Joining Jackson and Reynolds raises the number of foreigners in Tel Aviv Maccabi season 11 • Injuries and inability to join Israeli players bring the champion closer to the foreigners record in the 2009 season

• Reynolds. Came in the wake of Black's injury

  Photo:

  Gettyimages

• Jackson. Maccabi's solution to the center position

  Photo:

  Gettyimages

The beginning of 2020 finds Janis Sparopoulos and Maccabi Tel Aviv starting tonight in Kaunas with the third group of Maccabi this season. If you want, even this is the fourth episode of Maccabi this season. In the first episode that included the preparation by the end of October, Maccabi was a group with almost no subtractions. Devoid of any real hierarchy.

In the second episode where Tyler Dorsey signed up for the league and Othello Hunter became the leading scorer, Maccabi formed the identity of a team with defensive capabilities and almost absolute outsider, leading it to stun Europe with 55 points in wins in Piraeus and Vittoria.

The third episode started off badly with Black and Caspi's injuries and a searing loss in the Jerusalem Cup. That led Maccabi to put Angelo Cloyaro into the team. Then, in early December, she lost John Di Bartholomew and Nate Walters and started the team's heroic month: With no four players from the top ten, Maccabi returned twice from pits against Pau and CSKA at home and won all the league games, despite only a six-player rotation.

Jackson vs. Maccabi in 2014 // Photo: IP

Ark History

With the joining of Aaron Jackson and Jaylen Reynolds, Maccabi begins its fourth installment of its wonderful season so far (a 24-win overall record and six losses). Joining Maccabi is a team with no fewer than 11 foreigners this season. She is just one more stranger to the 2008-09 season's record comparisons in which they shot 12 strangers, but then five strangers were released during the season (Pfizer, Batista, Elton Brown, Rodney White and Jason Williams). Right now they all belong to the team roster.

At present, Maccabi Tel Aviv is still debating Jackson or Reynolds' registration for the league, which will be the eighth and final striker of the season. In my opinion, Maccabi needs to register Jackson, as this is a leading coordinator who must enter the dynamic and team flux quickly (see Tyler Dorsey case On the other hand, Maccabi claims Walters is scheduled to return this month and if Hunter is injured, Maccabi in the near future will only have Acey and Jake Cohen (who have had enough in recent weeks.) Maccabi puts pressure on the head of the team to increase the number of foreigners this season to nine and even ten. A change that will be valid, if any, next season.

Yiftach Ziv in front of Sussman. Not arrived at the end // Photo: Danny Maron

There is no Israeli medicine

One of the questions is why Maccabi Tel Aviv did not join an Israeli player in the past month. In the near future, the champions will face a league with eight rotation players at best (five foreigners plus Cohen, Abadia and Sussman). Two tough home games against Barcelona and Milan, and she wants to give one or two strangers a rest.

Maccabi claims that "times passed when it was easy to move a player from another team." The yellows tried to join Yiftach Ziv from Gilboa / Galilee, but Haim Ohayon was on his back and negotiations did not open at all. Maccabi is optimistic about Omri Caspi's return towards the end of January and then the rotation will expand.