Avi Nemani | 15/02/2021 23:12
Avi is in a personal column for ONE (ONE system)
Another big evening of football was ahead of us today (Monday) at a meeting of two huge clubs in Israeli football. Maccabi Haifa came to Teddy as a clear favorite, but after a stormy week he remembered the violent derby events in the previous round. Conflicts that could cost the Greens dearly in light of the serious indictment filed by the Football Association’s attorney.
On the other hand, Betar Jerusalem has been facing a corona epidemic in recent weeks that has affected almost the entire squad, an effect that prevents the Yellows from the capital from being optimally prepared. Still, Betar arrived after an important away win in Netanya and a feeling that the players are starting to connect after a disappointing season opener and with ambitions and hopes of getting a ticket to Europe. However, given the bleak reality, if the Jerusalemites manage to make it to the top playoffs at the last minute it will be a surprise given what we have seen so far on the pitch, and of course it could be a big disappointment at the club if they do not reach the top six at the start of the season. Betar, with the dreams of reaching Europe, can find itself if it does not recover from the relegation.
The opening of the game was for the Greens who held the ball, applied high pressure and took advantage of Betar’s slow and confused defensive squad. Maccabi Haifa managed to score an easy goal from the legs of Dolev Haziza, who took advantage of a serious mistake by Santiago Ocampus on defense. Betar on a very disappointing evening was appallingly weak. If we look at the first part of the game, the Jerusalemites’ first half was their weakest since the start of the season, both defensively and offensively.
The Greens from Haifa went down to the half with a minimal advantage of 0: 1 after absolute superiority on the field, mainly physical and tactical superiority, but not with impressive ability from an offensive point of view. To this must be added incorrect decision-making and a marked shortcoming in the Greens’ recent actions in front of Itamar Nitzan’s goal, who managed to fall to the half with a minimal lag of only one goal that somehow gave Betar hope and anticipation for the second half.
Slobodan Drapic and Shai Barda made a pair of substitutions in the half, with Roi Padida and Shai Konstantin replacing Okampus and Tamir Adi, which was supposed to solve the Yellows’ problems from the capital from the first half and emphasize the team’s prominent weakness from the start of the game – the defensive squad. The center of the field, however, immediately Betar became even more exposed and tactically unorganized. The thing that was most requested in light of what we saw in the first half was strengthening the back vertebra and thickening the link vertebra.
The second half opened excellently for the Greens and with serious and unacceptable mistakes in the Betar defense. In the second goal, Uri Megbo lost a ball and in the third goal it was due to the unimaginable loss of a ball by Tal Ben Haim, a loss of a ball that cost the team from the capital with great cost and a three-goal deficit with the opening of the second half. To this must be added a serious and dangerous tackle by Uriel Degani in Chiron Cherry who went up to the Jerusalem brake with a red card and a correct decision by Roi Reinschreiber, which left the Jerusalemites with ten players for over half an hour until the end of the game. A bud that prevented a higher defeat.
As for the Greens, they can come out very pleased with Teddy with three light and important points when they turned a game that was supposed to be on paper mined and turned into a pleasant pastoral walk on Teddy’s grass, with a sweet and quality away win the Greens return to lead the table quite rightly. Now is the face of Maccabi Haifa for Wednesday, for the disciplinary committee and the far-reaching consequences that should be received for the future of the Greens.
