Maccabi Tel Aviv leaves on Saturday night for their annual training camp which will take place this year near the city of Gdańsk in Poland. During the course of the camp, Vladan Ivic’s Yellow & Blue will play three friendlies:

Dates & Opponents:
Monday June 25 (19:00 Israel time): Maccabi Tel Aviv – Arka Gdynia (Poland, First League)
Thursday June 28 (19:00 Israel time): Maccabi Tel Aviv – APOEL Nicosia (Cyprus, First League)
Sunday July 1 (19:00 Israel time): Maccabi Tel Aviv – Bytovia Bytów (Poland, Second League)

As mentioned earlier, on Saturday night the Club will head to their training camp and as in years past we’ll be following Ivic and his squad up close as they prepare for the upcoming campaign. Make sure to stay tuned to the Official Website, App and Social Networks for the latest news and updates.

The draw for the First Round of the Europa League Qualifying took place today as it was determined that Maccabi Tel Aviv will play Ferencváros of Hungary in a two legged tie. The Yellow & Blue will look to advance to the European competition for the 3rd straight season and 5th overall in club history.

The first leg will take place on July 12th in Hungary while the return contest will be one week later on July 19th in Israel. Maccabi will begin their European campaign in the first round of qualifying and will be seeded all the way through qualification and most probably the playoff round.

Should Maccabi advance to the second round of Europa League qualifying, the matches will take place on July 26th while the return leg will be played on August 2nd.

Nemzeti Bajnokság I Hungary League Champions: Ferencváros

Ferencváros is known as one of the prestigious clubs in Hungary. In the mid 1990’s the team advanced to the Champions League Group Stages and faced the likes of Ajax and Real Madrid. Over the past few seasons, the Budapest based club has played in Europe but hasn’t been able to make it out of the second round of qualifying. The team plays at the Groupama Arena which holds 23,700 spectators.

Former German footballer Thomas Doll (Hamburg, Lazio, Frankfurt) is the club’s Head Coach while one of the most well known names in his squad is 39-year old Zoltán Gera who played in England for West Bromwich Albion and Fulham. Another familiar name is Tamás Priskin who played in the past for Maccabi Haifa.

Maccabi’s coach Vladan Ivic told the club’s official website: “Ferencvaros is the biggest and most prestigious club in Hungary but so is Maccabi in Israel. We are working hard to prepare for this tie against the Hungarians and will be ready for the first game on July 12th. Our aim at Maccabi will be to qualify to the next round”.

Should Maccabi advance to the second round of qualifying they will face either Radnički Niš from Serbia or the winner of UE Sant Julià of Andorra and Gzira United from Malta.

The Yellow & Blue will need to advance through four stages in order to reach the Europa League Group Stages and will be seeded through at least the Playoff Round.

Maccabi Tel Aviv officially opened up the 2018/19 season today under new Head Coach Vladan Ivic and his staff as the Yellow & Blue players returned to Kiryat Shalom.

Some new faces were present including Itay Shechter as well as the 13 loaned players who returned to Maccabi; Dan Glazer, Roslan Barsky, Yonatan Cohen, Matan Hozez, Mavis Tchibota, Eliel Peretz, Sean Goldberg, Sagiv Yehezkel, Shachar Fiban, Dor Jan, Or Dasa, Matan Baltaxa and Eden Kartzev. Players who were with the Under-19 side last season also joined in the first day of training as Fadi Najar, Eylon Almog, Tomer Altman Daniel Peretz and Prince Thomas were all present as well.

Predrag Rajikovic is with the Serbia National Team at the World Cup in Russia while Israel National Team players Dor Peretz, Eli Dasa, Omer Atzili and Eitan Tibi will return to the club later on this week. New addition Jair Amador who was playing with his former club Huesca at the beginning of June, will join the team at the training camp.

On Saturday night the Club will head to their training camp and as in years past we’ll be following Ivic and his squad up close as they prepare for the upcoming campaign. Make sure to stay tuned to the Official Website, App and Social Networks for the latest news and updates.

After Dor Micha, Omer Atzili and Dor Peretz gave us their thoughts on World Cup 2018 in Russia, let’s check out what Avi Rikan has to say about this year’s competition.

His believes that the German National Team will win the tournament for a second straight time as they play their first match today against Mexico. Rikan also thinks that France, Spain and Brazil will all make it into the semifinals.

“They are a very powerful national team. There may be other teams who on paper look to be stronger, but Germany has plenty of the best players in the world. They also have plenty of experience and they won the World Cup four years ago so they know each other very well. Joachim Löw who also won the World Cup last time around is an excellent coach.”

Who do you think will be the most valuable player?
“Neymar. If he comes ready to go, he could take Brazil all the way to the final. He could make all the difference.”

Which national team will you be cheering for?
“Serbia. I want Rajiko’s (Predrag Rajikovic) team to do well.”

World Cup 2018 is here with plenty of energy and excitement. For Maccabi Tel Aviv’s keeper Predrag Rajikovic it’s going to be extra special as he is part of the the Serbia National Team who advanced to the prestigious tournament. This will be the first time that the young shot stopper will be able to see the competition up close and personal and be a part of the action while representing his home country.

Serbia is in an interesting group with Neymar’s Brazil, Switzerland and Costa Rica. Their first match will take place on Sunday at 15:00 and just ahead of Serbia’s World Cup opener, we spoke to Rajikovic about his feelings heading into the competition in Russia.

Do you feel the excitement?
“Of course I’m excited and its a big honor to be a part of this amazing event. I can’t wait for the tournament to begin.”

This will be your first World Cup:
“For me this is something extraordinary. I’m fairly young and like I said it’s a huge honor to be here and it’s also good for my career to be part of the World Cup.”

Tell us a little bit about what’s going on with your national team:
“There is a sense of being a part of the national team and you can say that we are generally a young team as most of the players are about my age. We are all looking forward to the start of the competition to represent our country to the world and especially to the Serbian people. We want to show everyone what we can do.”

“There’s a lot of interest surrounding the World Cup in Serbia,” Rajikovic added. “Everyone is talking about football and about the tournament. Before we flew to Russia, so many people came to the airport to support us and wish us luck. The whole country will be eating and breathing football over the upcoming month.”

What are your chances to advance out of the group stage?
“It’s not an easy group, but we certainly have a chance. We have a good squad with quality players who play for strong club teams. I think we have a chance to get to the Round of 16. The first match will be very important. At this type of tournament you never know what will happen. There can be many surprises and I hope that there will be some pleasant surprises for us, that we can impress and do some great things at this World Cup.”

Who do you believe is the favorite?
“This is the biggest competition there is. First off, I hope that we can make it to the Round of 16 and this is something very important for me personally and for the national team. As for a favorite, I think that Brazil, who we are facing in the group stage is very good as well as Argentina and Spain.”

The 2018 World Cup is underway and just before the real action begins we asked the Maccabi Tel Aviv players to give us their thoughts for this summer’s tournament and we received many differing opinions. Dor Micha and Omer Atzili already told us who they think will be the big winners and now it’s time to hear from Dor Peretz.

The midfielder will be looking forward to a Ronaldo vs. Messi World Cup Final featuring Portugal against Argentina which has been without doubt the biggest battle in world football over the past number of years. Peretz also thinks that the advantage of playing at home will be a factor as Russia will make it into the quarterfinals on Spain’s account.

Why do you think Portugal will win the World Cup?
“The truth is that it’s just a good feeling that I have.”

Who will be the most valuable player?
“Neymar. I believe that he will be very important for Brazil and will be able to help them just as many expect.”

Which national team do you like?
“There isn’t one specific team, but I’m fond of Brazil.”

Are you counting down the minutes until the opening whistle? Are you trying to figure out who will come out on top of their respective groups and which country will be knocked out in the first stage of the competition? You’re not alone. Just ahead of World Cup 2018, we asked the Maccabi Tel Aviv players to give us their predictions for this summer’s tournament and we received many differing opinions.

Who went with Neymar? Who thinks that Ronaldo will lift the trophy and who’s counting on Germany to win their second straight World Cup? Dor Micha, Dor Peretz, Avi Rikan and Omer Atzily chose their winners beginning from the Round of 16 all the way to the World Champion. Yesterday we saw that Dor Micha thinks that France will lift the trophy and now it’s Omer Atzili’s turn as we find out who he believes will be the big winner in Russia.

Brazil is certainly one of the favorites to take the World Cup and Atzili thinks so as well. Number 7 also believes that a couple of other South American nations, Uruguay (quarterfinals) and Colombia (semifinals) will go deep into the competition. Atzili also went with his teammate Predrag Rajikovic’s Serbia to advance to the knockout stage of the tournament.

Why do you think Brazil will win?
“I believe that they are the strongest country in the tournament. From the defense to the offense they have some fantastic players at every position like Neymar and their results over the past couple of years show that they are an excellent national team.”

Who will be the most variable player in Russia?
“I hope that it will be Leo Messi. I don’t believe that Argentina will make it all the way to the final but I hope that it could happen anyway. In my eyes, he’s the greatest player and we all know how badly he wants to win the World Cup.”

Who will you be supporting?
“Argentina of course.”

Shura Uvarov is well known to many in Israel due to his history with Maccabi Tel Aviv, as even before he arrived in Israel he had had an incredible career. One of his highlights was no doubt the 1990 World Cup held in Italy where Shura was able to showcase his skills on the game’s biggest stage. 28 years have gone by and just as the 2018 World Cup is about to begin we went back in time to when he met Diego Maradona, arguably the greatest player ever and the Argentina National Team.

Uvarov was part of the USSR National Team just after the fall of the Berlin Wall and roughly half a year before the breakup of the Soviet Union. His National Team was in a group that included the defending World Champion Argentina, Romania and the legendary Roger Milla’s Cameroon who in that same World Cup became a household name.

Shura’s love affair with Maccabi began a year after the World Cup in 1991, but he had had an opportunity to visit the Holy Land in the summer of 1990. The Soviet Union played a friendly against Israel but the shot stopper didn’t come with his comrades. “I was supposed to be a part of the match (Israel 3:2) but my club team Dynamo Moscow wouldn’t release me due to a Cup tie.” The keeper for the contest ended up being Víktor Chanov who eventually played for Maccabi Haifa and was a good friend of Shura’s. Goals by Ori Malmilian Nir Levin and Tal Banin helped the Blue & White to the victory. “Following the match, the National Team flew to Germany and I joined them there,” he recalled.

The train of friendly matches ended and on June 8th the opening whistle sounded for the beginning of World Cup 1990 in Italy. Einat Dasayev was the keeper for the USSR’s first contest and was also in goal when Marco van Basten scored one of the most gorgeous goals in the Euro 1988 Final. Dasayev also received the starting nod by Coach Valeriy Lobanovskyi but in the first game against Romania, the Soviets fell 2:0 and a change was made between the pipes.

Uvarov was the one who benefited from the move and became the team’s first choice keeper. On June 13, 1990, which was also Dasayev’s birthday, Shura Uvarov left the dressing room to start in his first ever World Cup contest, facing the defending champions Argentina. If that wasn’t enough, he would also have to play against one of the all-time greats, Maradona. The Argentinians came into the match desperately needing a win after a shock defeat in their first game at the hands of Cameroon, the darlings of the tournament. To top it off, the match was to be played at the Stadio San Paolo in Napoli, the place where Maradona turned into a God in the 1980’s, leading his side to a pair of championships and a UEFA Cup. “It was really something that we played them there and it was extraordinary,” Uvarov explained. “60,000 fans, what an atmosphere. The fans were going wild supporting Maradona.”

Argentina also had a goalkeeping issue to deal with when they lost their shot stopper Nery Pumpido due to a broken leg in a very infamous World Cup moment. Despite the injury, the support in the stands helped give the South American side a lead in the 27th minute when they put the ball behind Uvarov, “The goal was created by a cross that came in from the left side. Pedro Troglio was able to head the ball into the top corner of the goal which was impossible to stop.” The USSR then lost a player due to a red card in a controversial decision Uvarov remembered, “Volodymyr Bezsonov was issued a red card at the start of the second half. The referee killed us with that decision and we were left with only 10 men at such an early stage of the game.”

With just 11 minutes left in the match, Jorge Burruchaga took advantage of the extra man and scored the second goal for Argentina sealing the win. Maradona and friends (who made it all the way to the finals) waited for the final whistle that handed them a crucial victory in the battle to get out of their group. Uvarov as usual made sure to speak his mind, “The referee called a foul in our favor and the ball should have been given to us, but Maradona refused to give us the ball. He started to jump around, you know how he was. I went over to take the ball away from him and I stepped on his foot, I don’t remember which one but I just wanted to get the ball back in play and get the game going again.”

Although they lost, Uvarov was back in goal for the Soviet Union’s next match and kept a clean sheet on a 4:0 win over Cameroon, but it wasn’t enough to advance to the knockout round despite a 1:1 draw between Argentina and Romania. “I was taken for a drug test at the end of the match and they didn’t find anything,” Shura recalled with a smile which was the last game played by the USSR in the history of the World Cup.
Win over Cameroon Highlights: