So who are Maccabi Tel Aviv

Maccabi Tel Aviv, Israel’s most decorated side, arrive in Ireland this week to take on back-to-back League of Ireland Champions Dundalk in the Europa League. Extratime.ie asked Michael Hanley, a Cork man with local knowledge of the Tel Aviv team, to give us a run down on the Israeli club.

Opening night Europa League Shocks

Maccabi travel to Tallaght to take on Dundalk on Thursday on the back of a spectacular collapse in their opening Europa League group game. The Israeli team were 3-0 up late in the second half at home in Netanya to Zenit Saint Petersburg but somehow managed to lose the game conceding four goals in the final 13 minutes to be beaten by the odd goal in seven.

The night of Maccabi incredible late loss against Zenit, another Israeli team was earning a famous European victory as Hapoel Be’er Sheva beat Inter Milan 2-0 in the San Siro.

Current League Form

Under manager Shota Arvaladze, the former Ajax, AZ Alkmaar and Ranagers player, Maccabi currently sit top of the Ligat Ha’al with a six point lead after five wins and a draw from their opening six league games. They have conceded just four goals and have three consecutive clean sheets in the league.

They followed up a 3-0 victory away at Bnei Sakhnin last Wednesday, with an impressive 5-0 win in the 150^th Tel Aviv league derby against Hapoel on Sunday. The game was played at the home of Maccabi Netanya whilst Bloomfield stadium in Jaffa, the home of both Maccabi and Hapoel, gets a much needed facelift.

The Cruyff era

Like Dundalk, Maccabi have impressive recent pedigree in their domestic league. Maccabi have won three out of the last four Israeli championships. After a dip in form from the mid 2000s, the arrival of Jordi Cruyff as director of football in 2012 saw a dramatic turn in fortunes.

In Israel there is a big four with Maccabi Tel Aviv, Hapoel Tel Aviv, Maccabi Haifa and Beitar Jerusalem all attracting support from different elements of the population based on various political, social or locational factors. After Ironi Kiryat Shmona, a club from the small town near the Lebanese border, shocked Israeli football by winning the league in 2012, the old order was well and truly restored a year later with Maccabi’s subsequent hat trick of titles.

Cruyff brought in ex-Barcelona player Oscar Garcia as head coach initially, who was working at the time with Cruyff as coach of the Catalonia national team. This managerial appointment was certainly a new departure for Maccabi who in the previous 65 years had only one non-Israeli at the helm.

Under the guidance of Cruyff and Garcia, coupled with financial clout of Mitch Goldhar of Canadian Walmart fame, Maccabi stormed to their first title in a decade in 2013.

Success continued unabated for the next two seasons. Martin Bain joined the club from Rangers as chief executive in 2014. Under the coach Pako Ayestaran (former assistant to Rafa Benitez at Liverpool and fired from his most recent role at Valencia last week), Maccabi went on to win a domestic treble, qualifying for the 2015-2016 Champions League group stages.

Last season however was the worst of the Cruyff era with Maccabi finishing trophy-less, with their foray into the Champions League ending in disappointment as they lost all six games against Chelsea, Dynamo Kiev and Porto.

Under current Ajax coach Peter Bosz, Maccabi crucially dropped points in a chaotic game last April at the business end of the season against Bnei Sakhnin. In the predominantly Israeli Arab city of Sakhnin, they drew 0-0 in a game played in a charged atmosphere with Maccabi players involved in scuffles with opposition coaching staff after the game. 

Whilst emotions do run high in Israeli society at times and often it spills onto the terraces, it is usually the travails of clubs with a strong political fanbase such as Beitar Jerusalem or Hapoel Tel Aviv that garner most attention. To see players from Maccabi involved in such a scenario is not something that one is accustomed to.

Maccabi never recovered from dropping those two vital points and a resurgent Be’er Sheva pipped them to the title on the final night of the season. Maccabi then lost the cup final in Jerusalem three days later to Maccabi Haifa.

To make matters worse, star forward Eran Zahavi, who scored a remarkable 35 goals in 36 league games last season, left the club for Guangzhou R&F in the Chinese Super League for a fee of €10m. 

Path to the Europa League Group Stages

Maccabi took the scenic route to qualification through Eastern Europe, defeating ND Gorica of Slovenia, Kairat Almaty from Kazakstan, Panduri from Romania before getting the better of Hadjuk Split on penalties in the final qualifying round.

Familiar Faces amongst Maccabi Squad

97 time capped Israeli international Yossi Benayoun is at the centre of everything Maccabi do and along with Tal Ben Chaim, who scored a wonderful goal for Israel against Italy in September, both provide a very potent attacking threat. Ben Chaim scored twice in Sunday’s win over Happoel.

Serbian international goalkeeper Predrag Rajkovic does not inspire confidence as those who watched Ireland’s qualifier in Belgrade three weeks ago will testify. Whilst a goalkeeper with excellent reflexes, he tends to parry the ball into dangerous positions and is very suspect defending crosses.

Maccabi’s back four is marshalled by the ageless Tal Ben Haim, who played for a staggering nine clubs in England. However he has looked clumsier than usual of late and the late calamity that he oversaw against Zenit with his collegaues Igor Filipenko and Omri ben Harush will not have gone unnoticed by Stephen Kenny.

Maccabi play good football and will likely line up in a 4-3-3. Captain Gal Alberaman and the excellent Bosnian international Haris Medunjanin, who played against Ireland in Dublin in the Euro 2016 play-off, do the hard work in the engine room allowing Benayoun’s trickery to create openings for Ben Chaim and Argentinian Ezequiel Scarrione.

Vidar Kjartansson, the Icelandic international striker, also scored two goals in last Sunday’s derby win.

Dundalk’s style to threaten visitors

Maccabi will not like Daryl Horgan’s pace and they certainly won’t like Dundalk’s threat from set plays. The Israeli domestic league typical style is slow build up from the back with the ball played on the ground and a lack of physicality. In Israel most teams will sit back and allow Maccabi play on their terms.

For the home side it is key that Dundalk take the game to Maccabi on Thursday and put them out of their comfort zone. Horgan’s pace, coupled with plenty of balls in on top of Rajkovic, will cause unease.

Israeli Expectations

Maccabi will expect to beat Dundalk, especially with the strong league form that the bring into the tie. Football people in Israel are familiar though with the perils of underestimating Irish teams after Shamrock Rovers beat Bnei Yehuda in 2010 to earn a shot at Juventus in the subsequent round.

However the Israeli view is that this is Maccabi Tel Aviv, this is different, it’s football royalty and they will expect to win this game on Thursday!

Michael Hanley is an Irish football fan from Cobh who during a recent spell living in Israel was a season ticket holder at Beitar Jerusalem for three years.