Category: News
Maccabi “Shachar” to face Real Madrid at Ramljak Tournament
The Under-19 side will already start getting ready for the 2016/17 campaign next week when they head out to the annual Ramljak Tournament in Croatia. The competition is named for Mladen Ramljak who played for Dinamo Zagreb during the 1960’s and 70’s but tragically passed away in an automobile accident in 1978. This will be the second year in a row that Maccabi will be a part of the exclusive tourney where many scouts and football professionals come to check out the latest up and coming stars.
Ori Uzan will make his Maccabi “Shachar” head coaching debut when he faces Real Madrid in the club’s first match that will take place on June 2. The Under-19 team will then kick off against Dinamo Zagreb and the finish off the group stage against Slovenian side Maribor. You can find all of the latest news from Zagreb right here on the Official Website.
The new coach spoke about his first challenge: “I’m very happy that I was appointed as coach. I’m taking over from Ziv Arie who is an excellent coach and did a terrific job over the last three years. I hope that I’ll be able to do as well as he did, but the most important part is to help the players continue to advance just like I did with the Under-17 side. Hopefully along the way I’ll pick up some titles also.”
Looking ahead to the tournament:
“It’s a great opportunity for me to get to know the players born in 1998. It’s a challenge to play these type of matches at a much higher level than the league, especially when the first contest is against Real Madrid which should be very interesting.”
Maccabi “Shachar” Tel Aviv Squad
Goalkeepers
Hen Ozeri, Daniel Peretz
Defenders
Bar Galili, Ran Vaturi, Nadav Amran, Ron Gabai, Noam Cohen, Moshe Peleg
Midfielders
Tomer Altman, Shay Golam, Amit Shapira, Netanel Malca, Eden Kartzev, Yarin Sharabi, Thomas Prince
Attackers
Eylon Amog, Mahmoud Awesat, Or Dasa
Jordi Cruyff sums up 2015/16
ג’ורדי קרויף מסכם את עונת 2015/16
2015/16 Season Stats
In just about two weeks Maccabi Tel Aviv will return to Kiryat Shalom to begin preparations for the upcoming season. The campaign that just finished didn’t end with any titles but we certainly had some great moments, records and some terrific Yellow & Blue action. Just before we turn over a new page let’s take a look back at the past season:
Non-stop – 58 official matches in one campaign. Yes, 58 of them. Maccabi had a very long year that began on July 14th in Malta against Hibernians where they fell 1:2 but ended their European experience with a visit to Stamford Bridge, The Dragao and other amazing football stops.
Clean sheets – Maccabi and Hapoel Beer Sheva gave up only 24 goals all season long in 36 games. But where the Yellow & Blue had a huge advantage over every other club in the league were matches where they kept the ball out of the goal. Predrag Rajikovic picked up 20 clean sheets, an unbelievable amount of shutouts for the young Serbian keeper.
Team picture – Maccabi had 26 squad members play over the course of the WINNER League season. If we also take into account the Toto and State Cups there was another five players who featured for Slavisa Jokanovic and Peter Bosz which leads us to the next item.
Coaches – We began the year with Serbian Slavisa Jokanovic who helped the Club advance to the Champions League before he headed off to the English Championship and ended the campaign off with Peter Bosz from Holland who had a good run but ended without any titles. However, right before the Dutchman arrived you may recall that Javier Perrera, Slavisa’s assistant coach, stood on the sidelines for the league match against Maccabi Petach Tikva. Did anyone say 100% success rate?
75% – 81 out of a possible 108 points is the success rate we got this season, but Hapoel Beer Sheva were just a bit better and finished with 76.85%. Close, very close.
Zahavi – Everyone watched the Captain have a historic season and rewrite the history books. 35 league goals, five more than Nisim Elmaliach who held the single season goal scoring record before number 7. Let’s add another 7 goals in the Champions League qualification matches, one in the group stages, a pair of goals in the Super Cup, another marker in the Toto Cup Derby plus two more in the State Cup competition. If you add them all up you get a grand total of 48 goals this season. A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!
15 – Different goals scorers for Maccabi Tel Aviv in league action this season
Fountain of Youth – The youngest player to suit up for the First Team this season was Eylon Almog who made his debut against Hapoel Kfar Saba in the State Cup as a 17-year old. Almog played with central defender Tal Ben Haim who is double his age and Yoav Ziv who is double his age plus one. Hopefully we’ll see them play together again next season.
Medunjanin- “We’ll come back next season to win some titles”
מסיבת העיתונאים לאחר משחק גמר הגביע
Bosz: “This was my last match at Maccabi”
“I said that this match would be totally different despite the fact that we controlled the possession. They scored even though they had few chances and definitely not as many as us. We are used to playing against teams who bunker and we had chances today but we didn’t have anyone who could put the ball into the goal.”
On his part in the defeat:
“I am always critical about myself. We assumed that they would be aggressive like they were against Beer Sheva in the Cup. We started off well, especially in the midfield. They didn’t surprise us, but we just weren’t good enough. We may have dominated the play but we didn’t deserve to win this title. I feel that I have failed since becoming the coach.”
About his departure:
“This was my last match at Maccabi. I am going to Ajax. Marc Overmars spoke to me on Thursday and we went from there.”
The effect of departure on the players:
“The Maccabi players are used to coaches coming and going and are also used to winning titles. I don’t think that this had any effect on the players. My head has not been in Ajax whatsoever.”
His time with Maccabi:
“When I first began I had a specific way that I wanted to play and I spoke to Jordi about it. It wasn’t easy, but after a month I could see my influence and the way I wanted to play. It’s simple to say that just because we didn’t win the Final the method wasn’t good, but I as the coach analyzed all of the games and I believe we played well.”
Summing up his Maccabi experience:
“The city of Tel Aviv is wonderful and unique. A lot of people have a misconception about Israel and Tel Aviv. When I was named coach many people asked me if it was safe to be here. Maccabi is a great club with an excellent staff, good players and Jordi Cruyff. I leant a lot from all of you and I hope that I have left something with you as well. I will tell all of the coaches that it’s a privilege to work with Jordi and he has many interesting ideas about how to mange the Club.”
BOSZ LEAVES MACCABI TEL AVIV TO JOIN AJAX
Bosz, (52) who joined Maccabi in January 2016 kept an unbeaten record in 23 matches 19 of which were in the League as well as guiding the team to the State Cup Final.
Maccabi’s Sports Director Jordi Cruyff told the clubs’ official website: “We would like to thank Peter for his contribution and leadership over the five months he spent as Maccabi Tel Aviv’s head coach. To takeover a team during a season is never an easy task but Peter managed to do that with ease before we narrowly missed out on the league title. Peter is very ambitious and we are sad to see him go but I am sure that everyone connected with Maccabi Tel Aviv would like to extend their wishes to Peter and Hendri Kruzen ahead of their new roles at AFC Ajax and wish them all the best”.
Peter Bosz said: “I would like to thank everyone who is connected with Maccabi Tel Aviv from the bottom of my heart: the players, staff, both at Kiryat Shalom and the offices, the fans and of course Mitch Goldhar, Martin Bain and Jordi Cruyff. I never planned to move to Tel Aviv and then leave after five months, but, I have been given a once in a lifetime opportunity to manage Ajax. I always tell my children that they should follow their dreams and for me to manage this club in Holland is a dream. Some of my happiest times have been in Israel and both myself, my assistant Hendri and my wife are so sad to be leaving a truly wonderful club and a fantastic city and country. It is a time in our lives we will always cherish and will never forget”.
BOSZ LEAVES MACCABI TEL AVIV TO JOIN AJAX
Bosz, (52) who joined Maccabi in January 2016 kept an unbeaten record in 23 matches 19 of which were in the League as well as guiding the team to the State Cup Final.
Maccabi’s Sports Director Jordi Cruyff told the clubs’ official website: “We would like to thank Peter for his contribution and leadership over the five months he spent as Maccabi Tel Aviv’s head coach. To takeover a team during a season is never an easy task but Peter managed to do that with ease before we narrowly missed out on the league title. Peter is very ambitious and we are sad to see him go but I am sure that everyone connected with Maccabi Tel Aviv would like to extend their wishes to Peter and Hendri Kruzen ahead of their new roles at AFC Ajax and wish them all the best”.
Peter Bosz said: “I would like to thank everyone who is connected with Maccabi Tel Aviv from the bottom of my heart: the players, staff, both at Kiryat Shalom and the offices, the fans and of course Mitch Goldhar, Martin Bain and Jordi Cruyff. I never planned to move to Tel Aviv and then leave after five months, but, I have been given a once in a lifetime opportunity to manage Ajax. I always tell my children that they should follow their dreams and for me to manage this club in Holland is a dream. Some of my happiest times have been in Israel and both myself, my assistant Hendri and my wife are so sad to be leaving a truly wonderful club and a fantastic city and country. It is a time in our lives we will always cherish and will never forget”.
Maccabi Tel Aviv falls 1:0 in State Cup Final
Haifa found the back of the goal in the first half to take home the State Cup title as Hen Ezra scored the lone marker of the contest.
Head Coach Peter Bosz made only one change in his Starting XI from Saturday night’s 6:0 league victory is really the same Haifa team as Haris Medunjanin replaced Eliel Peretz in the midfield. Medunjanin was joined by Gal Alberman and Nosa Igiebor while a defensive quartet of Eli Dasa, Eitan Tibi, Carlos Garcia and Avi Rikan played just behind them. Dor Micha, Tal Ben Chaim and Captain Eran Zahavi provided the offense up front while Serbian keeper Predrag Rajikovic took his usual place in goal.
The match opened up as a pretty physical affair for the first 20 minutes as each side collected foils aplenty with only one chance which occurred in the 10th minute as Eyal Meshumar almost scored an own goal. In the 22nd minute Ben Chaim took a wonderful ball on the left side of the box but his effort went wide right of the goal.
Just a minute later, Shoval Gozlan received a deep ball that beat the Maccabi defense but his opportunity went over Rajikovic’s goal as the action began heating up in both sides of the pitch. Tens minutes later, Zahavi had his first chance of the evening but his attempt went over the goal after the whole team got in on the act. Ben Chaim began the play, sent the ball to Micha who handed it off to Rikan and then to the Captain who put it over the bar.
However, the Greens got onto the board first as Hen Ezra put home a Ludovic Obraniak free kick to give Haifa a 1:0 lead. Micha gave Zahavi a chance to even it up in the 40th minute but his unbelievable header effort was saved midair on the line by Haifa keep Vladimir Stoykovich to keep his clean sheet intact as the sides headed into the break with Haifa clinging onto a one goal lead.
Maccabi had fantastic chance to begin the second half as Zahavi sent a ball through the Haifa box but found no one home to take advantage. Medunjanin had his scorcher stopped by Stoykovich in the 48th minute as the Yellow & Blue threw everything they had at the Greens trying to find the equalizer in the early going of half number two.
Igiebor had a brilliant opportunity to score in the 57th minute but couldn’t handle Rikan’s pinpoint pass as his effort went out. With Maccabi maintaining possession it was Ezra of Haifa in the 70th minute who had a chance to double his side’s score but his screamer went wide right of the goal.
A minute later Peter Bosz made him first substitute of the match inserting Eliel Peretz in favor of Alberman. Ben Chaim’s 75th minute curler couldn’t find the back of the goal as the Maccabi faithful continued cheering their heroes on while Bosz made his second substitute introducing Barak Itzhaki for Igiebor.
With seven minutes until full time, Maccabi made their third and final substitute of the match brining in Eden Ben Basat for Garcia. However, it wouldn’t be enough on this night as Haifa wrapped up the 1:0 win and took home the Israel State Cup.
The Numbers behind Maccabi Tel Aviv in the State Cup Final
