The projectors
The second round of the Premier League is just a moment behind us, the playoffs are just around the corner, and those who will reach, in any case, with their heads held high above all the Premier League coaches to the finish line of the regular season are Patrick Van Leven and Nir Klinger. The coaches of Maccabi and Hapoel Tel Aviv can register a huge V of great professional revolutions in Kiryat Shalom and in the Khodorov complex during the second round, revolutions that put the yellows and reds in excellent opening positions to open the playoffs, top and bottom,
The Dutchman flies
The turnaround that the Dutchman managed to produce in Maccabi Tel Aviv is no less amazing. About three months ago, when he closed a round on the lines, Van Leven started his way after 0: 0 against Beitar Jerusalem, with the champion in fifth place and 8 points away from Maccabi Haifa first. , Exactly in money-time, the Yellows completed the coup when they climbed to first place in the table for the first time this season, collecting 37 points out of 39 possible, meaning winning 12 games out of 13 (!).
If the coach and his players manage to keep the debut until the end of the regular season, they will gain another advantage ahead of the playoffs, when they already establish themselves as favorites to win the championship in light of the impressive process since the dismissal of Georgios Donis and despite the big gap Maccabi Haifa lost. The summit, and despite estimates that the Yellows have already lost the title after two consecutive championships. The Dutchman from Maccabi Tel Aviv flies with her to the first place, and does not intend to land from there until the end of the season.
Revolution Season 2
On the red side of Tel Aviv, boast a huge turnaround, perhaps a little less big than last season, which began with the arrival of Klinger and Moshe Sinai to Wolfson and ended in the top playoff and Cup semi-finals, but the season is not over yet. ), Hapoel counted only 10 points, while carrying the entire Premier League on its back, in last place.
Since then, when it was the first game of the players who changed the face of the team in January – Dan Einbinder, Ben Bitton, Ofek Bitton, Lidor Cohen and Shlomi Azulai (Raz Stein took another point for his current team when he equalized 2: 2 in Bloomfield, before the move) – the Reds have achieved 16 points out of 27 possible, at the rate of accumulating points of a top team for everything and no wonder the Reds look back, with all the procurement players who came were also candidates in the summer and wanted by Klinger and Sinai, saying that if they came earlier – the team could qualify for the top playoffs. Its progress.
In terms of the bottom group, with 59% success in the process that currently places it in 11th place with a gap of 3 points above the red line, and with a sea of confidence and self-belief towards the continuation of the bottom struggles – it is a great success. But all this must be maintained in order, as the Reds fantasize, to stay in the league “without unnecessary heartbeats” and as quickly as possible. And there is also the State Cup that can be dreamed of.
The smile erased
Barak Bachar and Guy Luzon, each in his own project, came out with statements of intent already at the start of the season. Maccabi Petah Tikva defeated Maccabi Tel Aviv in the first round and established itself at the top already at the start of the season, while Maccabi Haifa was at the top starting in the eighth round, when it finished with its European campaign and returned to the track after the stumbles in the opening rounds. Great for illegal immigration and the start of the last round of the season, while Bachar has already erased the smile with the 0: 2 over Maccabi Haifa, when the latter can no longer declare anything.
Bachar and his players with their backs to the wall for the first time this season, at a critical point, and beyond locking the table before setting the playoffs, for all its professional and psychological implications, they must provide an impressive run and surpass themselves, especially against Maccabi Tel Aviv in future opportunities to win the championship Less than an amazing and heroic playoff, including one direct win over the last two years champion, and the Greens will continue to wait for the plate they have been craving for a decade.
There is more respect
Other coaches who have won and are receiving unlimited credit from their clubs are Ren Ben Shimon and Raymond Atwald. While Rabash has already received a contract extension in light of the appreciation for his big season in the port city and the fact that his team plays probably the most beautiful football in Israel, the Dutchman of Maccabi Netanya is already in talks with the club’s leaders about next season. We want him to continue the project that started in the summer.
Both, together with Luzon, hope to maintain their position among the top six of Israeli football and will do everything to prevent Betar Jerusalem, Kiryat Shmona and Hapoel Haifa from grabbing the box. The three of them together, deserve all the compliments for bringing their teams to the top exactly At the time they did not do in pants like Betar and Hapoel Haifa, which last summer built much more shiny and impressive staff (only on paper) and have not been able to keep their many promises in the meantime.
Three friends set off
Roni Levy’s third game as coach of Hapoel B’Shlosha ended with a first loss, 1: 0 to Hapoel Tel Aviv, and without getting into the storm of refereeing, one must dwell on the common fate of him and the coaches who replaced him in Betar, Slobodan Drapic and Shai Barda – who was Former assistant at Maccabi Haifa and his good friend, while the former faced difficulties in building the staff with “professional manager” Moshe Hogg, the duo also encountered this last January (after the owner’s attack, the coaches’ sting came), and even after receiving a poorly built team, he also failed. Balance the staff.
The zombie brake, regardless of his abilities, was needed now and the celebrant’s ego prevented him from coming. Dan Einbinder, with the record capacity of the season, could have helped Betar if he had stayed at the request of the coaches. Hanan Maman alone produced 9 goals (scored 7, cooked two more) which is more than a third of the goals scored by Betar this season and is too short to contain the series of mistakes made in the capital This season, regardless of the sheikh saga that only related and not beneficial to the actual club.
Now, after two consecutive and difficult losses to Bnei Sakhnin and Maccabi Tel Aviv, right in the money-time of the season, they have 9 points in the pot to try and hope for a miracle that will push them to the top playoffs. It is unlikely at all that Missing, so Drapich and Barda will be hoping mostly for the stumble of their friend and mentor, Roni Levy.
For his part, when the place is not guaranteed at all, a third round in the lower playoffs will be a fatal blow to a project that began in the Negev capital, which is expected to continue mainly in the summer with rebuilding and greater economic investment by Alona Barkat. A project that may not last at all despite the contract, who knows. But in the meantime, he is at least not in immediate danger of dismissal like his good friends.
They have all the mitigating circumstances in the world and are still responsible for Betar’s failure this season, because they have been in office since August and had enough time to make all the changes they wanted and planned – so it’s a double failure. The claims to celebrate are justified, the breaks due to the corona eruptions And the missing games also did not add to say the least, but it seems from the side that Drapich and Barda made all the possible mistakes in a football team this season.
They themselves failed to take out even 50% of the potential of their players, when they insisted on their method by force, did not manage the rotation well and do not feel at all like the coaches who succeeded at home and in Netanya. After such a season in Sharon and the capital, there is a sense in the next time-out they will have together, the two should do serious thinking about the cooperation between them, not necessarily separate, but sure to change some of their basic values, and refresh.