The Winner’s Cup is usually awarded at the end of the principal’s pre-season tournament, but the Corona also influenced him, so it turned out that Maccabi Tel Aviv and Hapoel Holon will compete tomorrow (Saturday) for the first title of the season, in the Winner’s Cup final.
With the rosters already solidified, connected and running together for several months now, it may summon us to a thrilling and interesting game like most of the encounters between these two teams. As you may recall, Holon is the only team in the league that has beaten Maccabi Tel Aviv so far.
The Yellows have won five of their six games since that league loss in Holon, when this week they improved their place in the Euroleague table with a 81:89 home win over Panathinaikos. On Tuesday, the champion will host Zenit St. Petersburg and two days later will close the civic year in the first Clasico of the season in the league against Hapoel Jerusalem.
On the other hand, Hapoel Holon will face a streak of eight victories in all competitions and this week it rose for the first time this season to a positive balance in the Winner Basket League, after a 88:96 home against Hapoel Haifa. The Purples will come in the shadow of the incident between Stefanos Dadas and the Sun Sephardi referee, in which the Greek coach, who was sent off, claimed that Shemesh harassed him only because of his origin.
Yannis Sapropoulos Commenting on the match against Holonia: “We are playing against a team we faced a few weeks ago. They know us and we know them. We must be focused and play according to our game plan.”
This is the 15th year in a row of the league manager’s tournament. Two years ago, the quarterfinals were added to the factory and this season he included all the league teams except Hapoel Tel Aviv, which could not take part in it due to its participation in the Champions League qualifiers.
Maccabi Tel Aviv is the factory’s all-time record winner with seven trophies, Hapoel Jerusalem won five and Elitzur Ashkelon and Maccabi Rishon LeZion one each. The last team to win the cup for at least two years in a row is Maccabi Tel Aviv, from 2010 to 2013. Since then, no team has been able to retain the title.
Five other teams besides four past winners reached the finals: Urbani Nahariya and Hapoel Holon (twice each), Maccabi Ashdod, Hapoel Eilat and Hapoel Beer Sheva (once each).
