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Hapoel Hammered - Hapoel Hyde Park 1-5 Mechanical Engineering

Writer's picture: Jonah LazarusJonah Lazarus

Updated: Oct 17, 2023


Despite securing a win over the medics last week, Hapoel sadly failed to build on last week’s potential and suffered another heavy defeat in a crucial game, where a win would have seen the team move above MechEng in the league. Yesterday however, was a complete disaster on all fronts for Hapoel, and even the return of former club legend Oriel Sandler could not prevent the result.


In what was always expected to be a physical game following last term’s brutal clash, MechEng had the measure of Hapoel right from the start of the game, scoring from a corner in the first minute, in what seems to become a notable weakness for Hapoel this season. The team did quickly respond to conceding the early goal, with Jake Frank leading a great counter attack, as Daniel Bowman scored with an assist from Joel Walters, who was often alone going forward yesterday. With changing conditions throughout the first half, it looked as if Hapoel were getting themselves back into a game, as Bowman followed up his goal with another incredible counter attack, unlucky not to add a second to his goal tally.


Regrettably, Hapoel could not maintain the equaliser as MechEng broke through the defence and added a second goal. The intensity and frustration of the half started to build as well, with Joe Salomon getting involved in his first confrontation of the day, followed by a disagreement between van Veen and Meszarich over a substitution. However, just before the first half, the first of two catastrophic refereeing decisions were given against Hapoel, as a wondergoal from new signing Louis Lazarus was given and then retracted after Hapoel were awarded a free kick just as the ball had already gone in. After this disallowed goal, Hapoel then scored from the free kick just before halftime, only to have this one ruled out for offside.


After what had been such a strong first-half performance from Hapoel, the second half could not have been more different, as the team simply collapsed. After giving away a goal right at the beginning of the half, through what Jason Saidel described as “an error from the whole defensive unit”, the game just went downhill from that moment. After a blatant red card challenge on Joel Walters was ignored by the referee, both van Veen and Noah Rosenthal found themselves booked instead. Two more defensive errors followed before the end of the game, with a horrific mistake from Ben Goldstein being responsible for MechEng’s fifth and final goal of the day, bringing an end to the slaughter.




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