My biggest fear at the time when the tribunal deducted points for quite a few teams was that the championship would be decided only by virtue of dropping points, in this case to Maccabi Haifa against the rival Maccabi Tel Aviv. The 5 point gap between the two teams on the eve of the game and the possibility that it would drop to only two preoccupied many. After yesterday it was over No more calculations and calculations, no more crying and moaning, Maccabi Tel Aviv in one of its biggest games in recent years, arrived at the Sami Ofer fortress and deservedly won 0:1. Not with great football, not with beauty and not with an impressive offensive game, but only with crazy determination and “suicide” on every ball.
Maccabi Haifa coach Masai Dego said at the end of the game one true sentence that reflects everything: “Maccabi Tel Aviv came here to win the championship.” Anyone who wants to talk now about who is better? Who plays better? And who was more offensive? Let him talk to himself, Maccabi Tel “A yesterday transferred the crown from Maccabi Haifa to her with a victory on the court of the outgoing champion and there is nothing sweeter than that. Everything else is suitable for beauty contests or a decoration committee at an elementary school, and Dago complimented and rightly said about Maccabi Tel Aviv “Whoever is in first place is the best”. Sharp, smooth, flattering and always telling the truth.
In order to be so, I must introduce you to how I saw the game even before it started. Maccabi Tel Aviv is in a really bad time. Not in defense, not in midfield, and not in attack. It comes to the game after a 1:1 draw with Bnei Sakhnin, two of the season’s standouts Felicio Milson and Yoris Van Overeem are not starting (Van Overeem came on as a substitute). In short, in a period not Good compared to Maccabi Haifa who in recent weeks have been excellent, add the home stadium with 27 thousand fans compared to 3,000 of Maccabi Tel Aviv. Then comes Robbie Keane’s lineup with a very careful 1-4-5, when the team has not played like this at all this season and here is the pattern for the loss to Maccabi Haifa, when on the contrary Maccabi Tel Aviv was in an excellent period. All this was good until the opening whistle, which although Maccabi Haifa started strongly in -The first 20 minutes, Maccabi Tel Aviv was determined and was constantly in the game.
Even before the opening whistle, we saw the owner Mitch Goldhar and his assistant Jack Angalidis on the grass and even sat on the team’s bench as if they came to tell the players “we are with you, today don’t let us down”. Maybe it was some kind of incentive for the players, but it turns out that the Maccabi Tel Aviv players don’t need any incentive. They only saw a championship in front of their eyes, even against a team that is now in better shape and did it the hard and ugly way. But who cares, it was One of Maccabi Tel Aviv’s biggest victories in recent years.
As mentioned, Robbie Keane decided to play more defensively and it worked for him. Moreover, yesterday on the grass at Sami Ofer, 4 players who were pretty much deleted in the last few weeks played – Dan Bitton, Matan Baltaksa and Idan Nahmias and Derrick Lucassen, who entered as substitutes for the defensive effort at the end of the game. This time it worked for Robbie Keane, it must be said. Maccabi Tel Aviv hardly abandoned the 3-3-4 this season. In almost all of its games it played that way. If Robbie Keane had also thought of playing that way in the return match against Olympiakos in the Round of 16 of the Conference League, he might not have been defeated 6:1 and advanced to the quarterfinals. But he decided to play like that yesterday and it worked.
It was successful because he was very afraid of the attacking Maccabi Haifa, but luckily for him, Maccabi Haifa yesterday was not good enough and not sharp enough and he scored a great victory, also because of mistakes made by Maccabi Haifa coach Massai Dago. First of all, the lineup. For me, not seeing Shawn Goldberg in the first lineup is a complete surprise. With all due respect to the two foreign brakes Abdulai Sek and Lorenzo Shimich, Goldberg is better and more stable than them. As fate would have it, yesterday the two weren’t good enough and even caused two penalties for Maccabi Tel Aviv, and also Daniel Sondgren in the lineup after a disciplinary offense. They shouldn’t have started before Shawn Goldberg, the best Israeli stopper in the country.
A second decision is regarding Anan Halaili. The talented guy came back from injury, the line-up in the last few weeks was good, he ran very well, why change and put him in the top spot of Hajj? And the exchanges? By the time Lior Rafalov entered the game, he was replaced, including ending a game with Gadi Kinda, Kenny Seif and Maor Kandil? This is not the team to beat Maccabi Tel Aviv. This time Masai Dago made a big mistake and Robbie Keen took full advantage of that.
Here is the time to tell Lior Rafalov, unlike Masai Dego, he did not know how to compliment Maccabi Tel Aviv and said at the end of the game “The good ones don’t always win”, Dor Peretz’s answer was “Let them stop focusing on us”. The truth is, Dor Peretz is right, because Maccabi Haifa is quite The season was focused on Maccabi Tel-Aviv and Lior Rafalov’s statement after returning the point to Maccabi Tel-Aviv is also remembered, “It seems that there is an intentional hand”, so it should be said that Rafalov can say anything, even that Maccabi Haifa is better than Real Madrid, but his words need to be proof or fact. I understand his frustration to come to Maccabi Haifa after many years and not win any title, but I expect him not to fall for inappropriate statements.
Now that the championship is almost closed, 8 is the difference with 9 in the pot and no one will stop Maccabi Tel Aviv from lifting the plate, we need to look to the future because I have no doubt that next season the two sworn rivals will continue to fight for the crown. When asked after the game about his future at Maccabi Tel Aviv , again Ruby Keen was not ready to answer. Quite puzzling. I also saw the big hug he got after the game from his boss Mitch Goldhar. Apparently there are still unresolved issues between the two, because when Goldhar arrives in Israel, he doesn’t just come to watch the game, but much more and it’s also time to prepare for the next season.
With all the great victory last night over Maccabi Haifa, I’m still not “locked” on Robbie Keen. Too many ups and downs, he didn’t react in quite a few games, the humiliation against Olympiakos. All this should be taken into account and most importantly, we have not yet heard from the Irish coach whether he is ready to continue another season due to the security situation in the country.
Compared to the uncertainty with Robbie Keen, in Maccabi Haifa Barak Becher is already working on the next season. Overall, the squad is excellent to compete for the championship with small changes. It seems worth thinking about new foreigners, especially Abdulai Sek, who thinks he’s Franz Beckenbauer and doesn’t seem to count anyone in Maccabi Haifa. In contrast, Mahmoud Jaber is a piece of player, a high-level midfielder, who together with Ali Muhammad are the heart of the team and Barak Bakr must do everything for the two to continue.
As for Eran Zahavi, who had a mediocre game yesterday but squeezed the penalty and also scored it which won the game, this is no longer the same Eran Zahavi. There is nothing to talk about about speed, not physical enough, both fatigue and age give their signals and not only because of the shoulder injury that can disable him for a long time. This is exactly the time to consider the way forward. I will certainly not advise him to retire, because it is only his and the fact that he is a great player is also only his, but if he really already feels a decrease in ability and physicality, is exposed to injuries due to his age. You should consider retirement after the upcoming championship.
I know that for the Maccabi Tel Aviv fans, yesterday was a double along with the relegation of Hapoel Tel Aviv. Except for Maccabi Tel Aviv fans, Hapoel Tel Aviv will be missed by the general public in the country. It’s a huge club, although in recent years it’s a crowd with a club and not the other way around. The big derby will be missing, the huge crowd will be missing, unless it comes en masse to Bloomfield in the National League as well. Hapoel Tel Aviv was not relegated because of the loss to Ashdod. A team that is relegated is a team that for an entire season did not have good enough players, did not have a good enough professional team and did not have management. The last two times when it was relegated, it was promoted immediately after one season. To the owners The new ones, if they eventually arrive, it should be said, choose the right people, because Hapoel Tel Aviv was relegated this season because of wrong people. And if I mentioned here both coach Masai Dago and Hapoel Tel Aviv, it could be an excellent connection.
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