Doron Ben Dor 29/01/2021 22:57
Raz Meir (Radad Jabara)
Only one victory in the last 29 league games against Maccabi Tel Aviv. This is the negative and unflattering balance that Maccabi Haifa has held for the past eight and a half years against its biggest rival in Israeli football.
On the eve of the “game of the season” on Wednesday against the Yellows, everything was arranged and ready at Maccabi Haifa to break the “manchus” and defeat the sworn rival. On paper, everything worked in favor of the Greens. Maccabi Tel Aviv came without a number of its prominent players such as Dor Peretz and Yonatan Cohen and knowing that a draw or a loss and Haifa can start to cool the champagne.
The team from Carmel came to the game as a proud leader with a full staff when the pair of midfielders Jose Rodriguez and Muhammad Abu Fani, who were specially trained for this game, returned to the lineup. Before the game it seemed that the mental preparation was doing its part as well. At the concluding team meeting there was a motivational talk for about an hour, accompanied by a video, a meeting that was supposed to bring the players to the highest level of readiness possible.
Indeed it would have seemed at least in the first half that the preparation had done its thing. The leader of the table dominated absolutely and showed a clear superiority on the field and despite that went down to the break with a tie – 1: 1. foretoken? When the players returned from the break, Haifa returned to the field in a completely different situation. The team did not start the half well and all the substitutions that Barak Bachar tried to make out of a tendency to stimulate the team and reach a decision not only did not help but weakened the team, something that was used to the end by Tel Aviv.
Players such as Omar Atzili and Yanik Wildshot, who were supposed to make a change, were far from their ability and the entry in the 90th minute by Taleb Twataha in place of San Menachem became crucial on the way to a penalty that left the Maccabees from the north without points and the fans with heavy concerns. In constant danger, especially when two more games are expected in the future against the same Maccabi Tel Aviv that refuses to surrender in a duel against the Greens.
In the previous season, for example, Haifa in the time of Marco Belbul suffered four losses in four games against Maccabi Tel Aviv. 12 points that in the end were also the difference between the teams at the end of the season. The most memorable game from that season is 3-4 in Sami Ofer when Yonatan Cohen scored In addition time the victory gate.
This year, in the same field in Sami Ofer, Haifa already led at an early stage with an advantage of two goals, but even that was not enough for them and in the end they came out with only one point. Despite this, the feeling was that this point was the first swallow that might herald the breaking of the yellow barrier on the way to the goal. The end is known – again the same Maccabi Tel Aviv managed in extra time to sting and win three points that reopened the championship fight.
Football commentator and former player Eyal Berkowitz Shatters the hypothesis that there is a psychological barrier that causes Haifa to stay behind and not beat Tel Aviv: “I do not believe in the whole mental thing. My explanation for what happens between the two teams is simple. Maccabi Tel Aviv throughout the 20 league games that were simply better professionally than Maccabi Haifa . Whoever is good wins in football. It is rare for someone who is not good to win. Maccabi Tel Aviv has been better over the last period. The first half of Maccabi Haifa was excellent and the second half was bad. If Haifa was good in the second half it would have won. Good football players are those who do not need motivation and do not have to work on the mental issue. What I played was the whole mental issue. “
Over the last few years, Haifa has also known three victories over Maccabi Tel Aviv. One in the league on the field in Netanya (0: 2) when Gary Kegelmacher scored one of the most beautiful goals that season and two more victories in the cup. One of the victories in the cup was Haifa. When she defeated Maccabi Tel Aviv 0: 1 in the final in the time of Roni Levy. The one who was then a partner in that victory was the mental counselor Dan Valencia who was a partner in a number of titles in clubs in the country in basketball and football.
Valencia Analyzes the main reasons why Maccabi Tel Aviv shows a clear superiority over Haifa in the last decade: “From a purely professional point of view, Maccabi Tel Aviv is better than Maccabi Haifa. In the last five years, Tel Aviv is a more trained, continuous and more expensive team. In terms of the fight between the teams, all the players take this game as a “game of the season”, which means that one of the players cannot be caught asleep in a game like this, and then the better team wins. Maccabi Tel Aviv before Maccabi Haifa sees in the diary two weeks earlier the game against Haifa. The expectation in this game is so justified especially by the veteran Haifa crowd who used to be the richest in the league for over a decade and then really Maccabi Haifa was great with the best football In the country until richer people came to football and broke the monopoly. “
For ten years now, Haifa has not had a team that comes close to Maccabi Tel Aviv. For Maccabi Tel Aviv, the game against Haifa is its biggest game of the season, while for Haifa it is also the biggest game, only it is less good. Ten years is a lot to win one in the league. Until a year ago, Haifa had no deterrent, so it was easy for Tel Aviv to break it.
Valencia recalled the preparation before the last cup final that Haifa won, even if there were players playing today who are in a team such as Neta Lavie and Taleb Twataha: It was important to beat Maccabi Tel Aviv and bring a trophy. We won them the game with the most money on the table. We built the team for five or six months by beating them in the test of will and who is stronger physically and who wants more, just like Maccabi Tel Aviv does in five six The last years of the league. “
“We reached the final at the height of the attack and knowing that Zahavi had signed elsewhere and he would not break his legs and certainly not Dor Micha or anyone and we won them in a game of who wants more. “Today, even if Haifa really wants to beat Maccabi Tel Aviv, Peretz, Glazer, Golsa and Kartzev still say we are first and foremost ‘serial killers’ and Haifa is always clever and says that we are first and foremost football geniuses and that is the price of it in the big games.”
