Maccabi Tel Aviv defeated Hapoel Raanana 2:1 on the final Matchday of the Toto Cup Group Stages as Jordi Cruyff and his squad will now prepare to head to Austria and a 1st leg Europa League Playoff Round date with Altach in Austria and the opening of the Israel Premier League Ligat Ha’Al season against Beitar Jerusalem next Sunday.
Category: News
Blast from the Past: Opening the Double Season with a 3:0 win over Beitar Tel Aviv
7,000 fans made their way to Bloomfield Stadium on the last Saturday in August of 1995 as the Yellow & Blue opened the season against Beitar Tel Aviv. Just 3 days earlier Maccabi was eliminated from Champions League qualifying by Grasshoppers Zurich. However, the fans were there to see two new recruits score in their debuts. WATCH
במנהרת הזמן: ניצחון פתיחת העונה 1995/96 | תקציר
Maccabi defeats Raanana 2:1 in Toto Cup action
Head Coach Jordi Cruyff’s lineup included Predrag Rajikovic in goal with defenders Sean Goldberg, Tal Ben Haim, Dor Peretz and Matan Baltaxa in front of him. Marcelo dos Santos, Eliel Peretz and Shlomi Azulay manned the midfield while Sagiv Yehezkel, Yonatan Cohen and acting Captain Barak Itzhaki provided the firepower up front.
Available on the bench were keeper Daniel Tenenbaum, Fadi Najar, Tino Susic, Aaron Schoenfeld, Eden Kartzev, Dor Micha and Vidar Kjartansson.
First Half
Hapoel Raanana began the match off extremely chippy as Shimon Abuheitzera collected an early yellow card in the 3′ and Mohamed Shaker picked up a red card for a tackle on Cohen in the 11′. Azulay sent a ball into the box in the 20′ but just missed Itzhaki’s head as Maccabi continued to look for a way to break through the Raanana defense.
In the 40′ Azulay took a long shot that made its way to Itzhaki, but the veteran striker couldn’t get off a good attempt. A give and go between Yehezkel and Itzhaki left the former at the top of the box who sent the ball to Eliel Peretz but his quality chance went off of one of the defenders for a corner. With Maccabi searching for a first half goal they would find it in the 45’via an unlikely source in Ben Haim whose 30 meter attempt found the back of the goal right before the break for a 1:0 lead.
Second Half
Daniel Tenenbaum replaced Rajikovic to begin the half as Maccabi looked to add to their lead. And add to the lead they would in the 55′ as Azulay put the ball into the left corner of the goal thanks to Itzhaki who handed it off to the midfielder at the top of the box.
Cruyff made wholesale changes in the 67′ and 72′ as Fadi Najaf, Tino Susic, Eden Kartzev and Dor Micha all came on for Baltaxa, Eliel Peretz, Dos Santos and Azulay. Dor Hugi took a Roie Shukrani pass and cut the Maccabi lead to 2:1 in the 83′ as he beat Tenenbaum to his right. Micha had a solid effort in the 89′ but the Raanana keeper was in place to deny number 15 as Maccabi advanced to the quarterfinal round of the Toto Cup.
F-15 Takeoff: Benny Tabak’s Greatest Moments
Benny Tabak is considered one of Maccabi Tel Aviv’s all-time greats. The legendary player ended his stint as Club Manager this past summer after 4 years on the job and moved to the scouting department where he will follow the players out on loan. After being honored with a gift from the club’s players this past week, it’s our turn to look back at some of the F-15’s best moments.
May 4, 1977. Maccabi Tel Aviv played away at Kfar Saba in the State Cup semifinals. Yaacov Grondman’s Yellow-and-Blue came into the match after falling at Beitar Tel Aviv 1:0 in league play. On the other side of the pitch, Kfar Saba had just won their league match by the score of 7:1 and entered the contest brimming with confidence.
Grondman opened the match with a very strong starting XI that included Avi Cohen Z”L, Avi Cohen the Jerusalemite, Miko Belo, Vicki Peretz and Benny Tabak. 2500 fans filled the stadium waiting to see what Dror Kashtan had planned against their Yellow-and-Blue.
“Grondman’s team opened the match with terrific momentum,” one of the journalists noted the morning after as he described the pressure Vicki Peretz, Benny Tabak and Moshe Mizrachi put on the Kfar Saba keeper Schwartz. The pressure paid off in the 9th minute when Peretz broke free in the center of the pitch, as Mizrachi played give and go with him going forward. Tabak trailed right behind and Peretz sent the F-15 a beauty of a ball in the center of the box for him to easily score his first of the match.
Just minutes later, Tabak attempted to return the favor to Peretz as he slotted the ball just wide by the far post as Maccabi took a 1:0 lead into the break. As soon as the second half started the Yellow-and-Blue doubled their score as Peretz took a scintillating shot at the goal. Kfar Saba defender Hillel blocked the ball, but it went right to Tabak’s feet as he had no problem putting home his second goal of the match.
At the end of 90 minutes, Grondman’s side punched their ticket to the semifinals of the State Cup where they defeated Maccabi Netanya 6:1 and went on to beat Beitar Tel Aviv 1:0 as they returned the Cup to their trophy case.
1988: 4:0 over Hapoel Beer Sheva, Tabak Hattrick
Saturday November 26, 1988. Maccabi Tel Aviv hosted Hapoel Beer Sheva after a season that began with very little luck that included a number of draws and a few losses. Udi Nussbaum’s lineup featured Benny Tabak, Eli Drikes and Moti Ivanir. Check out how the F-15 changed Maccabi’s fortunes:
עונת 88/89: מכבי ת”א – הפועל באר שבע 0:4
1983: Four goals against Liverpool
1983, Tabak along with the Israel National team played a friendly against one of the most well-known football club’s in the world, Liverpool from England. The match at Ramat Gan Stadium turned out to be one of the greatest performances for any player as Tabak proved to be a one man wrecking crew!
The first goal was headed in by Tabak off a beautiful cross by the Beitar Jerusalem great Ori Malmillian and his second of the match came off a deep ball by Gili Landau that Tabak slotted in right off of left post to make it 2:0 Israel.
The second half against Liverpool began just as the first half had as Tabak scored his third goal of the match! Zahi Armeli gave Tabak another deep ball as he pounced on the pass and pounded the ball into the left corner of the goal behind Liverpool ‘keeper Bruce Grobbelaar.
If anyone thought that Tabak would be finished with a hat-trick, well they were just wrong as the F-15 made sure to save the best for last heading the ball into the right side of the goal for his 4th of the day giving the National Team a 4:3 victory. Tabak’s 4-goal performance back in 1983 will be celebrated in the annals of history just as his hat-trick against Portugal was in 1982 during World Cup qualifying.
Under-17 club opens training camp with win
The Under-17 side began their training camp friendlies with a 1:0 victory over local outfit Olympic Kiev. Bar Cohen scored the decisive goal for the young Yellow & Blue in the 55th minute in the 3rd day at their Ukraine training camp as the team will face other clubs in the upcoming days.
The victory continues the positive momentum that has surrounded all of the Maccabi Youth Department teams thus far as they prepare to face some tougher competition in Shakhtar Donetsk and Dynamo Kyiv.
Head Coach Eliezer Ben Aharon summed up the camp so far: “This was our first friendly and it was a good predatory match against a very physical club. The players are gaining experience from these types of opportunities and it also gives us a chance to get to know each other better as we continue to see the club improve.”
Ticket Sales Altach Home Match
After the Yellow & Blue defeated Altach 1:0 in the first leg away in Austria, they will now play the 2nd leg of their Europa League Playoff Round tie on Thursday August 24th at 20:00 and tickets are now on sale.
Please note:
• We recommend choosing the Print at Home option to avoid long lines at the box office on Matchday.
Tickets are on sale via the Leaan Ticket Agency, at the Leaan Ticket Office 101 Dizengoff Street, Tel Aviv, by telephone *8780 and via the Leaan Website.
Ticket Prices
General Public Price
Leaan Ticket Office/Official Club Store
Upper East 75 NIS
Lower East 85 NIS
West 95 NIS
E+ 200 NIS
Silver 300 NIS
Leaan Website/Telephone
Upper East 80 NIS
Lower East 90 NIS
West 100 NIS
E+ 205 NIS
Silver 305 NIS
Ticket Collection
Tickets may be collected at the Leaan Ticket Office located at 101 Dizengoff Street between Sunday-Thursday 09:00-19:00, Friday 09:00-13:30.
Tickets may be collected on Matchday at the Stadium ticket windows beginning 3 hours prior to the match until 45 minutes after the start of the match.
The Under-15s are victorious 5:2 over Arsenal Kyiv
The Club’s Under-16 team defeated Arsenal Kyiv 5:2 in their first Ukraine training camp friendly. Shaked Navon, Itay Ben Hemo, Yishai Bozrgi, Yarin Mozen and Or Roizman all scored in the victory for the young Yellow & Blue. Over the course of the training camp there will be a number of friendlies and intensive training sessions in order to prepare the side for the upcoming 2017/18 campaign.
The win continued the positive momentum at the camp as earlier in the day the Under-19 squad also defeated Dynamo Kyiv 4:0. The Under-17’s will also get into match action a little later on at the training camp as well. Raymond Atteveld, the Under-16 Professional Director expressed his thoughts: “The first friendly in Kiev came after a few very tough training sessions. It’s great to see that the things we worked on during training were done correctly, especially during the match. The players deserved the victory as they played well throughout the entire match. However, we still gave up two goals due to our own mistakes. Overall, I’m satisfied about a number of elements and we must continue to make sure we play our positions correctly. Tomorrow there will be two more training sessions where we will analyze the match that was and see where we can improve.”
The Camera’s Lens: Victory over Maccabi Petah Tikva
Kjartansson: “It’s good to score and gain confidence. We have some important games coming up”
Vidar Kjartansson had one of his best matches since arriving in Israel as the Maccabi striker recorded a Hattrick to help the Yellow & Blue to a 3:0 victory over Maccabi Petah Tikva on Matchday 4 of the Toto Cup. Following the contest the Icelandic striker summed up the game from his point of view:
וידאר קיארטנסון לאחר השלושער על מכבי פ”ת
Cruyff: “The team had energy today”
Head Coach Jordi Cruyff addressed the media following the Yellow & Blue’s 3:0 victory against Maccabi Petah Tikva in Toto Cup Matchday 4 action:
“I thought the first 30 minutes were good Maccabi football trying to play two touch, trying to go forward and running without the ball. Toto Cup is tiring with many games, 3 games in 6 days so it’s normal that some players will relax mentally.”
Match play:
“I thought the team played much better in the build up starting from behind and the team had energy today so I think it made a difference.”
Toto Cup goals:
“Every game we put the best lineup that we can put. We’ve gotten 7 out of 9 points and I think we are through to the next round and we accomplished our goal.”
About Susic:
“He’s a player that can come good from the second line and he’s good at shooting and I think we need goals from all of the sides and not always depend on a number 9. We need goals from the left and from the right and from the midfield.”
On Avi Rikan:
“We’ve always been very happy with Avi from the day he came and he’s part of the plans so it’s simple.”
