar Saba, where he featured until 1975 when he retired and immediately turned his sights to coaching.

After two seasons leading the Kfar Saba Youth Team he took the reins of the senior team for a short stint before beginning an illustrious career managing through the 2013 season. Kashtan will always be remembered for his Hamsa that he kept with him as a good luck charm throughout his time on the sidelines.

“We say goodbye to a prominent and successful state figure who shaped and was a significant part of the development of Israeli football,” noted Culture and Sport Minister Miki Zohar. “His legacy and contribution to sports in Israel will remain forever.”

On the pitch

On the pitch, Maccabi Haifa smashed Maccabi Petah Tikva 5-0 in Israel Premier League action to move within just three points of Maccabi Tel Aviv atop the table.

Lior Refaelov opened the scoring with a 15-meter stunner to take a 1-0 lead in the 33rd minute, while Anan Khalili scored five minutes later to double the advantage. Goni Naor scored his first goal for the Greens in the 64th minute, Dean David added his marker five minutes later and Sean Goldberg found the back of the goal in the 84th minute to sew up the victory.

“We played a fantastic game,” Haifa coach Messay Dego said. “It was important for us to continue the good performance that we had against Maccabi Tel Aviv. I told the guys that it’s crucial for us to show our intensity. Once the first goal was scored things became easier as every game is really up to us for the good and the bad”

Elsewhere, Maccabi Tel Aviv and Maccabi Bnei Reineh played to a stunning 2-2 draw as the yellow-and-blue needed a late Dor Peretz strike to complete his brace to see the sides split the points.

Abdallah Gaber opened the scoring when he headed home a 22nd-minute goal, but before the break, Peretz took advantage of a defensive error by the hosts to draw even at 1-1. Loei Halaf gave Bnei Reineh the lead once again in the 52nd minute, but Peretz once again came up big with the tying goal in the 85th minute as each squad earned a point.

“The players were able to cut down the gap to Maccabi Tel Aviv,” Bnei Reineh coach Sharon Mimer said. “If we would have had a little bit of luck perhaps we could have taken all three points. We’re happy about the draw and the most important thing was being able to break out of our slump.”

“Our performance wasn’t good enough,” Maccabi coach Robbie Keane said. “We can’t keep conceding goals, set-pieces and I have to take responsibility, that’s football. You have to stop conceding goals, we can always find chances. You have to chase the goal and not sit back and waste time. This was probably our worst performance. We aren’t getting the wins we should be getting.”

Meanwhile, Beitar Jerusalem blanked Hapoel Hadera 3-0 as Yarden Shua recorded three assists in the away win.

The yellow-and-black got off to a quick start as Shua delivered a perfect corner kick that Adi Gutlieb headed home early on in the first half, while the midfielder then sent a tremendous ball to Adi Yona who doubled the advantage in the 78th minute. Just two minutes later, Shua delivered a through ball to Myron George, who put it home for the easy win.

“What’s super important to me is not conceding,” Beitar coach Yossi Abukasis said. “Our defense played an incredible game to record the clean sheet. On the attack, I believe that we had the most chances that we’ve created this season and we have to always take advantage of those.”

Hapoel Beersheba overwhelmed Hapoel Tel Aviv 4-0 as the Southern Reds continued their fine play over the past number of weeks.

Miguel Vitor nodded home the opening goal to give the visitors a 1-0 lead, but right before the break, Omer Senior was issued a red card leaving Borja Lena’s side with just 10 men for the entire second half. Eden Shamir took advantage of the extra man and scored in the 63rd minute while Rotem Hatuel bagged a late brace to polish off the win for Elyaniv Barda’s squad.

Hapoel Petah Tikva surprised Maccabi Netanya with a 2-0 win to take the points and send new Netanya head coach Guy Tzarfati to his first defeat since taking over the club last month.

Shoval Gozlan scored in the 20th minute to give Ofer Tesselpepe’s team a first-half lead while Avi Rikan doubled the advantage just before the break. With two Netanya players being sent off, that was it for Netanya’s chances to mount any type of comeback.

Hapoel Jerusalem and Bnei Sakhnin played to a goalless draw as the sides split the points.

“This was a fairly even game,” Reds coach Ziv Arie said. “Sakhnin is one of the toughest teams in the league. There are some specific things we need to work on, but we also know that there have been many games recently.”

Hapoel Haifa slipped by Ashdod SC 1-0 on Tomer Yosefi’s first-half strike to give the Carmel Reds the win and the points.

“This was great,” Haifa coach Roni Levy said. “During these tough days for our country at least this will give some of our fans a bit of comfort. We are not disconnected from the fact that our soldiers are battling and the hostages are waiting to come home every day. I have to say a good word about our guys who despite having so many games recently, they are still pushing hard and investing their time to play well.”