The new and young generation of Hapoel Tel Aviv fans just does not know what it means to win a derby. This is how it has been when seven and a half years have passed since the last time the Reds defeated the hated rival Maccabi Tel Aviv.
But for this derby Nir Klinger's team comes from a completely different position, when it is at the top, while the Yellows come after a big crisis in the league.
For Hapoel to really think tonight about a victory that will break the yellow hegemony, it needs all its players to rise, and above all it needs the key man in its attack - the Brazilian Farley Rosa of course.
We will immediately explain why he is Hapoel's most important man, even though he has significant key players like Ben Bitton or Dan Einbinder, but first we will go back a bit in time to the end of last season.
After the Reds promised to stay in the league, Klinger convened his professional team, and together they began to formulate a possible list of reinforcement players.
One of the things the coach has decided is that no matter what happens, this season they will not compromise on the foreign players, after in the last two years quite a few flops have landed on the team.
You're already guessing who was the first name Klinger put on his list?
That's right, Rosa.
The Brazilian was under contract with Hapoel B'Shlosha, but Hapoel realized that the team from the capital of the Negev might give it up, and they decided to jump on the bargain.
"Klinger was locked on Rosa before everyone else," a Hapoel source recalled, "he wanted to bring him in first and then build the team around him."
Klinger knew that Rosa was exactly what he was missing in the puzzle - a fast, versatile player, dribbler, creative, a player who could change the team's rhythms while on the move - and in short, everything the Reds were missing from Tel Aviv last year. "Rosa is our most important man on offense "All the attacks, all the good things, everything goes through him," Hapoel admits.
Klinger.
Wanted Rosa in front of everyone, Photo: Alan Schieber
These compliments do not come just by chance, pay attention to the following figure.
Farley Rosa is the outstanding player in the league with 13 accurate key dedications.
Want to know how many key dedication attempts he has had?
The answer is 13. In other words, Rosa has 100% success in key dedication, and it's definitely kind of a sub-game.
Rosa has so far had two goals and a brace in the league, but he is constantly looking for the goal, and is ranked fourth in the league in the amount of attempts at kicks to the goal.
"The fans are dying for him," says a source at Hapoel, "he is a player for whom they buy a ticket."
A family man
on the field Everyone knows him, but off the field he is a very modest family man.
"We had Brazilians who really liked the good life in the country and going out to parties, but Rosa is just the opposite," Hapoel say, "he is quiet in the locker room, does not make problems, does not go out, is constantly with his wife."
Perhaps one of the reasons for this is that he is a devout Christian.
Hapoel says that Rosa prays every day and talks a lot about his faith.
He celebrates the gates with a T-shirt with the caption "I Belong To Jesus", and in Hebrew: "I belong to Jesus".
Rosa in action.
The whole attack goes through him,
Rosa's best friend is Lucio, whom he knew even before he arrived at Hapoel, but the connection between the two grew when they spent 11 days in isolation in Poland, before joining the team's training camp in the summer.
"Rosa really wants Lucio to succeed, and it would have sucked him not to go to games," Hapoel says.
Rosa's contract expires at the end of the season and the Reds have an option to extend it for another season.
If he continues with his current ability, there is no doubt that next season he will also wear the red uniform, but already tonight he can become the darling of the fans, if he brings them the most coveted thing for them - a red victory in the Tel Aviv derby.
/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/prisa/KMEYMJKESBAZBE4MRBAM4TGHIQ.jpg)
