Category: A week ago

Legends Club: Haim Levin

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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.”

10-Spot: It’s been 18 years since the 10-1 win over Rishon Lezion

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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.

Y10-Spot: the 10-1 win over Rishon Lezion

Dego and Maccabi defeat Ajax

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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:

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“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 ajaxmistakes 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.”Negative0274

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 DSC_2028how 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.”

Blast from the Past: When Klinger faced his former club for the first time

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November 17, 1990. It just looked like any other “Football Saturday” but when Maccabi Tel Aviv and Maccabi Haifa faced each other even during some of the Yellow & Blue’s lean seasons, the country’s football fans and of course the supporters of both teams who packed Ramat Gan Stadium paid close attention to the matchup.

It wasn’t just any Classico as former Green’s star Nir Klinger joined the ranks of Maccabi Tel Aviv and faced the club in which he grew up in for the first time. How did the contest end? Watch the highlights below to find out:

השבוע לפני | 1990: 0:3 על מכבי חיפה

Blast from the Past: Final Act at Kiryat Eliezer

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It had been 9 years since the last win at Kiryat Eliezer as all of the headlines made sure to put that fact front and center prior to the Israeli Classico that was going to be held on September 23, 2013.

Jordi Cruyff’s Maccabi which was under the direction of Paulo Sousa made their way up north with one goal in mind; to end the streak in the last season that Kiryat Eliezer hosted matches.

How did the contest end? Watch the highlights:

This Week in History: A Look back at the 1970 5:0 Derby

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For many fans, the 5:0 Derby win in the first round of Ligat Ha’Al action was the best game they had ever witnessed. However, a look back in history, 47 years ago to be precise will take us to another great moment. On January 24, 1970, the Yellow & Blue defeated Hapoel Tel Aviv 5:0 which was the Club’s biggest Derby win to date. “This Week in History” takes us back to this special encounter at Bloomfield Stadium.

Right before the opening whistle one could feel that something was in the air. The weather conditions weren’t ideal for football as the rains came down on a wintery January day turning the Bloomfield pitch into a soggy field that would make things a bit more difficult for both sides.

During the day fans talked about the contest being to close to call as both sides were on equal footing. On the morning after the match, Emanuel Galili of the Chadashot HaSport newspaper wrote: “Since both clubs were battling it out at the top of the table, everyone expected an even fight with one side taking the win by a goal. However, when reality set in both sets of fans were surprised. No one thought that there would be such superiority by one club and yet by such a score in a match that should have been so much closer.”

Despite the bad weather, over 21K fans filled the stands at Bloomfield Stadium. With the pitch muddy as ever, legendary coach Dubir Schweitzer z”l realized that there would be no tiki-taka and prepared his players for the conditions that lay ahead. “They adapted to the pitch and didn’t dribble very much, sending long ball after long ball from side to side allowing the ball to do most of the work,” wrote Galili in his Derby match report.

The big hero was of course Giora Spiegel who also featured for the Israel National Team at the World Cup in that same year, as he delighted the crowd with a hat trick. Spiegel put home his first goal in the 7th minute while he doubled the score twenty minutes later via a free kick. But not only did he score, he also assisted on Rachamim Talbi’s strike in the 47th minute for the third goal and Nissim Bachar’s marker in the 54th minute. But the cherry on top was Spiegel’s third goal thanks to a Talbi helper in the 61st minute as the 5:0 scoreline held up until the end of the match as the greatest Derby win. Of course, that was until September 25, 2016 when Nosa Igiebor, along with braces from Tal Ben Chaim and Vidar Kjartansson equaled the feat.

Galili finished his piece by stating: “Thousands of fans besieged the dressing room for up to an hour following the game, cheering the Maccabi players on for one of the best and most exciting matches that had been seen in such a long time.”

Maccabi Tel Aviv’s Starting XI: Micki Michaeli, Meir Nimni, Tzvika Rosen, Menchem “Miko” Belo, Giora Spiegel, Avraham Shatemnerg, Ezra Ozeri, Nissim Bachar, Dror Bar Nur, Rachamim Talbi, David Karako. Substitutes: Shalom Shikva. Coach: David (Dubir) Schweitzer.