The feeling at Maccabi Haifa is optimistic. Very optimistic, if you will. Yesterday (Saturday), Barak Bachar’s Greens managed to beat Maccabi Petah Tikva 1: 2 in the Moshava, retained first place this week as well – and Josh Cohen’s penalty save against Yinon Eliyahu in extra time, only added to the green crowd the feeling that they have “luck Of champions. ”
But is this feeling really true to reality? Is this season really different, after a decade without a plate? It’s really hard to know, but following the opening of Haifa’s season, we went on a journey between numbers to check: how good is this season, compared to previous seasons? Thus, our task was simple: to check what Maccabi Haifa has done in the last ten seasons (since the last championship season, 2010/11) after 11 league rounds. And the results are particularly interesting.
First, the credit must be given to the confusion: Maccabi Haifa’s data this season are lower than last season ‘(albeit with small gaps) – this season Haifa scored 25 points, last season 26; She scored 23 goals this season against 24 last season, and conceded 11 vs. just 7 (credit to Omri Glazer?). But if you isolate this figure – then the opening of the season of Haifa is definitely extraordinary, compared to the past.
A few numbers: This is the first time since the 2009/10 season that Haifa is currently in first place. Even going back to that championship season, in the 11th round she was only third (after Urbani Kiryat Shmona and the then reigning champion Hapoel Tel Aviv). She has eight wins from 11 games, which is the highest number since 2009/10 (then she had 10 out of 11!). Haifa’s average number of points in the last ten seasons, at this stage, stands at only 16 – that is, it has significantly surpassed it at the moment.
How rare is its position at the summit at this point? In the last decade, most of the time Haifa has not even been close to the top at the current point in time. Three times she was only 11th (in the 2012/13 season, for example, she had two wins and nine goals at this point!), And her number of wins ranged from 3 to 6. Far from the eight they have today or last season. In the “Lost Decade” she has only twice managed to score over 20 league goals – last season and the 2011/12 season. that’s it.
So at least numerically, Maccabi Haifa has something to cheer about. It is undergoing an excellent season opener at all levels, even at the historic level. Now, all that remains is to overcome the psychological barriers: this coming Tuesday, for example, an away game against Bnei Yehuda awaits her. Will their days return as before? We’ll wait and see.
