There was a big shock in Maccabi Haifa with the final whistle: Last night (Saturday), the Greens were defeated 2: 0 at home by Maccabi Petah Tikva, in a game that could cause the Greens to lose first place in the table after a long time. This was Haifa’s first loss at home in Idan Barak Bachar, and overall for the second time this season in which the Greens were unable to find the net at all.
At the end, players on the team reported fatigue, and even added: “Players are required this season for insane physical exertion, there are prices for that.” However, they also clarified there: “The deductions are not an excuse. There are enough players who need to deliver the goods. This ability will not be enough to meet the goals we have set for ourselves.”
Maccabi Haifa came to the meeting against Maccabi Petah Tikva without Nikita Rokavica, Dolev Haziza and Goodsway Donio who scored 28 goals out of 48 scored by the team and were involved in a total of 35 goals. The first half ended with only two threats against Arik Janko.
If that wasn’t enough, towards the end of the first half, Charon Sherry felt sensitive in his groin and decided not to take risks about it. He was substituted in the half and Yannick Wildshot came in to replace him. Cherry has been involved in 11 goals since the start of the season. In the second half, the four scorers of Maccabi Haifa’s season were not on the field. Cherry is expected to be tested during the day.
Also, in terms of threats on goal, in the second half the situation was not much better for Bachar’s trainees who threatened the opponent’s goal five times. Petah Tikva has reached almost double the number of situations (12). Muhammad Awad started for the first time in the squad, he was mostly dynamic in the first half and did not receive dedication from his teammates. Noble Omar was the most active player at the front, but suffered from bad luck when his huge kick found only the crossbar.
There were also clear signs of fatigue in the Haifa link: there was not enough joining and twenty ball losses of the trio in the minutes they played. Half of the losses belong to the captain, Neta Lavi who already knew better games. He extracted only three balls and won only 6/14 ground fights. Aside from Noble Omar he was the least accurate player (68%). Eid Habashi who got a chance in the squad was very disappointed following the own goal, despite a pretty good performance. Ernest Mabuka is suffering from a decrease in ability.
Throughout the half Bachar moved uncomfortably on the line, he talked a lot with his assistant, Guy French. He put on the lawn the offensive tools at his disposal, Satyo Nachmani (huge miss), Maor Levy and Nehorai Yifrach, but they also did not help. Bachar concluded: “Very disappointing, a very busy week and we wanted to end it despite the difficulty and fatigue in a good way, squeeze ourselves a little more, it did not work. We will rest for the next game, we will arrive with a more diverse team, bigger staff to get back to ourselves in the next game.” .
Maccabi Petah Tikva continues to be the black horse at the “Sami Ofer” stadium, more than five years have passed since the Greens’ last victory. With the face forward, in Haifa they will try to recover in a week, when they meet Bnei Yehuda in Bloomfield. Dolev Haziza, who has finished serving his suspension, will return to the squad against Bnei Yehuda.
Nikita Rokavica and Goodsway Donio, who were absent last night, are expected to be eligible. The left defender, San Menachem, received the fifth yellow towards the end and will be absent from the cup game against Maccabi Petah Tikva.
