The battle for the premiere
Four games remain until the end of the regular season, 12 points at the box office and the gap between the leading Maccabi Haifa and Maccabi Tel Aviv is only two points. The Greens have learned not to stumble despite the absence of Nikita Rokavica, the Yellows have also continued the chase despite the congestion with the Europa League campaign coming to an end. Now that they are balanced in terms of the game schedule, they will do everything to win the premiere before the playoffs, which is exactly the boiling point of the season.
While Patrick Van Leven leads Maccabi Tel Aviv to a huge streak of seven consecutive victories (with 31 points out of 33 possible in total), he also honestly admitted that only the result interested him against MS Ashdod – Barak Bachar gets the help from his deep roster exactly In time and continues to lead.Both will try to take the lead before the money-time of the season, it has great psychological significance and also a direct connection to the playoffs – and the next four rounds will determine quite a bit about the identity of the champion in the 2020/21 season.
Klinger’s Karate
On the other side of the road, Hapoel Tel Aviv has a seven-game streak of its own – without a loss – and this is no small thing given how Nir Klinger’s team looked before the January break and transfer window, and ahead of the Reds’ bottom battles. On Wednesday, they will meet Maccabi Haifa and although they would have preferred to see it fan the championship plate at the end of the season, they will try to help themselves with a stick in the green wheels.
In the previous round it was one of the most watched games for Klinger and his players. They gave a fight to the Bachar players and lost even though they caught them on a pretty weak day, got into some winking situations and missed out on the team’s anemic period. Now, with more offensive tools and half a new team, and despite the shortcomings of the four Corona patients, Klinger has asked his players to “give them a karate kick.”
When it comes to martial arts in Japanese with the hands first called “te” (hand), it will be interesting to see if the Reds return south to the Khodorov compound on Wednesday night with their hands full of dots or, again as in the first round, they will return with the current name of the branch “Read” – ” Te “, or in free translation: the hand is empty.
Start as soon as possible and slowly increase
While Bachar compared the Maccabi Haifa race to the title for a marathon run (according to him, Maccabi Haifa in the 36-37 kilometer on the way to the goal, 42.2), at the bottom of the table, at Bnei Sakhnin, they run short distances. Or in other words, do not let the coaches work (and even when they work do not give them quiet), and here is another shock this season in a team that is complicated at the bottom. And now, the task of keeping her in the league is Sharon Mimar’s.
Without getting into the familiar capriciousness in Sakhnin, Mimar replaces Nisso Avitan in the position and will try to continue what he started at Hapoel Hadera. Mimar, who is known for his open tenures, will this time have to extend his opener until the end of the season in order to survive, because Sakhnin already has six games without a win.
For him personally, this will be the second time he has faced a relegation battle (for real, with the sword on his neck from day one), after his first season in the Premier League as head coach at Hapoel Kfar Saba five years ago. And after another job where he failed to complete his mission, it will be a big test for him and his career. “You start your fastest, and slowly increase,” Mimar would tell himself that after passing that test with Grandpa, he would try to do it like in “Operation Grandma.”
Sixes in the air
While the championship battle is taking place between the two leaders, the bottom cauldron currently numbers five teams, with a stubborn battle between them for a place in the top playoffs. Beyond the third Ashdod MS, which will have to prove its place among the top six and stop the negative streak after the announcement of the continuation of Ran Ben Shimon and the departure of Sagiv Yehezkel (three games without a win, two consecutive losses), six teams will compete for the coveted tickets.
Betar Jerusalem, Maccabi Petah Tikva and Kiryat Shmona have missing games to complete. Maccabi Netanya, Hapoel Haifa and Hapoel Beer Sheva do not have any. They will all try to prove that their place is at the top of the table, after impressing at times and showing awful instability the rest of the time. At the moment, some of the teams that will not advance to the top playoffs may even get entangled in the bottom battles that are within touching distance.
Starting to pay off
The one who seems at the moment most ready to take the step forward and qualify for the top playoff is Betar Jerusalem and it happens quite a bit because of the improvement in Jordan Shua’s ability. It is still difficult to talk about realizing his tremendous potential, but this guy shows the sparks that gave him the crazy price tag. His at such a young age, and begins to pay bills.
In the meantime it’s still small money, but with cooking and a goal in the last two games in the league (respectively) he already has five goals and three cooks this season and if he continues with that ability and helps Betar slip into the top six the bills will continue to pile up.
Beyond the overall improvement in the team of Slobodan Drapic and Shai Barda, its anchors, Itamar Nitzan and Idan Vered, should be noted for their excellent ability and sacrifice. Nico Olsk for the great cooperation that brought Ali Muhammad back to be Ali Muhammad and Marco Yankovic who adds a lot to the Jerusalem attack. Betar’s reinforcement players are already giving their signals in recent weeks, and in the coming weeks they will have to continue to prove themselves in order to do the thing for which they came.
Delete the marks
Another team that expects to be included in the top six is Roni Levy’s Hapoel BS, who returns to the Premier League directly for another challenge in the top team with pretensions to finish the season at the top of the table, qualify again for Europe and advance as high as possible in the state cup, which she holds last year. Barkat is back to business and wants to enjoy achievement again, and she has chosen exactly the hungriest person and suitable for the role of someone who wants to raise his fund back.
After being fired from Betar at the beginning of the season after failing in the Europa League qualifiers, Levy returned to the forefront and after proving to the ex that he did not give up easily with 1: 1, he will do everything to prove that like his team, his place is still at the top, despite criticism, doubts and question marks. There are quite a few of these after the coach’s tenure in the capital and the unconvincing ability in the underestimation of BS players this season.
This is despite the fact that he brought the Toto Cup to Betar for the first time in over a decade and took the team to Europe, when the relegation came at the team building stage, so the coach and Yossi Benyon had quite a few disagreements with Moshe Hogg regarding the staff and finally the owner crowned himself “professional manager” Quite a few cases, a large part of these players are no longer even in Betar Jerusalem. But Levy has his new challenge in the WC and after collecting a point in his debut game, he expects to complete the work on the way to the playoffs in the next four rounds.