Israeli Premier League 2012/13

Sport
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Israeli premier league kicked off this weekend with hopefully what will be a season that is remembered more for football unlike last seasons that was dominated by fan violence ( Tel aviv derby) , fighting on the pitch ( maccabi patek tikva – hapoel Haifa) , corruption , mass points deductions for the aforementioned for Hapoel Tel Aviv, the near financial collapse of Beitar Jerusalem, racism ( the usual Beitar - Bnei Saknin encounters) and finally the runaway league victory of the tiny Hapoel Kiryat Shmona who profited from the collapse all around them and the last few years of an exceptional youth policy to have the league wrapped up 6 games out.

Here is a small preview of the main protagonists:

IRONI KIRYAT SHMONA

The only thing that could possibly be more surprising than Kiryat Shmona’s triumph last season would be the northerners actually defending their title in 2012/13.

Kiryat Shmona built a double-digit lead at the top of the standings as early as January and in its fourth season in the top flight became the first real small club to win the championship since Bnei Yehuda in the 1989/90 campaign.

Although the architect of the success, coach Ran Ben-Shimon, left acrimoniously at the end of the season for AEK Larnaca and was replaced by Gili Landau, Kiryat Shmona did manage to hold on to almost all of its squad. The continuity was paramount in recent weeks as the team progressed to the Champions League playoffs, guaranteeing itself at least a Europa League group berth.

Kiryat Shmona’s squad is a collection of young players from around the league who couldn’t quite make it at the Big 4 clubs , products of their youth policy and a few shrewd international signings , players to watch out for are Israelis Barak Badash, Eitan Tibi and Ben Vahaba , also Hungarian striker Lensce looks decent, he scored a cracking free kick tonight in the 1-1 draw with BATE in the CL

HAPOEL TEL AVIV

Nine players have come and gone over the summer, but the biggest change at Hapoel has been in the boardroom. Former member of Knesset Haim Ramon, backed by investors, purchased the club from Eli Tabib, bringing to an end one of the rockiest periods in team history.

Coach Nitzan Shirazi remained at the helm after guiding Hapoel to the State Cup last season, but he will be working with an almost completely new squad. Around half of the side’s starting lineup from 2011/12 will not return, with Avihai Yadin and Toto Tamuz still looking for new clubs.

Hapoel opted for experience at the expense of youth in its selection of new foreigners, with defender John Paintsil ex Fulham returning from England for a second stint at the club and former Manchester United midfielder Eric Djemba- Djemba arriving from the Danish league.

The speed in which Brazilian midfielder Bruno from Polonia Warsaw acclimatizes could be crucial to Hapoel’s hopes of glory, especially with Shay Abutbul to miss the first three months of the season through injury.

The partnership up front between former Maccabi Petah Tikva teammates Omer Damari and Tal Ben-Haim should be unstoppable at times, and Shirazi will be depending on their goals as Hapoel looks to return to the top of the pile under its new ownership.

There were some bad scenes at Hapoel last year, the spat between former owner Taibi and Toto Tamuz at the end of the cup final against Haifa was disgusting, the riot after the loss to Maccabi in Feburary and Saleem Toama’s attack on the referee that led to a four point deduction and ground closure for 5 matched hurt the club,

MACCABI HAIFA

Only once in the past 12 years has Maccabi Haifa gone successive seasons without winning the championship and this campaign will be all about avoiding such a scenario.

Haifa’s fifth-place finish last season was its worse in four years, resulting in the departure of coach Elisha Levy.

After years of speculation, Haifa legend Reuven Atar ( scored the winning goal for Israel in a 3-2 win against France in Parc de Princes in 1989) finally returned to his boyhood club, this time as a coach, and expectations couldn’t be any higher.

Atar impressed at Maccabi Netanya over the last three seasons and will have a far better squad to work with at Haifa.

The Greens only made four significant signings, including that of rising star Hen Ezra from Netanya, but the squad left behind by Levy has vast promise and Atar has proven to be an expert at helping young players to fulfill their potential.

Haifa have squad packed with quality, Tamir Cohen has signed from Bolton, Ezra from Netanya, and along with the attacking prowess of idan Vered, yaniv Katan and the best attacking midfielder in the game here Eyal Golassa make Haifa a pretty formidibe unit going forward.
Haifa ( or Hisbollah  ) as they are known by opposing fans are the most popular team in the country and draw their support from a broad spectrum of society and are always accompanied by a huge travelling horde… my money is on them for the league this season

MACCABI TEL AVIV

the sleeping giant of Israeli football, no title since 2005 and from the heady days of champions league football Maccabi fans have gotten used to mid table mediocrity and watching their basketball counterparts win 3 European Basketball titles.
Owner Mitchell Goldhar , chairman of Walmart Canada however has decided to get the check book out over the Summer in a bid to rectify the situation
Jordi Cruyff was brought in as a sports director from AEK Laranaca and he signed Spaniard Oscar Garcia as the team’s coach.
Oscar is guiding a senior team for the first time after spending the last two years coaching the Barcelona youth team.
The Spaniard has been given a deep squad to work with by Cruyff, who among others has brought in Spaniards Gonzalo Garcia from Larnaca , Carlos Garcia from Betis as well as Maharan Radi from Bnei Sakhnin.
However, the most crucial signing of all was that of 30-year-old goalkeeper Vincent Enyeama.
The Nigerian established his place as one of the best ’keepers to ever play in Israel in his four years at Hapoel Tel Aviv, before spending all of last season on the bench of French side Lille.
Enyeama’s presence will instill much-needed confidence into the team, and should Maccabi go on to win just its second championship in 17 years, the goalkeeper’s addition will surely be looked back on as a defining moment.

Players to keep an eye on are Mannus Dabbur, a young 20 year old striker, the enigmatic Eliran Atar, Robert Colautti and defensive midfielder Gal Alberman formerly of Borussia Moenchengladbach and Maharan Radi.
I don’t know anything about the 2 Spaniards

BETAR JERUSALEM

Where do I start?
After last season that saw Beitar second bottom in January, go 8 games without scoring a goal , the sacking of Yuval Nayim after 2 defeats to 2 arab clubs in 4 days ( Bnei Saknin in the league at Teddy and Bnei Lod in the Cup resulting in a death threat for Nayim and general disorder in the country for a weekend), the usual points deductions for racist abuse, the Beitar mob smashing up a Jerusalem shopping mall and chasing out the arab workers after the victory over beni Yehuda and finally to the dramatic turnaround that say them only win 9 games in a row to reach mid table security , things were hectic in Jerusalem last year
Betar fans have already gotten used to turbulent summers, but the past few months were even tumultuous by their standards as many of them found themselves personally involved in the off-field developments.
Club owner Arkadi Gaydamak ( his old man screwed Portsmouth) came to an agreement of cooperation with an organization of Betar fans earlier this week that gave the supporters a say in the decision making and injected NIS 2 million into the cash-stricken club collected from thousands of fans including me over recent months.

Coach Eli Cohen couldn’t make any signings until the money came through, and will only have a limited squad to work with this season.

Players to watch out for are strikers Amit ben Shushan, Eran Levy and Avi Rikan, midfielders Kobi Moyal , dario Fernandez and also Dan Einbinder

I don’t know what to expect this year, we were unlucky to be beaten 3-2 up in Kiryat Shmona last Saturday night and im looking forward to the typically caustic atmosphere that will greet Hapoel Beer Sheva next Saturday night…. We’ll see

The league started this weekend with the results below:

Ashdod SC 2 - 0 Ironi Ramat Hasharon
Hapoel Acco 1 - 1 Bnei Yehuda Tel Aviv

Hapoel Haifa 0 - 0 Maccabi Netanya

Ironi Kiryat Shmona 3 - 2 Beitar Jerusalem
Hapoel Ramat Gan 0 - 1 Hapoel Tel Aviv

Maccabi Tel Aviv 2 - 1 Maccabi Haifa

I attended Mac TA and Maccabi Haifa last night in a sold out Bloomfield Stadium to witness the beginning of the Cruyff – Garcia reign
This was a brilliant game of football that Haifa probably cant believe they will have lost such was their dominace in the second half, however two Mannus Dabur goals were enough to get Maccabi moving and the party started.

Ill try and find a link to the highlights and stck them up later

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:huh:

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Kiryat Shmona were very unlucky to crash out of the CL last night been beaten 3-1 overall by BATE
2-0 down from the first leg in Belarus, kiryat Shmona totally dominated proceedings in sweltering conditions in Ramat Gan as KS’s stadium was deemed to be too close to Syria to host a CL game.
Laslzo Lensce put KS 1 up after an hour with a cracking free kick , but despite total dominance and a plethora of chances they were caught with a breakaway goal in the 90[sup]th[/sup] minute to seal the tie for BATE

KS and Hap TA progress to the group stages of the UEFA cup

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mickee, a brief scouting report on Ashdod’s Nigerian international centre back Efe Ambrose please.

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Il keep an eye on him for you bandage, i only saw Ashdod once last year when they were beaten 2-1 at Beitar and i dont remember anything special at all. i do know he is black and black players dont make good central defenders in general so that is to be noted before we rush into anything
Ashdod have been very consistent last few seasons and their goal this year will be to make the top 6 when the league splits in March.
incidentally, one of their players Nir Biton had trials at Man City and Tottenham over the Summer , nothing came of it as far as i know

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Goal from Monday night’s game between Maccabi Tel Aviv and Maccabi Haifa

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mPk4R_TGdU

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:rolleyes:

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What team would Celtic fans most identify with in the Israeli league, Mickee?

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Mickee, please post up pics of the hot female presenters/reporters that the Israeli football broadcasters use.

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will do mate, ill throw up some of the femaie fans also, give me a while there…

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In general Balbec what type of teams do Celtic fans most assocate or identify with?
on a very high level teams with a Hapoel in the prefix were founded by Russian emigrants and these teams would traditionally have a leftist political leaning with strong involvement in trade unions, Maccabi is more of a conservative, middle class viewpoint and traditionally the Beitar movement was a more fundamentalist leaning.
every single Hapoel club plays in red to symbolise the socialsits leaning to this day,
However today the traditional Hapoel / Maccabi / beitar is all but disappeared.
Maccabi Haifa and Hapoel Tel Aviv are the 2 biggest teams in the country and their support comes from all walks of life, including arabs.
in general these would be the only 2 mainstream clubs arabs would support .
Maccabi Tel Aviv are the Israeli equivilant of RSC Anderlect, Real Madrid or Chelsea, they turn their nose up at everyone and their support only exists in Tel Aviv.
The most extreme of all would be Beitar Jerusalem and Bnei Saknin, Beitar do not sign arab footballers and under no circumstances woukd an arab enter Teddy stadium, they would be lynched, similarly Saknin in the north of Israel is an arab only team whose fans with Beitar would have the worst reputatuon in the country. Games between the 2 sides are more about the off field trouble then the proceedings on the pitch, its actaually a litle tiresome at this stage. The levels of racism are utterly disgusting at these games

I am a season ticket holder at Beitar due to the inlaws, but i do have a soft spot for Maccabi Haifa, their support is the best in the country and right now at least they play the most attractive football

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This is genuinely insightful and far more interesting than what happens on the field. I think it’s obvious that Maccabi Haifa are the St Pauli of the Israeli League and as such would be closest to the Celtic family.

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Some interesting games tonight.
I was in Jerusalem at Tedi watching Beitar draw 1-1 with Hapoel Be’er Sheva in a pretty heated game both on and off the pitch.
Ironi Kiryat Shmona continue to defy all the odds by beating Maccabi Haifa 3-1 away, its not often you will see the defending champions of any league priced at 5-1 to win their second game of the season but such is the derisory way KS are regarded in general by most observors including myself still expect them to fall apart this season, i expected this to start in earnest tonight against the mega rich Maccabi Haifa however in fairness to KS they dominated the game throughout

ill try and find the goals from the Beitar game and stick them up later

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[quote=“mickee321, post: 709064”]Some interesting games tonight.
I was in Jerusalem at Tedi watching Beitar draw 1-1 with Hapoel Be’er Sheva in a pretty heated game both on and off the pitch.
Ironi Kiryat Shmona continue to defy all the odds by beating Maccabi Haifa 3-1 away, its not often you will see the defending champions of any league priced at 5-1 to win their second game of the season but such is the derisory way KS are regarded in general by most observors including myself still expect them to fall apart this season, i expected this to start in earnest tonight against the mega rich Maccabi Haifa however in fairness to KS they dominated the game throughout

ill try and find the goals from the Beitar game and stick them up later[/quote]

I wouldn’t bother you tedious cunt

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In fairness, mickee lost all credibility when he admitted he’d never heard of Efe Ambrose.

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In fairness mate from what i have been told after you brought it up last week, Glasgow Celtic have lost even more credability by signing him. I could of done a Totti or Rocko on it and copy and pasted a wikipedia profile but the fact that a player from Ashdod hasnt been chased by the big four clubs over here in the summmer or hasnt been mentioned in any any transfer speculation at all and then hey presto some crowd in Glasgow pick him up for next to nothing probably tells you all you need to know.
Clearly Peter Lawell and his mates in the SFA are doing all they can to ensure Celtic will reamin competitive with the rest of the teams in the SPL given their cousins accroos the city have taken a sabbatical for the next few years.

Effie fucking Ambrose :lol: :ireland:

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Did he have any anyway? What has he contributed to the site other than absolute dribble.

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in fairness to mickee he is a proper football fan- unlike the so called epl fans on here

id rather read about Israeli football than chumps getting giddy about lads that happen to be Irish playing in the lower leagues of british football

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mickee, I have it on good authority that Efe Ambrose is magnificent.

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3rd round of games this weekend begin with a very disjointed schedule because of Rosh Hashana ( that’s jewish new year ) to the uninitiated that takes place from Sunday night until Tuesday evening.
This period starts the high holidays in israel which means over the next four weeks ill by only working 3 days / week, ill be on call over rosh hashana and succot but on Yom Kippur there is a magnificent 2 day countrywide shutdown where it is illegal to work or even drive so I’ll choose to be jewish those few days and get thru whatever box sets ive accumulated from last Christmas

Anyway onto the football,
Weekend here is Friday and Saturday so we always have a Thursday night game, this week it’s SC Ashdod without the services of Efe Ambrose who for some bizarre reason has signed with Celtic entertain everyone’s favorite team Beiter Jerusalem. Ill be heading to the coastal city after work that is better known for having one of the most advanced chemical weapons research facilities on earth and also where the Israeli Navy haul in ships full of do gooders trying to get to Gaza to give them a good shooting or going over.
Beitar have 1 point from 2 games and tonight they will do well to get out of here with a point.
Ashdod play in a tiny little ground similar to Tolka park by the Mediterranean, it’ll be hot ( ~28 C) , full of arabs, police and they hate Beitar in general over there
, Im looking forward to watching Nir Biton who was on trial at Man City and Tottenham over the Summer perform, he never got to play for city as the Malaysian government denied him entry before some friendly game there in July, but I have heard good things

Right now Maccabi Tel Aviv with ex Barca youth team boss Oscar Garcia and under the guidance of Yordi Cruyff are out in front with a very impressive start so far, followed closely by Hapoel Tel Aviv who entertain Falcao and Athletico Madrid here next Thursday

fixtures

SC Ashdod – Beitar Jerusalem

All saturday

Hapoel Haifa – Mac TA
Hapoel Akko – Saknin
Ramat Gan – Ramat Hasharon
Ironi Kiryat Shmona – maccabi natanya
Hapoel Tel Aviv – Bnei Yehuda tel Aviv
Be’er Sheva – Maccabi Haifa

Treble – Akko – Maccabi Haifa – Hapoel TA