Despite the draw against Hapoel Beer Sheva, which broke a streak of eight victories, Maccabi Haifa will continue its rush to the championship. Because in the bottom line, we saw the great quality gaps of the Greens over the rival from the Negev capital, both professionally and mentally. They managed to come back from behind and were even worth a win, which is an important milestone before the Premier League stoppage following the closure.
On the green side, we once again saw the improvement in Maccabi Haifa’s defense. After starting the season with 11 consecutive games in which she conceded at least one goal in the game, it was clear that the big problem was defense – a direct continuation from last season, so it also cost her the championship.
Following on from the last few games, we also saw Barak Bachar’s back four improve last night – as evidenced by the fact that she has only counted two assists in the last nine games. This can be attributed to Bachar, who managed to stabilize the problematic defense after quite a few seasons accompanied by problems. I especially liked to see Bogdan Planic and Raz Meir, who played a very good game even against a worthy opponent like Hapoel Beer Sheva despite their lukewarm start.
And from the defense, to the front. It was hard to ignore that Charon Cherry did not really come to the game, perhaps because of the injury for which he was in doubt, but in his absence – Dolev Haziza was there to take the reins. And he was without a doubt Maccabi Haifa’s man in this game offensively. All opportunities, as well as the goal, came as a result of his key dedication.
On the red side, we saw a mediocre team that enjoyed two players who were just a level above the game. First and foremost, Joshua – who despite the short fuse that ended in a deliberate red, provided moments of magic as usual and was the man in whose name the point Beersheba scored, and not just thanks to the goal he cooked. Beside him was also Miguel Vitor, who despite the many injuries he suffered in my eyes is still the best brake in the league.
We’ll dive in. In the first 25 minutes, Maccabi Haifa exerted great high pressure, which led to complete control of the center of the powerful field that Bachar raised, and the attack was led by Haziza in an amazing way. Beer Sheva was able to return to the game thanks to the tactical game of Yossi Aboksis, which included compactness, density and aggression that disrupted the game of the Greens. In the 40th minute it paid off for her, when a wide ball from Joshua passed through Itamar Shabiru and ended in a 0: 1 of Tomer Yosefi despite a half with a slight advantage of the Greens.
In the second half, Bachar made the right changes that helped the team hold the ball and threaten the goal (1:10 to Maccabi Haifa in the second half). And again, Haziza, who if not he, was the man who delivered a great ball to Yannick Wildshot – a ball that the Dutchman kicked on Louis Taha and led to a justified 1-1 draw. In the 63rd minute, and too early in my opinion, Aboksis put Shir Tzedek in and moved to a set of three brakes – something that gave Maccabi Haifa a huge advantage in the wings. But even though it was worth a goal in the second half, in the end Haifa was unable to decide the game. And yet, after eight consecutive victories – a draw in an away game against Beer Sheva is not a bad result.
The result is comforting, despite losing the advantage, but Hapoel Beer Sheva is a mediocre team, and it proved once again that the difference between an average mid-table team and one that can get a ticket to Europe at the end of the season – is a total of two quality foreigners (Joshua and Vitor).
In the Maccabi Haifa sector, there is a lot of talk about the imminent arrival of Omar Atzili – and there is no doubt that a quality player like him could be the X Factor of Maccabi Haifa later this season – but I am very curious what will happen when he has to open one of the team’s senior players Another big test for Barak Bachar.
Professionally, Noble will likely open in the wing instead of Cherry, who will move to the middle – which will lead to giving up a player with a more defensive orientation. Thus, the center field of the Greens will be much less intense and aggressive as Becher likes, which could certainly be a problem against teams from the top of the table. It will be interesting to see how Bachar handles this.
In any case, things depend on Maccabi Haifa. If Bachar knows how to deal with the forced recess following the closure and manages to get his players back to play with the same intensity and commitment – I am confident that the Greens, after a particularly painful decade, will finally be able to swing the coveted plate.
