Half the 2019-20 TASE Premier League season is now behind us and Maccabi Tel Aviv have maintained their position at the top of the standings for yet another week, and on Saturday our boys will begin the run-in towards the finish line against Hapoel Hadera as they look for another championship.
This is the state of play at the halfway point:
Maccabi have topped the standings at the halfway stage for the fourth time in the past eight seasons and statistically this is a good omen, as seven out of the last eight league leaders at this juncture have gone on to claim the title.
The 44 points accrued after 18 rounds equals Maccabi’s tally last year.
The team has an 81 percent success record, with 13 wins, five draws and no defeats. Four of the five draws have been goalless.
Maccabi have scored an average of 1.78 goals per game and have conceded only 0.22 goals for each of their 18 outings. The latter stat is better than the record for conceding for an entire season, 0.31 goals, held by Hapoel Yahud in 1977-78.
Another excellent achievement is the 100 percent record in away games at the halfway stage and this has been done only twice before, by Maccabi Tel Aviv in 1951-52 and by Hapoel Petah Tikva in 1954-55.
The current attack create an average of 14 threatening situations per game, 7.9 of which are realistic scoring chances.
Eleven players have scored for Maccabi this season and Yonatan Cohen leads his teammates with eight goals.
Maccabi have utilised 24 players in the league but only Daniel Tenenbaum, Eitan Tibi and Dan Glazer have played all 1,620 minutes, alongside ten other players at the other 13 outfits.
Of Maccabi’s 32 league goals, 24 have come from footwork in open play, 13 were scored with the right foot and 11 were left-footed. Three penalties have been scored and two goals from headers, both by Chico Ofoedu. One goal has come from a free kick taken by Yonatan Cohen, and there have been two own-goals. The second half in matches has been slightly more productive, with 17 goals compared to 15 in the first period.
