Over the years, Maccabi Tel Aviv’s games against Betar Jerusalem have provided a lot of action and drama. Only tonight’s game between the two teams is critical for each of them. The champion must win to qualify for the summit, while the Jerusalemites are desperate for the three points to leave themselves any chance of reaching the top playoffs. Our forecast – hotter than usual.
A source close to Betar claims that if the team does not finish in the top six, owner Moshe Hogg may not continue next season with Slobodan Drapic and Shai Barda. .
One of the goals set in the summer for the coaching duo was to promote talented young players. Celebrating decided to gamble on them at the time, with the intention of improving them and selling them in the future for sums that would help the club financially. Did the coaches meet this goal?
The biggest success in the youth segment is of course with 18-year-old Aviel Zargari who has become a regular car player thanks to his Sisyphean work and belief in him. Betar has 55% success when Zargari plays (16 games), while 11% success in the other six games he has not played. Hogg recently wrote on social media: There are also those in Betar who claim: “It was worth going through everything we went through this season to earn a player like Zargari, millions more will be made for him.”
Another young player that coaches are promoting, although in recent games he is less good, it is of course 21-year-old Gliofilo Hasselbaink who has scored a lone goal in 15 appearances. The 18-year-old Santiago Occupos in his senior season made 10 league appearances. Uziel Pardo, 21, also made 11 appearances. And of course there is Jordan Shua, also a 21-year-old who has scored seven goals in all competitions, but he is from a slightly different equation, because he was bought with a lot of money on a star standard.
The conclusion about promoting young people is clear: Drapich and Barda gave them the keys, even if it didn’t always work out. “They wanted them to promote young people like they did with Kanikowski, Glazer, Weissman, and they do it. There are birth cords. But when there are no results there is no patience.” They say in Betar.
Another source in the team added: “Talking about young people is nice, but fans and owners only care about the results in the end, it will all rise or fall. We don’t want to think about being in the bottom playoffs.” The Jerusalemites will miss the yellowed Ophir Krieff tonight, and he will be replaced by Tal Ben-Haim, even though the brake was injured in training in his face and he needed stitches. Shua, Zargari and Eliran Atar, who did not start against Sakhnin, will return to the squad, as will Shai Konstantin