Maccabi Haifa is a champion again
Voices from the past: Barak Bachar's tough challenge
Just like in 2018, Barak Bachar's team has crawled to the title, and in the summer he will have to work hard to bring hunger back to the club.
David Rosenthal on the face of a nobleman, the surrealism of Maccabi Tel Aviv, the impotence of Beer Sheva and Erez Kalfon, who need to seriously examine why football fans get beaten up
David Rosenthal
11/05/2022
Wednesday, May 11, 2022, 3:00 p.m.
Share on Facebook
Share on WhatsApp
Share on Twitter
Share on Email
Share on general
Comments
Comments
Maccabi Haifa player Omar Atzili, Sean Goldberg at the championship celebrations with Maccabi Haifa fans (according to section 27 / a of the Copyright Law)
One of the most hated concepts about sports media people is "practical championship".
There are 6 more points in the pot, the goal difference between the leader and her deputy is huge, and still - there is a theoretical chance (lower than the chance of winning the lottery, but still exists) for a reversal.
So they do not announce or go out with an "official" title, but it is clear to everyone that it is closed, locked and signed.
Such a case, where you still can not write "Maccabi Haifa State Champion", is somewhat frustrating, since no one likes to put together 999 pieces of the puzzle without finding the 1,000th part, even if the picture is very clear.
But even such a situation has several angles.
For example, last night's victory of Maccabi Haifa, even a small 0: 1 (parallel to the victory of Hapoel Beer Sheva in Bloomfield, to hold the theory), would have increased the intensity of the dilemma.
"This is a champion!", The editors of the websites and newspapers would think, "Practical or not practical, this is a champion."
In practice, we got a bizarre evening, one where fans throw fireworks from the stands after a third loss in four games, and Muhammad Abu Fani tries hard to rejoice, even though his most hated rival was one small shot away from a humiliating 1: 4.
The result speaks for itself - this is a worthy and justified championship, but this is not the evening when Maccabi Haifa should be officially crowned.
More on Walla!
Lightning in the eyes: Barak Bachar continues to devour degrees and does not intend to stop
To the full article
Summary of Maccabi Tel Aviv's 1: 3 victory over Maccabi Haifa, which practically secured the championship (Sport 1)
Everything that the people of Maccabi Haifa said after the final whistle is true and accurate - in the light of history they will not remember how this title was achieved.
The team will be engraved as a champion for the second time in a row.
A championship is not achieved by a sequence of good or bad games, but through 36 rounds in which there is no shortage of moments.
This title has hardly been in doubt since mid-January, since the 1: 2 victory in Be'er Sheva.
You can also hang it on the weakness of the rivalry and tell many more stories, but a championship is a championship, and Maccabi Haifa rightly won it.
These are all dry facts.
At the atmospheric level, Maccabi Haifa tried to produce a narrative of celebrations, but it is impossible to sign that the joy is complete.
In the last three months it has not created an atmosphere of exclusive control.
It's hard to fake emotions, even if you really make an effort.
Had I had the ability to get into the heads of all the team fans last night, I cautiously estimate that among 99.5 percent of them I would have found a certain distress.
On January 17, I watched Turner in one of the best first halves of an Israeli team in recent years.
Maccabi Haifa and Omar Atzili were great in Be'er Sheva.
At the break, Raz Meir was sent off and instead of being defeated, the sweeping victory became inherently heroic.
These were two beautiful faces of Maccabi Haifa.
Precisely after that something happened to the team and its star.
They went out of sync.
Maccabi Haifa of the last few months has managed to carry all the way to the title, but this is not the champion we have seen in our spirit.
The close-up on Noble's face coming off the field after the final whistle was hard to miss.
He won championships at Maccabi Tel Aviv, he brought a huge title to Maccabi Haifa last year.
He knows that's not how you celebrate.
And as usual, he also did not try to pretend.
More on Walla!
Only Shahar does not celebrate: about the strange championship celebrations of Maccabi Haifa
Lightning in the eyes: Barak Bachar continues to devour degrees and does not intend to stop
B-Cure Laser - How Does It Work?
The secret has been revealed
It was hard to miss the disappointment on his face after the whistle.
Noble (Photo: Maor Elkelsi)
In Barak Bachar's first championship season, Hapoel Beer Sheva fought a solid battle against Maccabi Tel Aviv and the demons of the past to win a huge title.
In season two she had a team on a historic scale.
She took the third championship exhausted, with a tired squad that left a lot of room for concern.
Bachar's Maccabi Haifa did a similar route, with one difference: it skipped the second season.
After a glittering win thanks to a tough mentality last year, this time the Greens cruised a master’s degree in second gear.
In both cases, by the way, the signal for the celebrations in the last win was given after a home loss to Maccabi Tel Aviv.
It's not just symbolism.
Learning from experience, it can be assumed that Bachar understands the consequences of ending such a season.
He knows he will have quite a few challenges in the summer - he will have to identify which of his players are hungry and which are not, who have reached their potential and who will continue.
He understands that there is an obligation to strengthen in a number of positions, and that there are quite a few players who finished the season in poor shape.
It will be a not easy summer, in which the coach will try not to repeat the mistakes he made with Beer Sheva before the 2018/19 season.
If until a few weeks ago we were convinced that Maccabi Haifa's face for a third, fourth, etc. championship, at the moment it seems that Maccabi Tel Aviv is starting to get a renewed boost and Alona Barkat's top lust in Beer Sheva does not subside.
Both may come more cooked.
Bachar's kitchen will also have to produce more.
More on Walla!
Noble broke a silence after "two difficult years": "Want to come with Haifa to the Champions League"
Lavie to Maccabi Haifa fans: "We will remember the plays."
Bachar: "Feeling a little weird"
Want to beat the pain but are afraid of spending it?
B-Cure Laser on trial at an unprecedented price
Apparently he understands the consequences of such an end to the season.
Bachar (Photo: Maor Elkelsi)
In all four meetings between Maccabi Tel Aviv and Maccabi Haifa this season, the Yellows were the first to take the lead.
Precisely the one time this advantage was two goals long, they lost.
In retrospect, that 2: 3, which was achieved during the peak period of Maccabi Haifa this season, seems like a flicker in the history of meetings of the last decade.
The facts are hard to argue with - if not for Charon Cherry's goal in Bloomfield, Maccabi Tel Aviv would have taken three of the four games.
The yellow monkey may have taken a short break in January, but immediately returned to settle on the green back.
For Maccabi Tel Aviv, this victory, and especially the way it was achieved, was as surreal as its season, as its coach, as everything related to it.
After the smoke clears, Maccabi Tel Aviv may end a mediocre season in second place, with a coach doing what he wants on the field, without sticking to agreed codes.
What does this victory say about the future of Mladen Krestic?
And what does he say about the future of Maccabi Tel Aviv?
The countdown to discovering the answers has already begun.
Surrealistic.
Maccabi Tel Aviv celebrates a season when there were few reasons to celebrate (Photo: Maor Elkelsi)
The first word that comes to mind in the context of Hapoel Beer Sheva is "suckers".
With one point out of nine in recent away games, Beer Sheva could, ostensibly, be now deep in the championship battle, but that's an illusion.
Beer Sheva could not be a champion because it is a team without offense.
She's not a sucker, she's incapable.
We got the call for it in the only game it has won in the last four rounds, the 0: 1 on Saturday against Maccabi Haifa from a goal scored by its brake and after countless mistakes by its pioneers.
The front of this team has been bad throughout the regular season and no less outrageous in the playoffs.
Be'er Sheva has a "binary" attack.
Occasionally she flashes a game of two or three goals, but most of the time she settles for 0 or 1. From the top of the second place she has 49 goals after 34 rounds.
Not even close to the numbers of real contenders for the crown like last season's Maccabi Tel Aviv (65 goals), 2019/20 Maccabi Haifa (73 goals) or Maccabi Tel Aviv 2015/16 (61 goals).
This team was built to defend, but to take a championship you sometimes also have to know how to conquer, and that probably needs to be done next season with a completely different front.
Summary: Hapoel Tel Aviv - Hapoel Beer Sheva 1: 2 (Sport 1)
I am not one of those who automatically favor fans when they are attacked by cops.
The truth, more than once, is in the middle.
Fans know very well to hide the provocations and violent actions that led to the reaction.
Police forces need to get a seal to operate a controlled force to create deterrence.
There are situations where it is even necessary.
But sometimes the pictures leave no room for doubt.
According to all the testimonies and sights from Bloomfield last night, at least some of the Hapoel Tel Aviv fans who were attacked by police officers outside the stadium did not resort to any violence.
All Fan Political fan wanted was to document a police officer.
This is allowed by law, even if the subject does not really like it.
The policeman approached in the form of "I will close an account with you" and indeed closed.
This is not hearsay evidence, you can clearly see it in the video.
The thing is that sometime the backing of the police given by the league director led by Erez Kalfon, the same one who after the Sami Ofer events earlier this year said that "we will continue to give the police tools to fight violence", should be under some scrutiny.
Someone needs to mark the border and at the very least give a detailed and transparent briefing to the police forces, that we know what we are allowed and what we are not.
Because we are allowed to photograph a policeman.
It is not possible for a football fan to be attacked outside the stadium by a person who is supposed to protect him and it is not possible for such clear cases of fan attacks by police officers to be waved with contempt in the DIP and Knesset committees.
That’s right, there are times when using force against fans is justified.
In order for us to believe that it is justified, we must investigate in depth the cases in which it is not.
sport
Israeli soccer
Super League
Tags
Barak Bachar
Maccabi Haifa