The good - the cycle of surprises
Football is the most beautiful sport in the world, partly because of Cinderella stories and also because of the difficulty of predicting the outcome of a game, no matter how big the level differences between the teams.
In the 20th cycle we received two huge sensations on our scale.
At Sami Ofer, it was the performance of the leader of the table Benny Raina, who came to the game with a streak of ten games without a win, three without a right goal and with the feeling that Sharon Mimar continued for another cycle only because this is Maccabi Haifa and it would be a shame to "waste" the change effect of a new coach on her.
In the first round, Haifa arrived at the Galilee with an improvised vehicle due to the load of games, lost its firecracker in the warm-up and lost.
This time Haifa came up with its strong lineup, with Sondgren returning for the first time since he was injured in October, Goni Naor making his debut in midfield, and Dean David starting at wing and leaving Piero on the bench.
Goni Naor
Premiere in green, photo: Maor Alxalsi
Raina came prepared, defended with three brakes, coordinated zone guarding in the corners and neutralized an important element in the game of the greens and made them look out of ideas in attack.
What stood out in the game, and we got hints about it in the games that Haifa won after the break, is that the team lacks energy and is limited in the orderly game against low defenses, certainly when the stars Atzili and Sherry are not in good shape.
Piero struggles as expected in our league, and Curno's absence highlights it even more, because there is no one to play on his strengths, and then his shortcomings - the mental slowness, the footwork outside the box, the limited dribbling ability - are more strongly expressed.
Haifa connected two games without a right goal, and worse - almost without quality situations.
That's why she went all out on Dia Saba, a move that might change a season similar to what she did two years ago when Yankel'a brought back the nobles from Cyprus.
The second sensation came in the Tel Aviv derby. Maccabi arrived full of confidence after the impressive show of dominance in the game this season, and this despite the departure of the diamond, Oscar Gloch. The sequence of successes in the derbies, together with the loss of points by Maccabi Haifa, the differences in quality between the teams and the feeling that Kranka found the formula to produce The maximum from the squad (array of 4:2:2:2), made many think that the yellows will end another derby with an easy victory.
But as with Basmi Ofer, here too the coach prepared his team perfectly and made Maccabi Tel Aviv finish a game for the first time after 301 consecutive league games without a kick on target. For Sylves, this is an important step forward, a draw worth more than a point, but if he doesn't beat Rayna In the next cycle, he will go back six steps. On the yellow side - Karanka realized, despite his statements after the game, that he needed reinforcements in the position vacated by Oscar, or in the wing position, which would allow him tactical flexibility when things were not going well.
the yellow ones.
Surprised at the derby, photo: Alan Shiver
Transfers - the one who leaves and the one who returns
At the beginning of the week we received two very significant transfers in our football.
The first, Aden Kartsev, after the fiasco in the summer with Dynamo Moscow that hurt everyone involved, is going to Istanbul in Shakhsir, a top team in Turkish football.
The team is coached by the legendary Bolozglou, a former midfielder, which can greatly help Kartsev to make the leap, to help the team already this season get a ticket to Europe and possibly a title, and later reach a bigger league.
The second transfer, and significant for the championship struggles, is the arrival of Dia Saba to Maccabi Haifa.
Saba, who had a great half season in Turkey, was stitched on two teams: Maccabi Tel Aviv, exactly in the slot that Gloch had cleared, and Maccabi Haifa, which is desperate for an injection of energy in the front. So Alberman and Haifa won the race, and it may be that at the end of the season, when we look back, we will say that this was the move that decided the fate of the championship.
Saba with Alberman and Ovadia.
The window deal, photo: courtesy of Maccabi Haifa
The hope - an end to crowd punishments
There is a lot of talk this season about the outdated regulations, the illusory penalties and the determination of the association and the administration that harm the industry and alienate the crowd.
Even nets failed to install properly in Bloomfield.
So there, there are buds of change and it's time to compliment.
A new chairman of the association arrived, who decided to take action and not to make excuses in bureaucratic matters. The association canceled the penalty for games without an audience until the end of the coming season, and hopes to finally approve it at its end. This step, in addition to being necessary, gives hope that things are moving and that there is a listening ear and people who can take You move the industry forward professionally and certainly in terms of the game experience for the benefit of the fans.
Shino Zoartz.
Came to work, photo: Alan Shiver
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