The elephant in the field / column

For almost a year now we have been feeling a loop, a loop of life. Morbidity rises then closes, less contagious then opens, same statements, same graphs. We also seemed to have already seen this game, in the first round of the season. Not exactly the same, of course, but the same idea: Maccabi Haifa opens excellently, looks top, but as soon as it absorbs disappears. With only one difference, a big difference. The disappearance cost her more dearly this time.

Maccabi Haifa can advance professionally, acquire players, change coaches, look good, but in one thing it has not been able to get close to its opponent in the yellow for many years, and this is called in one word character. Most words can be called knowing that you are dependent on yourself, no matter what is going on around. The last decade has assimilated something deep, atmospheric, that could be seen in those two games this season. On both sides.

The reference here is not to Pendel and the decisive goal, but to what happened throughout the second half, that’s the point. Now there are those who will say that everything has to do with Barak Bachar’s exchanges, and there is a connection, we will touch on it. There are those who will say that the mistake of defenders like Raz Meir and Taleb Tuatha is the whole story, we will touch on that as well. But it is impossible to ignore the connection of all the games between the teams in recent years.

Note the following statistic: Maccabi Haifa not only did not beat Maccabi Tel Aviv in the last 15 league meetings between the teams, but of all the league teams there is only one with a worse streak against the Yellows and that is Bnei Sakhnin. Kafas won, Hapoel Tel Aviv A. won, Netanya won – does that mean that all the teams had better players than Maccabi Haifa in those years? Did they have a better coach? Obviously there are professional matters, but the elephant on the field cannot be ignored.

The exact opposite happens in Maccabi Tel Aviv. Even if there are shortages of significant players, even if suddenly Shahar Phiben enters the link, even if there is an early backlog, there is a look in the eyes that makes the opponent not believe in itself. Haifa for many years, and lost it. At Maccabi Tel Aviv, it clearly exists.

Now for football. Maccabi Haifa’s preparation for the game was good, but Barak Bachar’s management of the game was not good enough. Neta Lavie clung to Eyal Golsa, Muhammad Abu Fani to Aden Kartsev, and Bogdan Planic came up with Itai Schechter high at every opportunity, an action that gave Jose Rodriguez the opportunity to be more defensive free. This is the difficulty of the problematic link that Patrick Van Leven made with Dan Bitton. Maccabi Tel Aviv’s ball movement did not exist at this stage. Another move is to send Charon Sheri to the left, near Haziza, to create pressure on Phiben, but the defensive line opposite did a good job, especially against Nikita Rokavica who did not even get in the game. One pass into the extension More than that: Rokavica’s most forward pass of the entire game was 32 yards from Daniel Tennenbaum’s goal.

Therefore, even before reaching the star of the game Matan Hozaz, two more players should be mentioned. The first is Sharan Yeni, on an excellent defensive evening. Yeni saved 14 balls, more than any other player, and won all his defensive fights against an opposing player. The other player is Enrique Saborit, and here the contribution was also offensive. How offensive are you asking? At the gate of Tal Ben-Haim. Even earlier, during the penalty that was canceled (rightly, in my opinion all the big refereeing decisions were right), Saborit made good movement on offense. At the equalizer he was the player who came out with the ball, passed with him from the left wing to the right, handed out a pass close to the fastener and entered the field himself. This move, as can be seen in the attached photo, brought the brakes closer to him and Bitton remained free. Raz Meir looked back twice, he saw Ben-Haim, but walked on Bitton who was left free. It was his mistake, first of all because he missed the ball, but without a Saburit he would most likely have stayed close to TBH.

In any case the control in those minutes was the other side’s, but plans apart and a second half apart. The disappearance of Maccabi Haifa came even before the first forced replacement (which worked in favor of Maccabi Tel Aviv with the entry of Glazer) and without a special tactical change. It intensified further following the replacement that sent Noble Omar to the field. It seemed like a pre-planned replacement and moments when Bachar had to To strengthen his midfield, he put Shari in place of Abu Fani. This move shouted a mistake from the first moment. He hit Maccabi Haifa.

Tuatha’s replacement should also be talked about because Tuatha, and everyone knows it, is not a defender who excels at the back nor one who is known for concentration in the last minutes. His entry was in front of the hottest player, after all he is a jerk. Notice the map that shows all the significant offensive actions of the Yellows in the second half like accurate key dedications and successful dribbles – all on the high right side, where Hozs is located.

Hozaz received only 4 passes in the entire first half, but in the second much more went through him. He recorded five successful dribbles, more than any other player, was the only one on the team to pass to the Valley situation and of course failed wide in overtime. This was the first time Huzaz opened in the lineup this season. Last year he scored against Maccabi Haifa, this time he did even more and in fact it can be said that Hozaz is the player who left the season close and Israeli football in the same loop, the one at the center of which Maccabi Haifa is no longer able to face Maccabi Tel Aviv.

“We will go through the wall called Maccabi Tel Aviv,” said Bachar at the end. It is possible that Maccabi Haifa will win the championship even without this competition, after all it is still five points ahead and the favorite, albeit slightly, to win the title, but for a real change, a change of trend, Bachar not only needs better replacements but a real wall break, a wall that is not easily broken.