Maccabi Tel Aviv's veteran players' club celebrates the 60th birthday of goalkeeping great Alexander "Shoura" Uvarov on Monday and has prepared a video compilation of his best saves
Maccabi Tel Aviv’s veterans’ club honours former goalkeeper Alexander “Shoura” Uvarov, one of the best players ever to arrive at Kiryat Shalom, on the occasion of his 60th birthday on Monday, Jan. 13.
Uvarov came to Israel in the early 1990s from the then-Soviet Union and over the years he was and remains one of the very best goalkeepers to play in Israel, and was a major presence for Maccabi. After hanging up his gloves, he became an important part of the club’s coaching team and today is mentor to the next generation of goalkeepers in the Youth Academy.
December 8, 2004. Sold out Ramat Gan Stadium. It’s not every day that Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters get a chance to see fan favorite Koby Moosa try to stop the Juventus star Alessandro Del Piero. That same evening Maccabi Tel Aviv ended their European campaign in their first ever foray into the exclusive competition. Following an unsuccessful first round of matches that included three losses, Nir Klinger’s charges then defeated Ajax 2:1 with the help of the club’s top tournament goal scorer, Baruch Dego.
A win over Juventus, which was not even a thought before the group stages began or even a draw coupled with an Ajax loss would be good enough for Maccabi to advance to the UEFA Cup from third place in the group.
Klinger decided to make a number of changes to his starting lineup including replacing keeper Liran Strauber in goal with Gal Nir. Moshiko Mishaelof played beside Oren Zitoni and Tamir Cohen in the back as Klinger decided to go with five midfielders in order to deal with the pressure from Cannavaro, Kapo, Pavel Nedved and Del Piero. As the opening whistle was blown, Maccabi had their first opportunity of the match when Zitoni’s 20 meter effort passed by Antonio Chimenti’s goal and signaled to all that this would be the Yellow-and-Blue’s best match of the tournament.
As Roy Makaay gave Bayern Munich a 1:0 lead over Ajax in Germany, Maccabi’s Cameroonian striker Emile M’Bamba fell in the box after a push from Jonathan Zebina good for a foul. French referee Alain Sars pointed to the penalty spot where Dego would coolly convert for his fourth goal of the campaign. 1:0 for Maccabi as the score would remain that way until the half sending the fans into pandemonium. Meanwhile in Munich, Ajax evened the score at 1:1 as they entered the break with the UEFA Cup spot still wide open with forty-five minutes to go.
The second half began with inspired defending by Maccabi. With Juventus pouring on the pressure in front of Gal Nir’s goal, Moosa, Strool, Giovanini and Abu Siam were able to withstand wave after wave of Bianconeri attack. That was until the 71st minute. Substitute Zambrotta’s perfectly placed free kick was headed down by Zalayeta right to the magical feet of Del Piero who scored from close range to draw Juve even at 1:1.
Ajax then took a 2:1 lead in Germany and Maccabi found themselves looking up at third place in the group. Bayern would knot up their match at 2:2, however in Ramat Gan Giovanini’s brilliant header was knocked away by Chimenti denying Maccabi victory as the fans applauded their effort but collected one point only that would not be enough to finish in third.
May 9, 1992. With Avram Grant in his first season with the Yellow & Blue, Maccabi visited Bnei Yehuda with 5,000 fans in the stands.
A Maccabi win guaranteed Grant, Nimni, Zohar, Klinger, Driks, Shoham and Uvarov the title as the champagne flowed and the players took a lap around the Stadium with a flag. On the other side of the pitch Bnei Yehuda entered the contest after a fantastic season with Haim Revivo who scored the first goal of the match. How did it end? Watch:
The Legends Club sat down with one of Maccabi Tel Aviv’s all time greats, keeper Haim Levin and spoke about his career and his goals after hitting the age of 82:
מועדון שחקני העבר – השוער חיים לוין
“I was a Champion, not just in Israel but of the world in diving. I dove everywhere. I could go for meters and I wasn’t scared of anything. My kicks were also great and I could get the ball from one end of the pitch to the other. When we played in Bangkok the whole crowd rose to their feet when I was kicking the ball.”
If he was playing today:
“I know one thing, that if Haim Levin was playing today I wouldn’t have a house big enough for all of the money I would earn. Back in the day we made 50 Lira per match, that was it.”
Secret of his success:
“My secret was hard work. I worked very hard to get to the level I was at including the National Team. In addition, I had a roadmap, knowing what a goalkeeper had to do and how to do it. I have been able to pass this along to my students as well.”
Training a generation of great keepers:
“I trained all of the keepers who made it to the National Team, whether it was Dudu Aoute, Nir Davidovitch or Shavit Elimelech.”
Maccabi Tel Aviv of his day:
“We were a group of guys that stuck together. I came over from Maccabi Haifa. Yosele told them stories that I couldn’t differentiate between colors and I couldn’t see at night or in the dark so they released me and I came over to Maccabi Tel Aviv. I started to win titles and we were an amazing team with a lot of stars. But we were always together so we won, we were a group of winners. We won every title possible, be it the State Cup or the league championship or even the Asian Cup. If we had the same conditions as they do today, we could have won the World Cup. We came to the matches ourselves without any organized transportation. We played for Maccabi.”
Career highlight:
“The highlight of my career was winning the Asian Cup. We played against the Korean National Team who were also a club team. We got to the final without a loss and so did they. It was 0:0 after 90 minutes and also 0:0 after another 30 minutes. The only goal came in the 119th minute. They had a corner kick and I told everyone to come to the goal. I of course caught the ball as usual and I saw Spiegel who was standing off to the side about 35 meters downfield. I threw the ball with all my might and he stopped it. All of the Koreans ran after him. He sent a long pass to Bar Nur and he stopped the ball in front of the goal and sent it over his shoulder.
His future:
“I hope that I can continue to Coach and to try and help more and more keepers.”
We’re not just talking about any Maccabi Tel Aviv victory, but one that took place 18 years ago today, that will go down in the annals of history as being one of the greatest ever. Nir Levin’s players picked up a 10:1 won over Ironi Rishon Le’Zion in a league contest. Avi Nimni, Baruch Dego, Ferenc Horvath and Kobi Refuah all scored braces while Tal Banin and Dedi Ben Dayan added single markers. Check out the unbelievable highlights right here.
Maccabi Tel Aviv Starting XI: Liran Strauber, Grzegorz Wedzynski, Gary Brumer, Amir Shelach, Dedi Ben Dayan, Tal Banin, Eli Bitton, Baruch Dego, Guy Tzarfati, Avi Nimni, Koby Refuah. Substitutes: Meni Levi, Eyal Shen, Ferenc Horvath.
On November 3, 2004, Baruch Dego signed off on one of the greatest matches in Israeli football history and spoke to the official website about the excitement and anticipation prior to
the big game, how they prepared for the return leg against the Dutch outfit and the similarities between what he experienced and to the current situation:
“At that time we had a lot of faith in ourselves. We were in the top European competition and we had lost three matches in a row but we were full of belief because we had made it into the Champions League.” The midfielder explained after having played three matches in the tournament.
“Just two weeks earlier we had lost 3:0 at the Amsterdam Arena and they made us pay for every mistake we made there. Our preparations for the next match had already begun on the flight home from Holland. Nir spoke to each player one at a time and
explained to us where we had made mistakes and where we needed to improve. Every player took his the comments to heart and went to sleep thinking about the players they would each have to go toe-to-toe against in the coming week. Klinger and his staff kept impressing upon us that we could do it and it gave us a tremendous amount of strength.”
And then in the 49th minute in happened. A deep ball by Avi Strool went to Ishmael Addo. The Ghanian went up high and brought the ball down on the pitch with his head into the space right near Dego in a play that will go down in the annals of Yellow-and-Blue history: “The minute we made it into the Champions League I said to myself that I have to take advantage of every minute on the field and every opportunity that would present itself. When I saw the ball go towards Addo regardless if the ball would get to him or not, I decided that I would run towards that area. That’s football. I went into that play with all my effort and in the end I scored an amazing goal.”
Eleven years have passed and Dego doesn’t forget a moment from scoring the goal. “Goosebumps. It’s a moment that will be with me my whole life. Everything that surrounded this incredible moment was fantastic and I wish every player would have
the opportunity to play in this competition and of course score a goal.”
He was only 22 years old at the time of the match and went through a big learning curve over the first three matches just as Dego explained: “The first three games helped us understand the other teams. We were placed in the “Group of Death” and faced the top European sides where each team already had a European Cup in their trophy case. At the beginning of the tournament we were all in euphoria that here we were playing in front of all of Europe. We came into the game seeing what we could do against the different teams. I’m happy that we were able to figure out how to get a good result in the middle instead of waiting for the end to get some points and goals. After three games we were able to finally figure out how and what to do and we did a lot of work on the mental part of the game along with tactics. You just can’t come and play thinking that we’re a huge club when we are really a small European team. We understood that if we didn’t work hard and keep up with them we wouldn’t be able to get a decent result.”
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