Recap: Maccabi Haifa vs Maccabi Tel Aviv 1:3 (Sport1)
There were moments yesterday - not many - when Maccabi Tel Aviv led Sammy Ofer and the memories took me to 1984, where Maccabi Haifa was also mixed, albeit passively. Hapoel Tel Aviv, which had previously exited the championship race, arrived at the YMCA before the end to play against the leaders Beitar Jerusalem. Apparently, she had nothing to play for, and Beitar fans who crowded the narrow stadium in front of the King David Hotel brought bottles of champagne with them to celebrate at the end.
Only one thing Beitar Jerusalem did not take into account: that it is an opponent that treats it like a red sheet, that carries with it other charges of emotion, that a game against Beitar Jerusalem for it is more than a nice afternoon stroll from the Mamilla neighborhood. And Hapoel scored, each goal more beautiful than the other, and also won 3:1. Maccabi Haifa, which won simultaneously in Yehud, won its first championship.
Maccabi Haifa would have loved another opponent than Maccabi Tel Aviv yesterday, not because Maccabi Tel Aviv is particularly good, but because it is a sworn opponent, only the temporary mirages of memory, as well as reality, were brief and quickly forgotten. Maccabi Haifa 2023 is not Beitar Jerusalem 1984, which failed several times before to win the championship, and carried behind it a run of failures, including relegation that undermined its confidence. Maccabi Haifa is on the verge of its 15th championship in less than 40 years, and after two consecutive championships, promotion to the Champions League and even a victory over Juventus at home which it mostly wins, is a different team. Maccabi Tel Aviv is also a different team, even with Sharan Yani on the pitch it is not a team of Moshe Sinai and Eli Cohen.
The spirit of the club is the spirit of Mitch Goldhar, a business entrepreneur from Canada, not the spirit of Maccabism. Avi Nemani's Maccabi Tel Aviv would have won yesterday at Sammy Ofer and completely opened the championship story, not Dan Glazer's Maccabi Tel Aviv. On the other hand, it is doubtful whether there is any team that would have won yesterday at Sammy Ofer, including Hapoel Be'er Sheva. Maccabi Haifa played well even before the lag: fast, intense, through the flanks, as it knows. Maccabi Tel Aviv's defense was poor enough to allow for Maccabi Haifa's seventh turnaround this season. The reason the advantage was not really realized in the first half was Daniel Perez, who also contributed the equaliser before the end of the first half with a late and hesitant exit to a terrible ball returned by Lucassen.
The collapse of Maccabi Tel Aviv's defense (which suffered a sixth of what it suffered all season in the league yesterday) cannot be blamed on the absence of Enric Savorit, as well as its incompetence in Eran Zahavi's absence. The very placement of Saborit as a defender is a symptom of a pale defensive squad, and the real reason Maccabi Tel Aviv did not suffer too much this season was Daniel Peretz and the fact that they were not attacked too much.
Maccabi Haifa again enjoyed its deep squad and the variety of options available to it even when Abdoulaye Seck is not playing. Yesterday it was the turn of the numberless, Dolev Haziza and Dia Seba, to deliver the goods. A team that does not depend on one player or another is the team that will eventually win trophies.
The very fact of placing it as a brake is a symptom of the situation. Saborit (Photo: Danny Maron)
Aitor Karanka turns around and tells everyone that he is continuing next season. It's hard to know what's really true, but it can be assumed that his statements make no sense. If Maccabi Tel Aviv lets Karanka continue, with a 57 percent success rate and a 44 percent win rate, then third place is guaranteed next season, and hey, Conference League, it's a great stage. To put it logically, there has been no improvement in the team since he arrived, not tactically, not personally, football is not sweeping and Karanka has not discovered any new player (unlike Krstajc who put his career on Oscar Gloch), and has dried up most of the young people, including Dor Turgeman, who is ripe enough to start the youth World Cup but not to replace Eran Zahavi in Garbage Time, Even if he is against Maccabi Haifa.
Yesterday, I didn't see the reinforcement of the midfield with three creative players at the expense of a striker (albeit forcedly) any kind of refresh. Josh Cohen was required to go down to the ground several times, including collecting a ball from the net, that is range from distance. True, Dia Seba also specializes in scoring mainly outside the area, but a team with three creative midfielders kicking outside the area is a team that cannot enter the plaza with all its creativity, and it failed. It is also worth noting the decline in scoring abilities of Jorja Jovanovic, who has scored 3 goals in his last 10 games, half his output previously.
Maccabi Tel Aviv needs deep plowing to stimulate Goldhar to invest more in conquering the player market as under Jordi Cruyff. The introduction of Mansford should give this a tailwind, although a second term – see the Ivich case – does not necessarily indicate a great famine. Mansford goes back as far as he's concerned, wondering how much energy it will bring.
The most important thing in Maccabi Tel Aviv's squad must be trust in the home players, in the youth department. Too many talented players who grew up in Maccabi Tel Aviv's youth department hang out in all sorts of places, some of them victims of the Van Leeuwen Doctrine. Maccabi Tel Aviv is a team that must also freshen up in terms of age, give acquired players from the end of the bench a new life path and put in their place home players, and as many as possible. Maybe it's a process that will ripen for a few years – and that's a lot in terms of a fanatical audience and subscription acquisition and merchandise – but it's the healthiest process you can find for a club like this. Goldhar did not come to Maccabi Tel Aviv to throw C$15 million at Maccabi every season without the club generating money on its own. Sometimes he succeeded, sometimes less. The bottom line is that, with all its heavy weight, Maccabi Tel Aviv finished yesterday sixth season out of 8 without a championship title, and in the last two seasons also without real competition for the championship title.
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A second term does not necessarily indicate a great famine. Mansford (Photo: Bernie Ardow)
Hapoel Be'er Sheva should be complimented. With a very lacking squad, with very small odds, with a climbing sense of deprivation, it continues to insist on not allowing Maccabi Haifa an early coronation. Digging and digging in chances and taking advantage of every opportunity. Despite and despite and despite, Hapoel Be'er Sheva is there, and it is absolutely a landscape template from Amana, for all intents and purposes.
Yesterday, she narrowly won, after a very good second half by Ashdod, and a penalty stopped by Omri Glazer, and still she won. The goal was stylishly scored by Ramzi Spurri, who has been absent too many times this season due to injury. In fact, Spurri scored seven goals and assisted twice in just 22 league games, less than two-thirds of a season. Imagine if Elinav Barda had another player who produced numbers all season? And that's exactly what Breda has to fight for next season: to have decisive players on the roster, players who create numbers, not just those who open defenses or make quick passes. Look at what Omer Atzili did to Maccabi Haifa and you will understand what Hapoel Be'er Sheva lacks. Are there any? Yes, you just have to watch the World Cup and the European Junior Team Championship, where tomorrow's decisive players grow up.
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- Maccabi Tel Aviv Football
