There was plenty of action in the first month of the season and now’s your chance to vote for the HISENSE July Player of the Month. There are plenty of options as the Yellow & Blue picked up 5 victories in Europa League qualification play.

Now it’s time to cast your vote until Monday July 31st at 21:00. On Tuesday at 17:00 we will announce the player of the month and those who voted for the winner will receive an SMS with a trivia question. The first person to answer the question correctly will win a 32” TV from HISENSE.

Maccabi Tel Aviv’s first match in the Toto Cup was on 30/10/1984 against Maccabi Petah Tikva at Bloomfield Stadium. The Yellow & Blue won 2:1 as Alon Natan and Shachar Barel scored for the hosts.

Maccabi’s record in Toto Cup openers is: 20 wins, 5 draws and 7 losses. The goal differential stands at 71:30 in Maccabi’s favor.

Eli Drikes has played in the most Toto Cup openers making 8 appearances. The striker also scored 5 goals making him the all-time scoring leader in the competition’s first match of the season.

The youngest player to appear in a Toto Cup opener is Avi Gordon making his debut at the age of 16 years and 9 months in the 1984/85 campaign.

The oldest player to appear in a Toto Cup opener is Alexander Uvarov who was 37.5 at the start of the 1997/98 season.

Maccabi has faced Bnei Yehuda 14 times in Toto Cup action and features a record of 6 wins, one draw and 7 losses.

The Yellow & Blue has appeared in all 32 Toto Cup tournaments winning the title 4 times, falling 3 times in the final while appearing in the semifinal 10 times. Maccabi is tied with Maccabi Haifa, Hapoel Petah Tikva and Maccabi Petah Tikva for the most championships.

With one more appearance in the Toto Cup, Sheran Yeini will become Maccabi’s all time leader in matches played in the competition. To date, Yeini has made 53 appearances which is the same amount as Alexander Uvarov and Eli Drikes while Noam Shoham has played in 52 contests.

Avi Nimni is Maccabi’s all-time goal scoring leader in the tournament finding the back of the goal 25 times. Eli Drikes is in second place with 15 goals scored.

The 2017/18 Israeli domestic season gets underway as Maccabi Tel Aviv hosts Bnei Yehuda on Matchday One of the Toto Cup. The Yellow & Blue come into the contest after a 1:0 win over Panionios and with five official matches under their belts. One of the players who had a hand in the last few victories was defender Yuval Shpungin:

“It’s a lot of fun to begin another season. We’re excited and hopeful that we will reach our expectations this year. We are going to play hard in all of the various competitions this season.”

Jordi Cruyff talks about the upcoming Toto Cup match:

Improving match to match:
“We are improving but there is plenty of work ahead. We are training hard and we know that there is a lot of things that need to be worked on. We are doing all of that during the training sessions and of course during the matches which have been wins so far and that’s very important.”

Shpungin has become an integral part of Jordi Cruyff’s Starting XI this past month due to Eli Dasa’s injury and is currently rehabilitating:
“I always give 100% and give it my all every match that I play in. There’s no question that our training sessions are at a very high level and the players that don’t get many chances to play have to be ready to go when they do get an opportunity.”

Kjartansson defeats Panionios:

On the tournament that sometimes clogs up the August calendar:
“This is a good competition that gives players who haven’t had many match minutes the chance to get them and get into game shape at this point of the season. We can’t discount any tournament that we are in. A busy month of August? That’s why we have a very big squad and everyone will get match time.”

They may have played at Maccabi for a short period of time but they left an everlasting impression. You decided who the greatest Yellow & Blue foreigners were of all-time via the Official Website, App and Social Networks. After the thousands of ballots were tallied up you can now see who those special 11 players are.

Shura Uvarov takes his place in goal while Alexsander Polukarov, Michael Emanelo, Bruno Reis, John Pantsil, Grzegorz Wedzynski and Andrzej Kubica joined him on the veteran side of the lineup. Vidar Kjartansson, Rada Prica, Nikola Mitrovic and Carlos Garcia who all played more recently with the Club also found their way into the Starting XI.

Eyal Golasa, Maccabi Tel Aviv’s midfielder looked back at his side’s 1:0 victory in the first leg of Europa League Third Round qualifying as the Yellow & Blue will head to Athens for the return leg next Thursday. Number 23 talked about Cristian Battocchio, the return leg in Athens and the importance of the win:

“It was a win and it was important that we scored, but next week will be a very difficult game.”

On improving:
“We are just at the beginning of the season and the weather wasn’t great, but we will keep improving.”

About newcomer Cristian Battocchio:
“We have some new players and we have to learn how to play together. He’s a great player who will continue to improve. He’s a great guy to have around and has acclimated well so far.”

The return leg in Athens:
“It’s a very tough stadium to play in and I’m very familiar with it after playing in Greece for two years. There will be 8,000 fans there and it will be tough.”

Returning from injuries over the course of last season:
“I had an injury last season and I play hard. I played for over a month with a broken foot and I’ll give it my all every time I’m on the pitch. That’s how I play.”

The squad:
“Ben Chaim left and we are definitely missing players. But management knows what is needed and they know which players are needed.”

Eitan Tibi: Maccabi Tel Aviv’s all-time European Appearance Leader

Tibi has made 44 European appearances with Maccabi
His Record: 21 wins, 9 draws, 14 losses

All of Tibi’s European appearances have been with Maccabi

The central defender started all 44 matches and has played 3,963 minutes

Tibi has played in three Europa League Group Stages and once in the Champions League Group Stages

Tibi’s first European appearance was in a 2:0 victory over Hungarian side Gyori in the 2013/14 season

He’s played against 22 different clubs from 21 countries

Maccabi Tel Aviv kept a clean sheet with a 1:0 win over Panionios and one of the main people at the forefront was central defender Tal Ben Haim. Following the first leg victory, number 26 summed up the Europa League qualifier:

“Of course we are always happy after a match where we didn’t give up a goal, however, the result was not where we wanted it to be. We are still improving and we know that it’s not enough. We will have a tough battle on our hands next week in Greece.”

About the club’s play:
“We are still just at the beginning of the season and I believe that our play will improve from match to match. This was only the first half of the tie. We have a tough away match ahead against a good club. We will have to come into the match prepared and very focused on the task at hand to make sure we finish the job.”

Jordi Cruyff, the Maccabi Tel Aviv Head Coach looked back at his side’s 1:0 win over Panionios of Greece in the first leg of Europa League Third Round Qualifying. Cruyff spoke about next week’s second leg, Cristian Battocchio and about the match itself:

Jordi Cruyff Maccabi Tel Aviv Head Coach https://t.co/XjPOW6scHV

— Maccabi Tel-Aviv (@MaccabiTLVFC) July 27, 2017

“It was not a good game and we struggled to get into the game, to control the ball and the tempo. Over the last 15 minutes we ended up dropping back and we didn’t push for a second goal. When you don’t have a good game it’s also important to win and we did 1:0.”

Finding balance:
“We don’t have the 100% balance and we are missing some players that we hope will come back soon. We also missed some pace and we hope that we can bring in players to compensate the squad.”

Scoring in the second half:
“We scored about 90% in the second half, but we will solve it. The decision makers understand that we need to compensate for the squad and we have to be dangerous and attack.”

About Cristian Battocchio:
“I thought he was one of the players who gave us creativity. It wasn’t my intention to play him 90 minutes but he knew what to do with the ball at every moment and his forward passing was good. I’m happy with his first start.”

Beer Sheva’s passion and play in their Champions League qualifier last evening:
“Beer Sheva is a team that has kept most of their good players and they have played together for some time. We lost some players and we will have to bring in players to make some changes.”

Preparing for the next match in Greece:
“My main concern will be how we look and we will always try to improve ourselves. We knew that they would play direct and physical. They smelt opportunities near the end of the game and they created some chances.”

Toto Cup Bnei Yehuda match on Sunday:
“The players who played tonight are tired and we have a very important game next Thursday so we will give a chance to some players that haven’t played much.”

Vidar Kjartansson’s 48th minute goal was the difference maker in a 1:0 win over Greek side Panionios. The second leg will take place in Athens next Thursday night as Maccabi will look to advance to the Europa League Playoff Round.

Head Coach Jordi Cruyff’s Starting XI featured keeper Predrag Rajikovic in goal with a defense of Ofir Davidzada, Eitan Tibi, Tal Ben Haim and Yuval Shpungin in front of him. Captain Sheran Yeini, Eyal Golasa and Cristian Battocchio with Omer Atzily and Aaron Schoenfeld on the wings were in the midfield while Vidar Kjartansson played in front.

Available on the bench was keeper Daniel Tenenbaum, Avi Rikan, Dor Peretz, Eliel Peretz, Shlomi Azulay, Barak Itzhaki and Yonatan Cohen.

First Half
The Greeks had the first chance of the contest when Samed Yesil headed the ball into the side of the goal in the 8th minute while over the next few minutes Maccabi made some noise in front of the Panionios goal to no avail. In the 22nd minute Battocchio took a long low shot that just grazed the left post and went out as the Yellow & Blue looked to get onto the board. Three minutes later Kjartansson picked up a yellow card while Saramantas missed wide left of Maccabi’s goal in the 29th minute.

Atzily’s free kick made its way to Davidzada who left the ball for Tibi in the box but he couldn’t connect properly in the 31st minute. Eight minutes later Atzily swung a corner in from the right side that met Schoenfeld’s head, but the ball flew over the bar while in the 43rd minute Yeini’s scorcher from long range flew over the goal as the match remained scoreless at the break.

Second Half
With Macabi looking for a goal out of the break they found one via Kjartansson from the top of the box as he pounced on a ball left by Schoenfeld and launched a laser beam into the back of the Panionios goal for a 1:0 lead in the 48th minute. Five minutes later Davidzada left a ball for Golasa but his blast went wide of the target while Shpungin picked up a yellow card a minute later.

Atzily took a 25 meter attempt from outside of the box but the Greek keeper made the save in the 68th minute while Barak Itzhaki came on for number 7 in the 74th minute. Lamprou took a weak shot as Rajikovic made the save in the 77th minute and two minutes later Vidar lofted a ball into the box that Schoenfeld just headed wide right of the goal.

In the 82nd minute Cruyff made his second substitution of the contest introducing Dor Peretz in favor of Captain Sheran Yeini while Avi Rikan came on three minutes later for Kjartansson. Battocchio took a chance from outside of the box but Kotenko made the save in the 88th minute as Lamprou tried his luck from long distance as well as the ball flew way over Rajikovic’s goal.

After five minutes of injury time, the referee blew the whistle to signal the end of the match as Maccabi will take a slim 1:0 win into the second leg next Thursday in Athens, Greece.