The rivalry between Hapoel Tel Aviv and Betar Jerusalem is one of the most charged that Israeli sports have to offer.
These are not only the sporting struggles on the grass, which over the years provided classic and unforgettable encounters, but mainly the ideological differences between the clubs, which turned this game into more than another 90 minutes of football.
The reds, as we know, are identified with the old establishment and the political left, while the yellow-blacks represented the revisionist movement, the weaker classes and their struggle against that old establishment.
However, despite the great rivalry and the different perceptions of a large part of the teams' fans, in recent years Hapoel and Bitar have been going through similar processes: from teams that fight for titles almost regularly, they have become almost irrelevant in the top fights and clearly lacking stability at the management level, and today they mainly concentrate on relatively small achievements such as Cup, top playoff or back-to-back wins.
For tonight's meeting in Bloomfield, the two show up knowing that only a victory will keep them in the picture of the fight for entry to the top playoffs.
If this pressure is not enough, both of them also come to the game in a very uncomfortable situation professionally.
Hapoel suffered four losses in its two previous games in Bloomfield and scored only two points in the last six rounds, while Beitar lost to Bnei Rayna in Teddy in its last game and will have to manage without its best player, Jordan Shua, who will be absent due to accumulating yellow cards.
Shua
Another huge game, photo: Audi Citiat
Just on the lines
Hapoel Tel Aviv has already made two important moves for it in the January transfer window when it strengthened two positions with the addition of defender Raz Meir and midfielder Ihab Ganaim, but with all due respect to one acquisition or another, which will certainly improve the quality of the staff, the Reds' problems are first of all in the professional team .
Hapoel doesn't come to the games well tactically, the coach runs away why he doesn't react during the match and the team has trouble balancing the game of defense and attack, despite a relatively good squad that was built in the summer.
In the last two games, for example, Hapoel played the opposite tactically against superior teams.
what do I mean?
Well, in the 4:0 defeat to Hapoel Tel Aviv, they started with three defenders against a team that plays without a striker, something that did not change even after they were down to ten players (the fifth red of the season, the most in the league, also points to a disciplinary problem), and in the derby they went up In a 4:3:3 attack against an opponent who plays with two strikers, and it was no coincidence that they conceded four goals from both of them.
Why.
At a loss, photo: Alan Shiver
On the other hand, Yossi Abouxis also fails to find the formula to produce tactical stability and a winning streak, which puts his team 6 points from sixth place and only 4 from the red line.
Beitar has chosen not to add a foreign defender this season, and its defensive squad is made up of unstable players who are prone to mistakes. Aboxis changes commands in the center of the rear, changes defenders, makes role changes (Midfielder Leon Mizrahi became the starting left back), but it doesn't help.
Beitar's link looks better with Soro returning to himself and the great Yona, and the attack is diverse with Shua providing a record season. But without defensive stability and a foreign stopper to upgrade the entire defensive game, Beitar will end the season in a shuffle, and the chance to keep the cup will also be a task impossible.
Abramov with Aboxis.
Unwilling to compromise, photo: Oren Ben Hakon
Connect to reality
But with all due respect to the professional side and the goals of the teams, and there is respect, the most important thing in this game will happen in the stands.
True, the sports rivalry between the teams is very important to the audiences, but we have been in a different reality since October 7.
Thousands of civilians were massacred just because they are Israelis, no one asked them what their political views were, soldiers give their lives for our existence here almost every day, 200 thousand Israelis are refugees in their country, and another 136 abductees live 108 days in hell in the tunnels of Gaza.
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In this unbearable situation, sports should serve as a form of escapism and a unifying factor, certainly not such a space where the audiences of these groups will sing songs of hatred and holocaust towards each other.
I hope that precisely in this game, which represents an internal social rivalry, the owners and captains will address the audiences and ask them to encourage and not curse the opponent or sing the shocking songs that we unfortunately continue to hear in the stands, and to understand that our strength is in our unity and that sport is a unifying and joyful factor, even when the rivalry is great.
If that happens, it doesn't matter at all what the outcome of the game will be.
We will all win.
were we wrong
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