The Israeli athletes who became rivals in one evening

Manor Solomon will go up tonight (Thursday, 22:00) in Bloomfield for an interesting meeting against Maccabi Tel Aviv in the last 32 stages of the Europa League. Shakhtar is a clear favorite, it is known, but the picantry also adds to the struggle.

And yes, you are right. This is not the first time an Israeli coach or athlete has met a team from the Holy Land as real rivals. It has happened quite a bit already, but we decided to remind you of the more memorable encounters.

52 years after he was born in Berlin, Ralph Klein closed the circle. In a job that would then have seemed impossible: coaching the West German national team. The late Klein survived the Holocaust, but his father was murdered in Auschwitz and the arrival of the Israeli coach to guide the Germans, about 40 years after that inferno, seemed like something inconceivable at the time. “For me, as someone who was in the Holocaust and survived it, this is the real victory.” , Ten.

The truth, as early as 1984, fate wanted, and he was forced to face the Israeli team as an opponent, five years after leading it to grow its achievements: the silver medal in the Eurobasket in Turin. It was at the pre-Olympic Games tournament in Los Angeles. Israel has already been eliminated, Germany has risen and the game was for protocol only. Perhaps because of this he was able to “slip” from standing on the lines. He sat on the German bench and handed out notes to his assistant Brand Roider, who officially guided the game.

Watch Doron Jamchi win over Ralph Klein and the German national team

A year later, at the European Championships in Germany, the two met again, this time at the home stage. Zvika Sharaf coached the team in blue and white, which started with three losses and met the host, who was of course the favorite and with a superstar in the form of Detlef Sherampf. The Germans led 46:52 at the break, but could not for a crazy performance by Doron Jamchi (42 points!) Who swept Israel to 88:94 at the end.

Despite the loss, Germany continued all the way to fifth place – its record achievement until its stunning 1993 victory. Only after that emotional game, Klein, who was highly esteemed in Germany, snatched from the local media. “Why don’t you look as sad as in previous losses?” A local reporter asked him. Klein got angry and replied in three words: “This is a stupid question.”

Perhaps the most memorable and emotional encounter of a blue-and-white athlete in front of an Israeli team. Maccabi Tel Aviv, which was looking for its first European Cup since 1981, passed Barcelona in the semi-finals on the way to a meeting with Oded Katash and Panathinaikos in the Final Four in Thessaloniki. And what a game it was.

Katsh, 23, arrived in Athens that summer from … Maccabi Tel Aviv and of course no one believed (or wanted to believe) that the Israeli star and the team of the State of Israel would compete head to head for the title – on the eve of Passover. “Instead of reading the Haggadah – we will analyze again The statistics “, laughed the then assistant coach of the Yellows, David Blatt, who also promised:” I will run naked if we win. “The shocked Katsh found solace:” At least the European champion will be Israeli. ”

It was a Greek-controlled final, with Katsch’s ascents, mostly in money-time, en route to Panathinaikos’ 67:73. Pini Gershon, who coached Maccabi, was furious at the end: “It was addictive, the referees lost the game for us.” But he, too, knew it was mostly “because of” Katsch.

The coordinator, who scored 17 points, lifted the trophy and in tears said: “My joy is not complete. This is the happiest day of my career, and the saddest. Reality has put me in a very difficult situation. I wish the Maccabi Tel Aviv players to win the European Cup, I wish I could win with With them. “This, unfortunately, will no longer happen.

The picantry behind the meeting between Lior Eliyahu and Maccabi Tel Aviv became clear only in retrospect. In those years, the Yellows encountered Euroleague games in Raviv Lemond and David Blue, for example, so the encounter with Israelis was no stranger to them.

The perspective was gained at the end of that season: After not easy months in the demanding framework of Dusko Ivanovic, Eliyahu excelled in the championship game of Basconia and scored 18 points on the way to the sweep against Barcelona in the final series in Spain. Just then he gave up a contract for another three years, gave up hundreds of thousands of dollars and returned to David Blatt’s Maccabi.

But let’s go back to Elijah’s pair of games against the Yellows in the 2009/2010 season. On Sunday, at the end of October 2009 in Vitoria, the Israeli forward scored 12 points in a 81:86 home game. On Monday, two months later in the arena, he scored 11 points in 82:91 – which determined that the Yellows would not finish at the top of the early house. Pini Gershon, who until then had lost every time to a Spanish rival, took responsibility: “Apparently I’m the manchus, I just can not beat a team from Spain.”

Elijah himself got up embarrassed at the end: “It felt weird to me, but when I got on the field I put everything aside.” By the way, before the game there was a ceremony in which Elijah received a bouquet of flowers, the fans greeted him with applause and waved a sign “The prince will return”. How right they were.

Katsh destroyed Maccabi Tel Aviv winning the Euroleague, Aliniv Barda prevented Maccabi Haifa from advancing to the home stage of the Champions League. In the playoffs in 2011, the Greens were drawn against Genk and the Israeli striker, who won two championships with Haifa. “What do I think? It will be interesting, “said the Belgian champion star.

In the first game at the Raj Stadium, Haifa already led 0: 2 from the feet of Wiam Amasha and Vladimir Debalashvili, but Barda, yes actually Barda, shrank and gave the Belgians an expensive away goal for the rematch.

In Belgium, Eyal Golsa’s temporary equalizer was not enough as Genk won 1: 2 and the decision was drained into a penalty shootout. Breda, this time, had already been substituted earlier, but his team recorded a 1-4 battle from the penalty spot and qualified for the second time in its history for the Champions League.

“We lost the ticket to the home stage already in the country,” said the disappointed coach, Elisha Levy. “It’s going to be one of the hardest nights of my career, and I’ve had a few of these already,” Captain Yaniv Katan concluded. And what did Breda have to say? “I feel sorry for Nir Davidovich. Haifa caught us without a coach and with those sent off, but did not take advantage of that.” What’s right is right.