Summary: Maccabi Tel Aviv - Maccabi Haifa 0:3 (Sport1)
It's not just the victory, certainly not the result.
Maccabi Tel Aviv has already won fifths and sixths this year, there were also many thirds.
She had games where from the first minute the victory was not in doubt.
They beat Maccabi Haifa every season in the era of Mitch Goldhar's foreign coaches, including thirds, fourths and sixths.
And yet, the 0:3 last night is one of the club's biggest in recent years, perhaps the biggest since the first departure of Vladan Ivic.
He is one of the greatest for the simple reason that this game was a dream come true.
After all, what do fans want?
That their coach will come up with all the best players he has.
This is usually not possible because of tactics, sometimes justified and sometimes wrapped in overthinking.
In a world without formations and tactics, one where there is no personal responsibility for the result, you go up with Parfa Giagon, Oskar Gluch, Eran Zahavi and Djorja Jovanovic in the same vehicle.
Only in such a world - or Aitor Kranka's world.
Maccabi Tel Aviv realized every possible fantasy among its fans in this game.
Absolute control over the hated opponent, who watched from a distance of eight points at the top of the table, crushing and trampling and even taking a 0:3 lead twice.
Here was a final collaboration between the two diamonds, the one that goes and the one that stays, two tremendous goals by Eran Zahavi, perhaps the only player in Israel whose every ball kicked from 20 meters will go into the frame, an official return to the championship fight and more and more.
Suddenly there are enough reasons for the fans there to believe.
Realized every possible fantasy of her fans.
Maccabi Tel Aviv celebrates (Photo: Barney Ardov)
Speaking of faith, before this game there were many doubts about Maccabi Tel Aviv.
Is she able to return to the fight?
Is she even in it?
And that's the thing: these questions are still being asked, even now.
The goal ratio of Maccabi Tel Aviv in Bloomfield is 2:31.
Outside 7:15.
The difference in ability and utilization of situations is huge.
Maccabi Tel Aviv lost to Maccabi Haifa and then beat them.
The gap did not come from the meetings between them, it came from the draw in Kiryat Shmona, Ashdod and Tedi.
It can be assumed that it is sitting on the crank in the head even now.
Without the electricity of Bloomfield and against a rival that closes Maccabi Tel Aviv is not the same team.
It is likely that it will not be the same Giagon either, and the coach will have to find solutions for this.
Already on Saturday, he will have a completely different meeting in the same stadium and a different atmosphere in front of an enthusiastic red crowd.
As mentioned - for the residents of Bloomfield, this game was a dream, but we know that at the end of every dream comes the awakening.
Cranka's job is to make sure she's comfortable.
At the end of every dream comes the awakening.
Cranka and Bacher (Photo: Ariel Shalom)
After his first game in Maccabi Haifa, in the Champions League against Hapoel Beer Sheva, Franzi Piero became a laughing stock.
It took him very little time to remove the doubts with a tremendous campaign in the Champions League qualifiers.
The feeling was that Piero would become one of the dominant foreigners who played here in recent years, a striker of 25-30 goals per season.
In practice, the man simply disappeared, a non-factor.
Not only did Maccabi Tel Aviv's defense get along with him, the mid-level teams weren't really threatened by him either.
Piero is not the problem of Maccabi Haifa, he is only the symptom.
This team has been playing and winning on steam since before the World Cup break.
Barak Becher is dealing with Maccabi Haifa with the same psychological problem that was the lot of Maccabi Tel Aviv in 2014/15 and his lot in 2017/18 - the third season syndrome.
It's hard to set the same challenges for your players, it's hard to set them even for yourself.
Absurdly, it's harder when you're robotically winning with almost no effort and when your rivals don't give it away that they're in the race.
Maccabi Tel Aviv and Be'er Sheva of those seasons had no competitors, Becher, it seems at the moment, has.
In the previous two seasons of the group stage, Maccabi Haifa lost a big advantage in the table - once nine points to Maccabi Tel Aviv, another time 12 to Hapoel Tel Aviv.
There was a transfer of a game to Ramat Gan and there was an offset, but the bottom line was that the champion was not able to break the glass ceiling of winning the title after the Champions season.
If we dive further into the numbers, Maccabi Haifa had an 84.8 percent success rate in the 2009/10 season, the highest in the history of the Premier League.
Now she has 84.2.
Beyond imagination, there is a warning sign here.
Let Maccabi Haifa not be complacent.
Maccabi Tel Aviv is lurking, Beer Sheva also received renewed strength.
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A big hole, professionally and mentally.
Neta Lavia (Photo: Barney Ardov)
The big difference between Maccabi Haifa's two previous seasons in the Champions League and the current one is the World Cup break.
It was possible to understand the mental tension of the players after the Champions League ended, but the expectation was that the break would reset the whole story, and that Maccabi Haifa would leave with a clear head for the league struggles.
It is important to remember - all these things are written after a streak of 11 victories.
With all the criticism of Maccabi Haifa, even though it was weak in recent times, there was no one who knew how to take it.
Her fate is still in her hands, and maybe from this defeat she will be hired, the players will realize that there is suddenly a competition and will step up, although it is difficult to build on that.
The team needs a purchase, someone hungry to come.
The urgent problem at the moment is the lack of Neta Lavi.
His departure leaves a big hole, professionally and mentally, in the club.
The quiet leadership, dedication and ability to manage the game intelligently was a huge asset for the champion, especially when the alternative is the capricious Abu Fani.
How fragile the business is.
As long as the difference was eight points, it was possible to manage without Levi and with the itch of victories.
With a gap of five it suddenly looks different.
Gloch will take off tomorrow.
Maccabi Tel Aviv wants 10 percent of a future sale
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"We deserved to be slapped".
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Gloch will take off tomorrow.
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He also got a lesson yesterday.
Ivitch (Photo: Ariel Shalom)
As strange as it sounds, Cranka and Bacher had a common denominator yesterday in Bloomfield, and it was Vladan Ivic.
The Spaniard's audacity stood out especially against the background of Ivić's caution in the first game in Haifa.
The nerves, the red card for his player and himself in a 2:0 situation, which captured the title of Becher's terrible mental and professional preparation, reminded the fiasco of the Serbian at a similar stage in the loss of Maccabi Tel Aviv in Be'er Sheva at the end of October.
Two starting points lead to one coach who was legendary in his first term, and left a bad taste in so many ways in the second.
sport
Israeli soccer
Super League
Tags
Maccabi Tel Aviv in football
Maccabi Haifa