On December 8th, 1988, I first had a date with a girl. Exactly
10 years later, on December 8th, 1998, I got demobilized from
the army, with a whole new life starting for me, and an eventual
working contract in Germany where I could finally live with my
girlfriend, later to become my wonderful wife. 2 meaningful
dates in my personal life. How does Soccer come into the
equation, you would probably ask? Well, in the evening of that
Tuesday in December 1998, I watched the unforgettable game of
1/8 finals in the UEFA Cup, between Liverpool and Celta Vigo in
Anfield, the game that added another dimension to the meaning of
the magic existing for me in December 8th.
That day, Haim Revivo returned to the pitch after a long injury;
without him, his team surprisingly eliminated Aston Villa, and
clinched a 3:1 home victory against Liverpool in the first leg.
The Reds had to win with a margin of at least 2 goals at home,
but in the light of their form and the form of the surprising
Spanish Cinderella from Galicia, this mission seemed to become
impossible. And indeed, Richard Dutruel had to show his skill
only once, parrying the bomb of Michael Owen; on the other hand,
his counterpart David James was busy stopping the efforts of
Karpine, Mostovoi, Penev...
Let's be frank, overall Revivo didn't sparkle in this game - he
was still recovering from an injury, he had to be substituted
after 70 minutes of play, and he left most of the stage to the
virtuosity of Valeriy Karpine, Alexander Mostovoi and Michel
Salgado. But there was one minute, the 57th, the eruption of
talent, the astonishing moment, the thing that counts, the
winner in the game which Celta wasn't obliged to win. Claude
Makelele saw the free space at the left wing, and sent Revivo
there with a great pass. Revivo reached the ball 20 meters after
the midline, and started his sprint of 20 meters. But that was
just the start. He got to the edge of the box, cut to the right
with his left foot, leaving Jim Carragher behind, then passed
Phil Babb, adjusted the ball with his right, and again with his
right bombed it diagonally from 14 meters between the 2
defenders and the desperately diving David James. The stadium
gasped for breath, watching the referee pointing to the center
and Revivo raising his T-shirt in triumph, showing the world a
picture of his little son on the T-shirt underneath. The goal
was shown as a movie on CNN Sports site, and became "The Goal Of
The Month" in the world. An additional glory was brought,
however indirectly, to the Israeli Soccer - and as it happened
very- very often, the responsible for this was no other than
Haim Revivo.
Haim Revivo was born in Ashdod, in February 1972. Naturally, he
made his first steps in his native stadium in Ashdod, one of the
best stadia all over the country. The teams in Ashdod, however,
were then far from being spoken about or taken into any
consideration, and so the talented youngster aspired to find the
good team to start his career in.
He was lucky - after a Championship of 1989-90, Bnei-Yehuda
finished just the 10th in 1990-91, and its manager Giora Spiegel
understood some new, young and talented players had to be bought,
altogether with the experienced ones to inspire the confidence.
The skill of Revivo captured Spiegel's eye, and the player was
bought by the Oranges.
Revivo's career would never be as flourishing hadn't it been for
Bnei-Yehuda. A thinking and clever coach is very important for
the beginners, and Giora Spiegel with his calm manners and a
great playing experience, both Israeli and European, was the one.
Besides, Revivo's purchase was accompanied by buying the young
Alon Mizrahi from Hapoel Tel-Aviv and the experienced Niko
Kudritskiy (of blessed memory) from Dnepr Dnepropetrovsk, then
still the USSR. The three, after a certain period of
acclimatization and getting familiar with each other, started to
be a lethal force. The best attacking trio ever seen in Israel
had Mizrahi near the goal, Revivo as an attacking midfielder and
Kudritskiy bridging between them, both scoring and making goal
passes. People came from Europe to see the miracles the three
performed.
In the season of 1991-92 the three were the best and maybe the
only valuable players of Bnei-Yehuda, and it still was enough to
take the Vice-Championship after a very long and stubborn fight
against Maccabee Tel-Aviv for the title. But the golden time of
the three came during the season of 1992-93 - the team finished
the 3rd, after Beitar Jerusalem and Maccabee Tel-Aviv, but
scored 66 goals, 53 of those (!) scored by its unstoppable trio
of attackers. Mizrahi was "The Best Israeli Scorer" with 26
goals, Kudritskiy finished with 17 goals as "The 2nd Best
Israeli Scorer"; but those wouldn't be scored without the
numerous assists of Revivo, who in addition scored 10 times
himself.
This season, we saw from Revivo the sparkles of true geniosity.
In the situation of 3:3 in Kiryat-Eliezer, 5 minutes from time,
Revivo took the responsibility to pass 3 defenders and to roll
the winner past Victor Chanov, mission close to impossible at
that time. The story of the Championship was factually over
after Bnei-Yehuda's victory over Maccabee Tel-Aviv in Ramat-Gan,
3:2; Revivo made a goal pass to Alon Mizrahi and then scored
himself, getting the ball into the box from Kudritskiy and
making a move to let Uvarov sit down and bouncing the ball
centimeters over the keeper's stretched hands, a magnificent
effort no one ever tried to perform against the former National
keeper of the USSR. But most of all, I remember the effort of
Revivo against Beitar Tel-Aviv - Kudritskiy made a pass to
Revivo 25 meters diagonally from the net, at half a height, and
the latter shot a left-foot volley to the right high corner; had
not it been for an incredible flight of Bonnie Ginzburg to parry
the ball to a corner, we would've seen "The Goal Of The Year".
In the season of 1993-94, it was the end of the trio story in
Bnei-Yehuda. Mizrahi went to Maccabee Haifa, Revivo left for
Hapoel Tel-Aviv, and Niko stayed to save Bnei-Yehuda from
relegation; he succeeded in this, but lost his life in a tragic
traffic accident near Raananna. Nevertheless, his 2 pupils and
partners continued to show their tremendous skills. Mizrahi had
a wonderful part in Maccabee Haifa's golden season, scoring 28
goals ("The Best Israeli Scorer", for the 3rd consecutive year)
and beating Parma away in the Cup Winners' Cup. And Revivo was
the man to bring Hapoel Tel-Aviv singlefootedly the 5th place
and the Cup final; he scored 10 goals, one of them, the away
winner against Maccabee Netanya, to be remembered for long after
being performed Negrete-styled. In "The Best 11 Of The Season",
Revivo was the only player not from Maccabee Haifa to be
included. And here started his tremendously fast rise to the
glory.
Alon Mizrahi left Maccabee Haifa, and the name of Revivo
naturally appeared in the list of potential substitutes to the
talented forward. Revivo put on the green shirt and showed his
leadership during the very first game of his, against Casino
Zalzburg in the Champions' League. After a nervous summer of
changing the clubs, Revivo was able to play for just 80 minutes
against the stubborn rival, but scored from a penalty kick,
performed one great deed to be denied by the keeper and
dominated on the field; during the ten last minutes without
Revivo and Oleg Kuznetsov, Haifa conceded 2 goals and painfully
lost at home, 1:2.
The season of 1994-95 became the season of Revivo, "The Best
Israeli Player" and "The Best Israeli Scorer" altogether with
Amir Turgeman. He scored 17 goals in the season of 30 games and
made numerous goal passes, and he was the force to lead Maccabee
Haifa in its mediocre season to win the Vice-Championship,
falling behind Maccabee Tel-Aviv just in the last week. "The
Game Of Revivo" was the one against Maccabee Ironi Ashdod away
(6:1), where he scored twice and made 3 (!) goal passes in
addition; but the best moment was his goal against Maccabee
Tel-Aviv, a volley bomb at half a height to pass 30 meters from
his left foot to the left corner of Uvarov. Slipping the
Championship, Maccabee Haifa took the Cup. The team was close to
panic, trailing 0:2 at home to the Country League's Hapoel
Kefar-Saba just 10 minutes from the start; however, Revivo
earned 2 penalties, both converted by Kandaurov, and then
registered a terrific solo penetration that resulted in a
winner, in the stage of the quarterfinals. He opened the
semifinals with a terrific bomb under the bar of Giora Antman
after just 3 minutes of play, and it ended 2:0 to Maccabee over
Beitar Jerusalem.
The season of 1994-95 has started altogether with the EC'96
preliminaries, and already then there was no doubt Revivo should
be included into the National team for those important official
games. The goal pass of him enabled Ronen Harazi to score the
2nd goal against Poland and to bring the world another sensation
- 2:1 to Israel! Then, Revivo's free kick from the left wing
landed on Ronen Harazi's head on its way to the Israeli victory
over Azerbaijan, 2:0. In the following game against Romania,
Revivo was active and constantly threatened the goal of Stelea;
it ended 1:1. Then, Ronen Harazi returned a great assist to
Revivo, but the latter failed to beat the excellent Bernard
Lama; still, Revivo made an important part of defensive work
against the French pressure to leave France with a bitter taste
of another game against Israel without a victory, just 0:0.
Finally, a great lob of Revivo over Joseph Wandzyk in one-to-one
gave Israel a temporary lead in Poland, 2:1, but the game ended
with 4:3 to the hosts.
The season of 1995-96 started for Revivo and the Greens with a
bad European disappointment, and though Revivo scored in Faroe
Islands a direct corner kick, his team lost there 2:3 to
Klaaksvikkaar, still passing to the next round on aggregate
(after a 4:0 in the first game), but experiencing the
humiliation against Sporting Lisbon later on. However, in the
League Revivo was just perfect, with 26 goals and the title of
"The Best Israeli Scorer" for the 2nd consecutive season.
Despite the great form of Revivo, Maccabee Haifa was again the
2nd, losing the Championship again to its most hated rivals,
Maccabee Tel-Aviv. Tel-Aviv's keeper, Alexander Uvarov, defeated
Revivo in a close fight for "The Best Player of 1995-96" award.
Revivo scored a fantastic goal against Hapoel Beer-Sheva,
turning for 120 degrees to meet with his left-foot volley killer
the preparation of Moshe Glam. His 2 goals against Hapoel
Beit-Shean and the last effort of the 3 against Beitar Tel-Aviv
will be remembered for long, as his tremendous free kicks vs
Rishon le-Zion and the same Beitar Tel-Aviv. And his two bicycle
kicks to hit the bars of Maccabee Tel-Aviv and Hapoel Tsafririm
Holon will also be recalled for a long time.
Not only the Israeli keepers suffered from Revivo, but also
Edvin van der Sar, the keeper of Ajax, while playing in a
friendly game against Maccabee Haifa here, in Kiryat-Eliezer.
Real Madrid, Milan and Gremio failed to do in 570 aggregate
minutes (!) what Revivo did just in 3. Getting a ball from
Berkovich, he approached van der Sar, lay the keeper down,
rolled the ball past him and then rolled it into an empty net.
The fans amongst you, seeing the wonderful temporary equalizer
of Davor Suker against Germany in Euro'96 - that effort of
Revivo was similar, very similar. That was the first goal of
Revivo, out of 3 in his personal history, that made the top
headlines in CNN Sports. He was the best on the pitch, and
Maccabee Haifa eventually won 2:1, from the last-minute strike
of Haim Silbas.
The Israeli League became too small for the talent of Haim
Revivo, and in July 1996 he went to play abroad. The first
rumours were about Grasshoppers, the Swiss superpower from
Zurich, but Revivo finally landed in Celta Vigo, a very modest
club in the Spanish Primera. By then, the club's main objective
was to stay in the League, and its history showed no titles at
all, and just one participation in the UEFA Cup, back in 1972.
The first season was indeed full of hardships, and the team
managed to stay in the Senior League of Spain only in the last
game, defeating the indifferent Real Madrid 4:0 at home. For the
Israeli legionary, it was a normal season of acclimatization,
with 5 scored goals and several important goal passes. But,
unlike Eyal Berkovich in his troubled career in England and
Scotland, Revivo knew how to accept the temporary troubles. He
learnt Spanish, he got well accepted by the team members and the
coach Javier Irureta, he never missed a chance to praise the
place and the team in the interviews. And this love became
two-sided.
In 1997-98, the Russian International Valeriy Karpine joined
Celta from Valencia, and his landsake Alexander Mostovoi came
from Strasbourg; in addition, Celta enjoyed the crazy skill of
Richard Dutruel in its net, the jet force of Michel Salgado on
the right wing, the scoring might of Juan Sanchez and the
Bulgarian International Lubo Penev, the stable defensive line
led by the World Champion Mazinho from Brazil... All those
brought Celta to glory, and the Israeli fans started following
loyally after Celta's games. A joke was born: "Loving Celta is
easy, it's just another Israeli team. A crazy keeper, a black
defender, lots of Sephardis (a game of words, since "Spharadi"
in Hebrew may mean "Spanish", as well as "belonging to the
Oriental Jewry". - M.M.), two Russian midfielders, and a player
from Ashdod".
But if you ask any sportive commentator about the main reasons
of Celta's ascent to the top, he will name you 3 people above
the rest - Revivo, Karpine, Mostovoi. The modest Israeli player
combined well with the 2 aging Russian stars past their peak,
and together they made a lethal midfield force, one of the best
in the best League in the world. Mostovoi was acting as a
playmaker, and Revivo and Karpine supported him on left and
right wings, respectively, sometimes cutting towards the center;
add to this the threatening front line and the frequent
penetrations of the attacking defender Michel Salgado, and you
will get the attractivity of Celta that was surprising, and
altogether with that logical. 7 goals of Revivo in this season
were added by numerous goal passes as well, and the productivity
of each Russian was similar. Celta caught the 6th place and the
UEFA Cup berth, and Revivo's left foot was considered the most
lethal in the League after the great Rivaldo's.
Participating in the UEFA Cup for just the 2nd time in history,
Celta registered victory after victory. Passing the weak
Romanian team Arges Pitesti with 1:0 away (a goal pass by
Revivo) and 7:0 at home, Celta lost at home 0:1 to Aston Villa -
but then, against all odds, registered a smashing 3:1 victory in
Birmingham. Conceding a goal from Michael Owen at home, Celta
had Mostovoi, Karpine and Vladimir Gudelj responding in style to
expose the horrors of Liverpool's defence; the masterpiece of
Revivo finished the story in Anfield. By then, Celta was
seriously counted as the possible UEFA Cup winner.
Unfortunately, in the quarterfinals it met Marseille. Losing the
decent 1:2 loss in France (a goal pass of Revivo to Mostovoi),
Celta was suddenly unable to excel at home - just a 0:0, and an
unfortunate exit. Unfortunate in the light of the wonderful form
of the team, and not the pre-season expectations.
In parallel with this, Celta had the most wonderful season in
its history in the Spanish League, overshadowing even the great
season it had before. The unfortunate 2 losses in the last
games, to Mallorca and Atletico Madrid, sent Celta down to the
5th place and denied its sensational participation in the
Champions League, confining the team to "just" the UEFA Cup
berth - and still, the disappointment came in the light of the
achievements and the style, and not of the preliminary
expectations. With his 9 goals and at least as many goal passes,
Revivo made it to the symbolic "Team Of The Season", and he was
chosen by Celta fans as the best player of the team, even
despite the magnificent performances given by both Karpine and
Mostovoi. 3 reasons can be mentioned here - the tremendous
popularity of Revivo in the team (he was even elected the team
captain) and the town itself, the fact that he suffered from an
injury and brilliantly recovered, and also the fact that many of
his goal and goal passes proved decisive. He defeated La Coruna
and Tenerife, Villareal and Racing Santander, helped to defeat
Valladolid and was instrumental in taking points from Barcelona
and Real Madrid. His tremendous free kick became a winner
against Oviedo, and later on just a breathtaking save of the
Colombian International Farid Mondragon prevented a sparkling
volley from becoming yet another goal. The great top game
against Mallorca, which led twice, was perhaps the best ever
game of Karpine, who twice blasted the equalizers in, made a
goal pass to the header of Djurovic and then was knocked down in
an injury time, 25 meters from the net; but then, it was Revivo
with a stylish free kick that beat the Argentinian International
Carlos Roa and sealed the victory for Celta, bringing it
temporarily to the 1st place. And the examples are still
numerous...
This was also a golden time of Haim Revivo in the National team,
and despite the rare skill of just all the players, it was
mostly our man in Spain who brought Israel to the playoffs for
Euro'2000. His pass to Mizrahi in Vienna sent the forward to the
box to be sent down, and Avi Nimni scored a superimportant
equalizer, 1:1. Revivo's goal and 2 goal passes in San-Marino
let Israel clinch an easy 5:0 victory over the pastoral rival,
and his goal pass of a rare genius to Alon Hazan made Ramat-Gan
erupt with an opener against Spain; it was just unfortunate that
the 2 mistakes of Rafi Cohen spoiled the mood later on. Playing
injured, he set up 2 goals against Cyprus at home, 3:0, and even
in the humiliation of 2:3 in Cyprus, he was the only player to
play in style and settled both goals. His magnificent free kick
in the injury time of the 1st half, a goal pass to Berkovich
early in the 2nd half and participating in a scoring combination
of Berkovich and Grayib 15 minutes from the end made the
impossible; Israel defeated Austria 5:0 at home in perhaps its
best game ever, and I had a pleasure of being at the stadium and
watching it live. Against San-Marino in September 1999, Haim
scored twice and made 2 goal passes. And even in Spain, where
Israel lost 0:3 (quite an achievement in itself, after the
Cypriote loss of 0:8 there, as well as the humiliations of 0:9
for both San-Marino and Austria), Revivo was the best in his
team and created numerous chances.
In between, there was also a friendly against Argentina before
the World Cup, in April 1998. It became a great tradition that
the white-and-blue of Argentina come to Israel to meet the local
blue-and-white before every World Cup. And the results became
also traditional - led by Maradona, Caniggia or Batistuta, the
South American power always won, the only subject was the
margin. But no more! Revivo earned a penalty that Alon Mizrahi
sent to the bar, and then saw the great combination of Eyal
Berkovich and Najouan Grayib which opened the score; even so,
Israel stayed in 10 men after an unjustified red card shown to
Yosi Abuksis, and then the guests equalized through the header
of Diego Cagna. When the Argentinian pressure grew and the South
American winner seemed inevitable, Revivo provided us with
another touch of genius, the 2nd goal of his that earned the
headlights of CNN. Israel earned a free kick near the Hagi
Point, some 25 meters from the net and very close to the left
out-line of the field. The small wall has been built, as the
Argentinians and the Israelis alike waited for the goal pass
into the box. Revivo, however, thought otherwise and curved the
ball past the wall to the close corner of German Burgos who was
too stunned to move. 2:1 to Israel.
If a black point should be found in Revivo's biography, this was
definitely the season of 1999-2000. And of course, it started
with the infamous play-offs against Denmark. In a state of 0:2
at home after the first half, Revivo made a redundant unsportive
foul on Martin Joergensen, and the English referee David Elleray
showed him the red card. The team was broken in this particular
moment, but perhaps, the action of Revivo just underlined the
state of confusion the team was in. 0:5 at home at the end, 0:3
in Denmark, a scandal of call girls, a change of coach (the
retirement of Shlomo Sherf and the arrival of Richard
Moeller-Nielsen), and so on and so forth - all those finished in
an awful note what could be the best ever achievement of the
National team. But, watching a pitiful performance of the Danes
in Euro'00, against France, Holland and Czech Republic, one
couldn't help thanking the Danes for taking the place of Israel,
saving our guys from probably even worse humiliations.
In fact, the bad form of all the team was a direct result of a
bad form of its legionaries, and mostly of Eyal Berkovich and
Haim Revivo. Revivo could hardly find his place in the 11 of
Victor Fernandez anymore, argued with the coach, and scored only
2 goals in the League. The only positive things happened to
Revivo again in the UEFA Cup. Being surprisingly down 0:3 in
Lausanne, Celta sprung to life after an impossible goal of
Revivo from an angle of 0, with Valeriy Karpine reducing the
score even more after Revivo's goal pass, 2:3; and the goal pass
of Revivo to Benny McCarthy in the 2nd leg started the feast of
Celta, 4:0. Bypassing Aris Saloniki later on, 2:2 away and 2:0
home, Celta humiliated the two European superpowers, first
Benfica Lisbon (7:0 home, 1:1 away) and then Juventus Turin (0:1
away, 4:0 home). But then, again in the stage of the
quarterfinals, Celta met again the fatal French team, this time
Lens. The surprise of the Cup, the modest French club passed by
then Maccabee Tel-Aviv (and its player David Revivo, the younger
brother of Haim), Vitesse Arnhem, Kaiserslautern and Atletico
Madrid, and held Celta to a nil draw in Vigo. In the 2nd leg in
France, Revivo opened the score with a brilliantly taken free
kick, but the hosts replied quickly with 2 goals and eliminated
the Spaniards again.
The talks of Revivo's leave by the end of the season were loud,
and the speculations about the possible destination teams were
numerous. The coach Louis Van Gaal was thrown from Barcelona,
and Revivo lost hopes of ending in the Catalan superclub; Aston
Villa, Fiorentina and AS Roma also didn't present any concrete
deal. Finally, Revivo moved to the Turkish Fenerbahce, coached
by Mustafa Denizli after he retired from the National team in
the peak of its achievements (Euro'2000 1/4 finals). Denizli
openly expressed the wish to build the whole team around Revivo,
and vowed to give the Israeli player his first Championship
title.
The season of 2000-01 has just started, and Haim Revivo starts a
new era of his career in Fenerbahce; according to the starting
games of the season, he's going to become a superstar of the
Turkish League, the title which he seems to be used to. The
National team, under the new coach, the Danish Euro'1992 winner
Richard Moeller-Nielsen, starts its WC'2002 preliminary round,
with hopes to the first WC participation after 1970. We all keep
the fingers crossed to Haim Revivo, the best Israeli player of
the last decade, if not of all times. |
