Hapoel Rishon LeZion secured a victory on Thursday evening when they beat Kiryat Yam 4:2 in the Liga Leumit's fifth round of fixtures. The match, played on September 10th, delivered more goals than anyone might have expected from the early stages of the season. By then, the visitors had already shown they could score in bunches — their 5:0 win over Hapoel Acre just four days prior was the kind of result that makes defenders nervous.
The opening goal came at the fifteen-minute mark when E. Henty converted a penalty for the hosts. To be fair, Hapoel had not exactly been prolific in their previous outing, a 0:0 draw against Bnei Yehuda, but they paid for that sloppy opening by letting Kiryat Yam back into the game before halftime. R. Ben Shimon added a second goal just before the break at thirty-eight minutes, then doubled his personal tally at forty-seven minutes to put the visitors under real pressure.
The momentum shifted sharply at fifty-six minutes when A. Etongou was sent off for the visitors. Red cards tend to change how a match unfolds, and this one was no exception. Hapoel tightened things up after the dismissal, though they never got out of second gear for long stretches. I. Boganim found the net at seventy-three minutes, and Y. Balay added another at eighty-eight minutes. The final two goals at eighty-nine and ninety-three minutes came without named scorers in the data provided.
The statistics tell a story of fairly even contest despite the one-sided scoreline. Both sides registered roughly fifty percent possession and nearly identical numbers of attacks — sixty-one for the hosts against fifty-nine for the visitors. Hapoel had thirteen shots on target compared to five for Kiryat Yam, but the visitors managed to convert theirs more efficiently. The red card certainly made a difference in how the match opened up.
We had given Hapoel the win in our preview with forty percent confidence, not the highest rating we've ever attached to a prediction. Things came to a head in the second half when the numerical advantage told. The academy graduates and the experienced heads both contributed, though the exact minutes mattered less than the fact that Hapoel kept their heads when it counted.
The result keeps Hapoel Rishon LeZion in second place with thirteen points from five games — four wins and a draw, still unbeaten. They will make life awkward for anyone sitting above them. Kiryat Yam remain in eighth with six points from two wins and three losses, and that red card against a side that ground out the win will not have gone down well with the management.