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Time to stop going with the flow By Aviad Segal Tags: Maccabi Netanya When Lothar Matthaus won his last major title as a player, most of the players on Maccabi Netanya were so young they didn't even have a favorite national team yet. Later, it's safe to assume, Bevan Fransman, Itay Shechter, Shalev Menashe and several other of the boys in class picked Brazil as their favorite - because of the intense heat, the dances and the joyful style of soccer. In class they would talk about how boring Germany is, shutting down the opposing player and clamping down the match, until the team wins and makes everyone a little nauseous. They heard mostly bad things about World Cup '90, and they only remembered the existence of their coach, the world champion of that World Cup, when the shocking reports came out regarding his arrival here. On Monday, between Shechter's goal and Ravid Gazal's pushing and shoving, the children of Matthaus joined the other side. They turned into the kids who go against the flow, who don't get excited by another dance from Lior Refaelov or from the speed of Thembinkosi Fanteni. Advertisement They came to Kiryat Eliezer, Maccabi Haifa's home, spit on the popular ones who made them pick that national squad featuring Romario and Bebeto, and like the Germany of Matthaus, put everyone else in their place by winning. Ravid Gazal and Almog Cohen were sent in to overwhelm Gustavo Boccoli and Biram Kiyal, while Menashe was responsible for getting the ball to Shechter, knowing he would create the required commotion. And save for two dead-ball situations, in which Haifa scored its two goals, the trio of defenders in Luis Marin, Ze'ev Haimovich and Fransman took care of Fanteni. It's hard to find complaints with Haifa head coach Levi. Playing before a national television audience and a sellout crowd, he wasn't afraid to replace Kiyal with Mohammed Ghadir, Alon Harazi with Shlomi Arbeiman and to send Eyal Golsa to take control of all the attacks from the center of the pitch. Haifa finally took the game in its own hands in the second half, but Netanya used every trick in the book to eat up time and preserve its lead. Netanya's style this season is reminiscent of that of Reuven Attar, the team's previous coach, during the previous two years, but it's hard to remember Netanya so disciplined, organized and intelligent as it was during the first half Monday. Attar, in his day, didn't manage to get as much out of players like Menashe as Matthaus does now. It's been three weeks now that the league's game of the week is in the new format of Monday nights. During that time, we have learned to get reacquainted with Refaelov, to fire Ran Ben Shimon, to get excited by Golsa and Ghadir and to understand that Lothar Matthaus, that one from Italy '90, is really walking around here. To the children of Israel, who didn't have the privilege to see him as an architect of the German national team, he has given us another option to choose. Don't go with the flow, rather run with Maccabi Netanya to the championship. Bookmark to del.icio.us   A ringing endorsement Jimmy Carter says Obama will waste no time in pursuing Middle East peace. Peres' olive branch Israel's president says the Arab peace plan is an opening for progress.

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