History in short

In 1954 the Israel National Team was in South Africa participating in a number of matches when the Blue & White coach, David “Dubir” Schweitzer got word that his son Moshe Schweitzer was born. Later the young boy would be called by his nickname Moshik and would become one of Maccabi Tel Aviv’s greatest players.

Moshik began his footballing career in the Maccabi Tel Aviv Youth Department and made his way to the First Team in the 1972/73 season. Due to a star studded Yellow & Blue squad, the young striker was loaned after one campaign to Hapoel Petach Tikva for four seasons helping the side achieve promotion from the Artzit to the Leumit League while scoring 17 goals.

In the 1977/78 campaign Moshik returned to wear the Yellow & Blue and played together with Vicki Peretz and Benny Tabak providing a lethal offense helping the club to a championship the following year while finishing as the league’s leading goal scorer.

Moshik and his father Dubir’s careers had only crossed with the National Team until the 1982/83 season when Dubir came back to coach Maccabi as well as his son in a campaign that ended on a sour note with a State Cup loss to rivals Hapoel Tel Aviv on a controversial hand ball goal by Gili Landau.

Career Highlights and Awards:

Championship: 1978/79 (League’s leading goal scorer)
Champions Cup

Top Moment:

The year was 1978, the Umbrella Derby. The Yellow & Blue against the Reds in front of a rain drenched crowd of over 20,000 at Bloomfield Stadium. Maccabi took a 1:0 lead thanks to a goal by Moshe Goldberg. A Hapoel corner kick was cleared by Giora Speigel who had returned for another go around with Maccabi. Alon Kaplan then lost the ball due to the poor pitch conditions to Schweitzer who sent a terrific deep ball to Avi Cohen ZT”L. Schweitzer’s pass led to one of the nicest goals in Israeli football history and no doubt was the biggest moment in Moshik Schweitzer’s Yellow & Blue career.

Sports fans experience many exciting matches and moments, with only a fraction becoming iconic. A rare moment in time that would be almost impossible to duplicate.

One of those moments occurred five years ago to the day at Bloomfield Stadium. On March 7, 2014 Maccabi Tel Aviv met Hapoel Tel Aviv in the big city Derby. It began like any other Derby, but ended up being the greatest one of them all. To mark this occasion, we went back to that evening at Bloomfield Stadium with the heroes and found out that what happened was something beyond the wildest of imaginations. Watch:

Yonatan Cohen also spoke about the victory:
“It’s great to win and great to help your team take the victory. It’s exciting to be called up to the National Team and it’s the childhood dream of every player. I’m very happy.”

No easy matches:
“There are no easy matches in this league. We come into every match ready to go and the most important thing is that we win.”

State Cup:
“We’re not really looking at potentially winning the title against Maccabi Haifa as we have an important State Cup semifinals contest as well. Growing up at Maccabi makes this even more special.”

Continuing to adjust:
“We were very disappointed in not advancing to the group stages of the Europa League. I don’t know what will be going into next season with the squad, but we will adjust accordingly.”

Maccabi Tel Aviv began their playoff run today as they hosted Hapoel Hadera and recorded a 2:0 victory. Second half goals by Avi Rikan and Aron Schoenfeld thanks to a pair of assists by Yonatan Cohen moved the Yellow & Blue closer to locking up the league title. Near the end of the first half VAR determined that George Fochive was to be sent off right with a straight red card after a foul on Rikan as the new system was used twice on the first half. Vladimir Ivic’s squad will now be off for the international break and will return in two weeks with a home playoff match against Maccabi Haifa.

Vladimir Ivic’s Starting XI: Predrag Rajkovic, Maor Kandil, Sheran Yeini, Jair Amador, Enric Saborit, Dan Glezer, Avi Rikan, Dor Micha, Yonatan Cohen, Eliran Atar, Itay Shechter.

Available on the bench: Daniel Tenenbaum, Eli Dasa, Aron Schoenfeld, Omer Atzili, Shahar Piven, Dor Peretz, Ruslan Barsky.

First half
The first half hour of the contest was relatively calm as Hadera played with a defensive formation as Maccabi tried to break the deadlock. After a long shot by Cohen and another dangerous corner that Yeini headed out, VAR was used for the first time in the 23’. The play in question was if a hand ball by David Matteos in the Hadera box was worthy of a penalty kick, but after 5 minutes analyzing referee Shalom Ben Avrahami decided that a penalty kick should not be awarded.

In the 34’ Eliel Peretz had a chance in the box but Yeini stopped him from shooting on goal. Moments before the break, VAR was again in the spotlight after George Fochive stepped on Kandil. After the official review the decision was made to send the Hadera player off with a direct red card. In first half stoppage time Rikan almost found the back of the goal after a dangerous attack by Maccabi, but his shot missed the target as the side’s went into halftime goalless.

Second half
Maccabi started the second half looking for a quick goal and found it in the 49’. Cohen broke through on the left wing and crossed the ball into the box as Rikan with a beautiful right foot volley scored past Haviv Ohayon, 1-0 Maccabi.

The Yellow & Blue kept looking for another goal but Micha and Saborit’s opportunities came up short. In the 65’ Ivic made his first substitution as he brought on Aron Schoenfeld for Shecter. Five minutes later Omer Atzili came on for Atar and a minute after that he also created a chance with a sharp shot that flew inches by the post.

Maccabi continued to create chances but Atzili and Cohen missed the target. However, in the 85’ Schonefeld scored a fantastic goal as Cohen found the striker 20 meters and sent a scorcher into the back of Ohayon’s goal to wrap up a 2:0.

Sheran Yeini, the Maccabi Tel Aviv Captain looked ahead to his side’s Championship Playoff opener against Hapoel Hadera on Saturday:

“We are preparing like any other match. We look at our opponent and analyze their style. There isn’t specifically anything else. We’ll do what we’ve been doing all season. We are only looking at the upcoming match and not what will be so we can concentrate on each match.”

Finishing the season undefeated:
“I am trying not to look ahead about going undefeated. As an athlete we have to focus on the challenge in front of ourselves and go step by step.”

About Hapoel Hadera:
“They have had a wonderful season and I’ve enjoyed their style. We also have a lot players who are playing there and we want them to develop and play more minutes. Hopefully, they will succeed, but not against us.”

Not lifting the foot off the gas:
“We are always looking at how we can keep pushing each other on each and every play. We aren’t going to lift our foot off gas as we have the league and Cup still, this season. We can’t lift our foot off the gas.”

About coach Ivic:
“I don’t like to compare coaches, but I can say that our coach is super professional and we all know where we have to be on the pitch, on the ball and off the ball. We respect the coach very much.”

Shahar Piven and other Maccabi players not making the National team:
“Shahar is having a great season and he has taken the opportunity the club gave him with both hands. He knows how to play on the pitch whether it’s aerial balls or his aggressiveness. We like him a lot and he has plenty of potential. At the end of the day, the National team coaching staff has to make their decisions who they will take and they can’t take everyone.”

Playing hard every match:
“Everyone of us has to play our hardest and we have to play every match like it’s our last one.”

For the club:
“I am a player who wants to play and I’ll do anything the club wants of me, if it’s right back, midfielder or anything else. I am always there for the club and I want to play.”