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Cold shoulder: The stressed Maccabi Tel Aviv returns to Finland
Toronto have already realized that not everything can be dropped on the coach's shoulders, Angelidis was sent to the field, but a stumble in frozen Helsinki (17:30, Sport1) will further undermine Van Leven's status.
On the memories of the Yellows from Finland, the consensus of the fans and the unprecedented pressure on the Dutchman
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Maccabi Tel Aviv in football
Patrick Van Leven
Yaniv Tuchman
Thursday, October 21, 2021, 10:30 p.m.
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Reuben Oved danced on the grass at the start of the second half. This was the talent's first positive action on the pitch. He walked around the place in the center of the field, tossed the knot that supervised him to one side and sent a deep ball to Ishmael Edo who didn’t do too much with it. Nir Klinger had just returned the players from the break in the locker room, a few minutes earlier, when he was pleased. A zero-draw in Helsinki was the plan in the first place.
After the championship a year earlier, Maccabi Tel Aviv reached the Champions League qualifiers and went to an away game in the second round in Helsinki. The weather was summery Finnish. So different from the cold that awaits the players tonight (17:30, Sports1). Keith Armstrong was the coach of H.I.K. A group that could have made trouble. Tough football. Unpleasant to the eye. Klinger knew he needed to get through the first game in peace and come to a rematch at Bloomfield to move on to the next round.
At the press conference before the game, the Israeli journalists took Armstrong a bit out of balance.
Questions that upset him.
The next day when the 90 minutes also ended in a 0-0 draw, Klinger knew he was passing.
A week later, on August 4, 2004, Liran Cohen had to wait almost an entire game for him to score and promote Maccabi Tel Aviv to the next round against PAOK Thessaloniki.
The visit that began at the end of July at the Hilton Hotel in Helsinki ended after a major failure by Fauk who erred in counting yellow cards for one of its players, in a prestigious and primary ticket to the Champions League.
More on Walla!
Tonight at 17:30 in Sports 1: Helsinki - Maccabi Tel Aviv
To the full article
This time the visit is completely different.
Liran Cohen in 2004 (Photo: GettyImages, Stuart Franklin)
More than 17 years have passed since that visit to Helsinki and this is a completely different Maccabi Tel Aviv. The first example that pops to mind is that then the journalists rode with the team on the bus and slept on the same floor with the players. Today, and not because there is no communication with Maccabi Tel Aviv on this trip, such a thing can not happen again, even if Lonnie Hercikovich buys the team again.
This is another Maccabi Tel Aviv in 2021 also because its owner is in Canada and has not been here visiting for years. This week came the right hand man Jack Angelidis and this is perhaps a swallow that heralds a change in attitude. A welcome change in terms of what is happening in Kiryat Shalom. As strong as the managerial mechanism built at Maccabi Tel Aviv, this gap between what is happening in Toronto and what is happening in Tel Aviv, can not help but affect. And usually for the worse.
The owner, his representative, the chairman, no matter who, should be here from time to time.
It is impossible to leave everything on the shoulders of a coach, good or bad, nor on a management that with all its good will, can not really determine destinies.
It all starts and ends with managing this is the right cliché for Maccabi Tel Aviv and maybe someone started to internalize it.
Consensus against the coach.
Maccabi Tel Aviv fans (Photo: Danny Maron)
Maccabi Tel Aviv, unlike their usual policy, spoke this week openly about Angelidis' planned visit.
This was mainly so that the media would not celebrate the landing of the man closest to Goldhaar in the face of the loss to Maccabi Netanya on Saturday and start producing speculation about the beheading of a Dutchman.
The loss on Saturday was a peaceful loss with cries of 'resign' towards Patrick van Levon and jarring boos.
A consensus against the coach has been posted on Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp groups and fan forums.
Materials were sent by fans to Canada.
Many of them were sure that already on Sunday, the day after the quartet in Netanya, Van Leven would receive the phone call from Toronto.
It has already become the currency of the tongue: the telephone from Canada.
Avi Nemani was the first to receive it, Georgios Donis was the last.
You do not want to get such a phone when you do not bring results.
After that, you may pack your locker room in Kiryat Shalom.
It is impossible to leave everything to the shoulders of the coach.
Mitch Goldhaar and Jack Angelidis (Photo: Danny Maron)
Van Leven is not Donis who came to Israel for a few months. He has been with Maccabi Tel Aviv for over five years and if he has held that long, you can be sure that he is appreciated by Toronto. This is not to say that a positive opinion can not change. In the end everything is measured in results. Roni Levy was once asked what would hurt him the most when they said about him during a professional crisis. He replied that he would be most upset if they said he was not a tactician, not a professional, not thorough. These are the qualities that are most important to him. For Donis, for example, it was less important. He was insane ten months ago when he was fired from Maccabi Tel Aviv, who were told in the media that he had lost the locker room and that the players had fired him. He insisted that his main ticket was the connection with the players.
Van Leven jumped last December for the opportunity left by Donis' departure and took Maccabi Tel Aviv.
He has not coached before.
He has held the position of Executive Director of Maccabi Tel Aviv in the Youth Department for more than four years.
He also previously worked mainly in the professional management of youth departments in Kazakhstan and elsewhere.
But Van Leven wanted to coach.
It happened to Willie Rotensteiner.
This happens to many others, probably when they come to Israel and dress for a team that you can succeed with.
Foreign coaches who came to the humble Maccabi Tel Aviv have rolled into good clubs in Europe after a leap born through success with the Yellows.
Even if it is the Israeli league, Maccabi Tel Aviv is still a significant item in a coach's resume, especially if he takes a championship here.
Have not yet experienced such stress.
Patrick Van Leven (Photo: Bernie Ardov)
But now it's another time Van Leven may miss the comfort days of the youth department in Kiryat Shalom and the connection with Betar Tel Aviv in its various incarnations. Now he feels the heat of the kitchen stove and it's the big professional challenge of his life. This week, he has not experienced football yet.
The locker room that may have been turned upside down on Donis is still under control and to strengthen it, Englidis has joined. That pain may make a sound.
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