Maccabi Haifa tonight (Saturday) defeated Hapoel Be’er Sheva 0:3 in an impressive display of purpose in the “European Game” in the Toto Cup. Although the greens will have to improve their performance in the future and they also had not very good minutes, but they knew how to achieve an excellent result and a boost of confidence. Hapoel Be’er Sheva wanted to avoid starting like last season and was only partially successful. Then she was defeated 6:1 by Maccabi Tel Aviv in Turner, this time she lost “only” 3:0. I doubt if this comforts anyone in the capital of the Negev.
Barak Becher made a renewed debut on the lines and started roughly where he left off. Dean David (35), Gadi Kinda (61) and Dia Saba (71) scored on the way to an easier than expected victory. On the other side, Ran Kozhuch made a very unsuccessful debut. His squad is far from perfect, there are also injuries and various problems – but it shouldn’t look so bad, especially the back.
Less than 13 thousand spectators came to the stadium in Haifa, in the shadow of the fans’ protest over the relatively high prices for the Toto Cup. Those who did show up at the stadium saw an aggressive first half that included fouls, tickets and injuries (Ofir Marciano was replaced following 22 minutes) – but also quite a bit of football. Lior Rafalov kicked to the post, Shay Elias and Roy Gordana threatened Thomas Soltani and like last season – Dean David scored. 0:1 to Maccabi Haifa at halftime.
Beer Sheva managed to miss a not bad situation at the start of the second half before the substitute Gadi Kinda made it 0:2 and here the guest simply collapsed. Every attack by Maccabi Haifa produced half a situation, Beer Sheva’s aggressiveness disappeared, Eitan Tibi and Or Belorian looked confused. Dia Saba, who came in and received whistles and boos with every touch, made it 0:3, and if it weren’t for the later half-hours, Maccabi Haifa might have scored 5 or 6 goals.
