Encore in the stands and championship songs in the restaurant: Maccabi Haifa's celebrations have already begun

The victory over Hapoel Tel Aviv led to an outburst of emotion: "Obviously no one will take it from us anymore."

Noble broke a drought, and on the way to comparing Melmillian's achievement "will struggle" with Sherry and David: "He held us, he deserves."

Lavi and Haziza also received compliments - and only Bachar is not celebrating yet

Shlomo Weiss

03/05/2022

Tuesday, 03 May 2022, 06:35

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Summary: Hapoel Tel Aviv - Maccabi Haifa 2: 0 (Sport 1)

1.

The championship is already well felt in the air, judging by the celebrations of Maccabi Haifa fans, people and players last night (Monday) after the 0: 2 victory over Hapoel Tel Aviv.

The victory increased the gap at the top to 9 points with 12 left in the box office, and determined that the Greens could be crowned champions for the second time in a row on Saturday, when they host Hapoel Beer Sheva at Turner Stadium.

Haifa players celebrated with the crowd long minutes after the final whistle, and even prepared a "surprise" for the fans, when they had already made their way to the locker room and returned to another "encore" in front of the stands, gliding to the grass to loud cheers.

In the locker room, there were also big celebrations of the players, who after the game continued with all the club members to a local restaurant in Tel Aviv to celebrate the step they took on the way to the championship.

In the restaurant, the renewed championship song of the 1993/4 season was played again and again, and the Haifa players stood up and sang it proudly.

Owner Yaakov Shachar also walked around the restaurant smiling.

"Obviously no one will take our championship anymore, but that does not mean we will stop now," said a player on the team, "It is clear to everyone what the victory of yesterday meant, and we deserve to celebrate."

Haifa came to the game knowing that a victory would finally decide the championship battle.

Barak Bachar asked the players to be together and get to the game at the height of the vigilance, and indeed they did, and came to the first half focused and determined.

"We knew we should not drop points after the loss to Netanya," the team said.

"It was important to get very focused, and compliments go to the players who did that."

More on Walla!

Noble and Haziza returned to conquer, Maccabi Haifa defeated Hapoel Tel Aviv 0: 2

To the full article

You can already feel the championship.

Bachar (Photo: Udi Citiat)

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2. Noble Omar, the hero of the championship on the way, took a big personal step for him on the way to the kingdom of goals.

A nobleman who broke a long drought, last night scored his 19th goal and equaled the number of conquests scored by Nikita Rokavitsia last season (last year it was enough for him to win the title of top scorer).

Noble has increased the gap from his friend Dean David to four goals, and now wants to surpass Rokavitsia's number from last season and for that he needs to score at least one more goal.

Noble wants to also be the first player since Uri Melmillian to finish a season as the top scorer and king of the cooks.

Number seven in the green is in an even longer drought in terms of cooking, but still leads the league table with nine of those, just one above team-mate Charon Cherry.

It seems that the "battle" between the two will reach the final round, with Gabi Kanikovsky and Dan Bitton running seven cooks at the same time.

Noble knows that additional cooking in the remaining four rounds will put him on a shortlist that so far includes only seven players who have recorded a double-double (double-digit number of cooks and goals) in the green uniform.

"Those who are in the team know that Omar gave his all, even when he did not score," said one of the senior players in Haifa.

"He deserves to come back to conquer, he has kept us in a lot of games this season."

Those who still received compliments are Neta Lavie and Dolev Haziza.

Lavie got the place in the lineup, among other things also because of the load on Ali Muhammad who needed some rest and came in only towards the end of the game.

Lavi played a very good game and the professional team were very pleased with the captain's performance, which is close to lifting a second plate in a row.

Haziza managed to register his ninth hair and squeezed compliments.

"Even when Dolev did not record numbers, he did tactical and defensive work when needed," the club praised.

"He should be appreciated for that. He's one of the stars of the season."

The goal: to complete a historic personal season.

Noble celebrates with Cherry (Photo: Udi Citation)

3. But even after a huge step on the way to the championship, even after celebrations until late, Barak Bachar does not let the players rest.

The team will hold training as usual today, and the coach will make it clear to the players that the celebrations can not put the team to sleep and that the task is not yet complete.

Haifa will go to Turner on Saturday for a game that could be a coronation game, and the team wants to arrive with maximum vigilance.

"It is true that something unbelievable must happen so that we do not take the championship, but that does not mean that we will reach the game against Be'er Sheva in peace. We want to show that we are the undisputed team in the league, win on Saturday and take the championship," said one of the players.

Whoever will not play is Sean Goldberg who carries yellows.

Bachar may make further changes in the lineup compared to the one he started in yesterday's victory.

Apart from the meeting with Turner, Haifa continues to deal with the decision to close the northern stand in the game against Maccabi Tel Aviv.

If Haifa does not win on Saturday, the game against Maccabi Tel Aviv will become the championship game of the Greens, but 8,000 fans will be missing for a full stadium.

The Greens will submit a request for another special discussion and will even offer to open only the upper northern stand, also in order to prevent the proximity of Haifa's Ultras to Maccabi Tel Aviv fans.

Meanwhile, the administration has already informed Haifa that the awarding of the plate - if and when the task is completed - will take place in the last round against Maccabi Netanya and not in the game against Maccabi Tel Aviv, among other things so as not to divide the championship plate when the stadium is not full.

• Top playoff

  Group	Games	Victories	draw	Losses	Gates	Points
  1	Maccabi Haifa	32	22	6	4	23-71	72
  2	Hapoel Beer Sheva	32	18	9	5	26-47	63
  3	Maccabi Tel Aviv	32	17	8	7	35-55	59
  4	Maccabi Netanya	32	12	12	8	35-43	48
  5	Bnei Sakhnin	32	13	9	10	34-32	48
  6	Hapoel Tel Aviv	32	12	9	11	44-42	45

In the next round, Maccabi Haifa will be hosted by Hapoel Beer Sheva when a victory will guarantee them a practical championship.

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Tags

• Maccabi Haifa

• Noble Omar