Holon's connection arrives at MoneyTime with the aim of exploding • The title that Maccabi Tel Aviv and Sapropolos are begging for • Jerusalem's opportunity to ignore the problem economy and get something out of its terrible season • And the Nemesis that will not let that happen •
The purples versus the yellows
Photography:
Alan Shiver
Rishon LeZion and Jerusalem, again head to head
Photography:
Alan Shiver
Hapoel Holon: On Pride and Prejudice
Ido Eshed
Once every few years,
a special group joins Holon that brings out the best in the club and its fans.
Like in the 2017/18 season with the madness created by Glenn Rice Jr., which ended in a trophy and runners-up.
This year it happens again, with a streak of impressive victories, promotion to Europe and reaching the Cup semi-finals.
Madness creates an appetite for a degree, and ignites the most important value of Holonia: pride.
Purple pride produces powerful energies that push for extraordinary actions.
Like bringing Glenn Rice back - despite the moral problem - to the Final Four final that season.
And like raising NIS 600,000 in 48 hours to play with a fifth foreigner in the semifinals tonight, despite the fine and the Americanization of the team.
To feel truly equal, to look at Jerusalem and Maccabi Tel Aviv in the white of their eyes, the fans and management decided to balance the equation.
The quality, deep and diverse staff produces a style of play that is very difficult to defend against.
Holon is based on shooting from three, but the responsibility for this is shared between all the players on the roster.
Most important is the healthy social fabric, and now there are no absentees, all the foreigners will play together, and the debate over who not to dress is over, the result of which has always felt wrong.
The exciting leader on the lines will be played this year by coach Stefanos Dadas, who has already been signed for the next game season.
In his character it was as if he was born in Struma Square and ate falafel at Barzilai's.
Despite the craze on the lines, he knows how to use the staff and take advantage of relative advantages.
And now a few more were opened in his eyes.
They have already beaten Maccabi this season, and they feel they deserve it.
Holonia came to take a trophy.
Maccabi Tel Aviv: Yannis Cup checkpoint | Avi Segal
The semi-final of the State Cup tonight
against Hapoel Holon is not "another important game" for Maccabi Tel Aviv, it is much more than that. The No. 1 club in Israel has not won a second title in its importance for three years, Israeli basketball has not even reached the last four.
In the eight years before that, 2017 and back, Yad Eliyahu celebrated winning the cup every season, although in some of those years the team showed very weak ability and even lost no less than four championship plates.
A few years later, precisely when her kitchen began to be refilled with metals and the hegemony in Israeli basketball returned big in her hands with three consecutive championships - she lost the state cup.
The club has created a kind of trophy crisis, a mental element that the Yellows will have to overcome.
"This is not only the trophy barrier of Maccabi Tel Aviv, but also the trophy barrier of coach Yannis Sapropoulos. The Greek has not yet won the trophy in the yellow, nor during his time in the Greek league. Hapoel Jerusalem.
Even his big star, Scotty Wilbkin, does not know what a trophy in Tel Aviv is.
In the semi-finals of the 2020/21 season, Maccabi Tel Aviv meets Hapoel Holon, which was the one that started its cup loss chain. It happened in a huge final game in 2018, where Glenn Rice Jr. scored a dramatic victory basket. Tonight, Sapropoulos' team will meet A team with a great staff that is also in excellent shape, perhaps the best of all the Israeli teams.The Purples have already beaten Maccabi this season, and the truth? There also seem to be individuals who are able to do it again.
Hapoel Jerusalem: Save the Season
Yaakov Meir
What did not happen this season for Hapoel Jerusalem.
It started with the significant budget cuts this summer, which led to the departure of star and sergeant James Paladin and the building of a lean and unimpressive Israeli staff after many years in which the team held the most senior Israelis.
Subsequently, the two most talented players on the roster were injured for extended periods, a purchasing player who made it specifically to the Final 8 of the Champions League was found to be injured and in poor physical fitness and was replaced by Nikos Papas for just one game.
Then a few more players left, a few weeks ago Panathinaikos surprisingly took her from the esteemed coach Oded Katash, and in recent days it has become clear that Chris Kramer has also been injured and will be out for a long time.
And the results?
in accordance.
Hapoel Jerusalem, which in recent years has become accustomed to reaching the later stages of European factories, ended its European season in January.
Even from the Balkan league it was eliminated in the first stage, and in its current state it is not at all certain that it will be able to achieve significant things in the Premier League as well.
In the last two years the Reds have positioned themselves as a typical trophy team, with two consecutive and impressive wins.
This season the trophy seems to be their almost only opportunity to save the 2020/21 season.
Maccabi Rishon LeZion is a dangerous rival, but is also in poor shape, and is certainly a more comfortable rival than the two teams in the second semifinal. Despite the problematic physical and mental situation, tonight's victory for Jerusalem is a possible task, and until the final game in April - everything is possible vary.
Maccabi Rishon LeZion: Serious Joy Sword | Avi Segal
On June 9, 2016, everything was ready for Hapoel Jerusalem to win a second championship in its history.
The Final Four final was held at the home Lottery Arena, and the team did not meet Maccabi Tel Aviv in the final. On the face of it, an excellent base for celebrations. But this evening was especially traumatic.
It was the prelude to a series of orange victories over Jerusalem in Money Time.
In recent years, they have met wholesale in important positions, and Rishon LeZion has become the team's serial ruin of joy from the capital. From what has happened to them against Jerusalem in recent years, an element that the coach will surely play on.
In the semi-finals of the Final Four in the last two years, Jerusalem rose as a favorite, but the Oranges qualified for the final.
This season they met in a decisive game on the ticket to the second home stage of the Balkans.
And rightly so, Rishon LeZion won again.
A team the size of Rishon LeZion that hits a club like Jerusalem serially is rare. But there were also opposite cases - twice in the Cup (2019 final, 2020 semi-final) and once in the Final Four (2017) - in which the Jerusalemites won.
The common denominator for victories: Daryl Monroe, and in three of them Goodes stood on the lines.
Both will be there tonight as well, trying to beat the early estimates despite the fact that their team is coming into the game with its weakest roster in recent years.