The game that will decide the fate of the championship? The youth of Kfar Kana and Hisham Zoevi will meet today (Friday) at 12:45 in Kfar Kana the union of Bnei Shafram and Firas Moghrabi. The police are on standby, as the printing company signs all the tickets offered for pre-sale, both for the home team and the away team. The game is expected to be a focus of pilgrimage from all of Kfar Kana and the surrounding area, after all there has not been such a large event in the northern region for a long time. The best home team in the league (without a loss) will meet the best away team in the league (without a loss).
These are two relatively young teams, founded on the ruins of past teams from the region. The youth of Kfar Cana until three years ago was a team in the second league, Shafram, which was established only four years ago. The teams are in a close fight with only three points separating them at the top. Samir Farhoud, a Kfar Kana player, is the league’s top scorer (17) and on the other hand – Ihud Bnei Shafaram is the most prolific team in the league, as they scored 48 goals this season, in their 22 games (a little more than two goals per game on average).
As part of the eighth cycle in the league, in the first round, Ihud Bnei Shafram won 1:2 in front of its audience thanks to a dramatic goal in the 94th minute. Kfar Kana led 0:1 from a goal by Ofek Marom in the 24th minute and in the second half, Qasem Nagyar (63′) and Amir Abu El Nil (94′) reversed the result. A lot of water has passed in the river since then and both teams have settled down and run over almost every team they have met.
Muhammad (Birti) Abbas, the assistant of Hisham Zoevi of Kfar Kana youth and Firas Moghrabi, the coach of the Bnei Shafaram Union, took time to talk about the most intriguing game this weekend, in a conversation with ONE. “Another game,” he notes Abbas. “It will be fine, there’s no need to worry,” he emphasizes. Mughrbestraightens the line and claims: “All the slogans around this game can remain as slogans. Each game is different and this is how we prepare for it.”
“We, at home, are strong. This is a lively, young and running team. We have been leading the table since the beginning of the season and with complete faith we will keep all three points in Kfar Kana,” noted Abbas. On the other hand, Moghrabi paid respect to the opponent, “The youth of Kfar Kana is an excellent team and their position in the table does not lie, but we are coming to take the points. It is not just that a strong team has been built here that comes to work from game to game and wants to go as far as possible, even if there are only four years. The team that comes to this game with the most brains will win it.”
“We dream of qualifying for the national league and surprising everyone. It is a dream of the whole city and all the people of the club, but the road is still long and we will do everything to make the whole city and the audience of this club happy. One of our key people is Ali Khatib, who played in senior leagues and was an important player in all A team that he has walked in. Our top scorer and our captain is not for nothing. He is expected to start, he is qualified as far as I’m concerned. We know who we are going to play against and who we need to stop (he said referring to Samir Farhoud). We have already won against the Greens from Kfar Kana,” concluded Firas Moghrabi .
Similar to the dreams of the Bnei Shafaram union, Birti also thinks that Kfar Cana, which was already in the national league in the distant past (when it was still for Maccabi), can do this. “At the beginning of the season, we did a pre-season with almost 50 players who came to be tested. The goal was to put a team in 8-7 places. There are also those who said at the beginning of the season that we would be one of those who would be candidates for relegation in general. Where is that and where are we today. Me and Hisham Zoevi collected children Good and here, the results are ahead of everyone. We are in first place.
“Qualifying for the national league will be an achievement that cannot be described in words. We want to celebrate the promotion as soon as possible in front of our wonderful crowd. Until then, we have to pass the strong Union of Bnei Shafaram. If I have already mentioned Hisham Zoevi, then this humble man, professor Football, there is no need to add words about him. Hisham is a football genius. Everyone knows that. In Arabic they say he is ‘El Caesar’, which means a man with a head on his shoulders. His place is in higher leagues, not here in League A. He will do the It’s one day.”
On the question of how to leave Farhoud, who is being courted by the national team, Abbas said: “When we brought him, no one knew him. There is a quality player here on a different level. A very fast player and a scorer. Hisham Zoevi knew how to work with him properly on his finishing. This player needed tuning when he arrived He’s already in the middle of last season and you’ll see him today, how he’s flourishing. The league’s top scorer, he’s become a very significant player in this league and everyone knows what a gem we have in our hands. We believe in him even ahead of Shafaram.”
The first time the two faced off against each other since the establishment of the Bnei Shafaram Union four years ago, was in the 2020/21 season, when on May 28, 2021 the teams parted 0:0. On June 8, 2021, Kfar Cana youth beat Ihud Bnei Shafaram 0:1 from an own goal by Ahmed Yunes in the 90th minute. This season, as mentioned, Ihud Bnei Shafaram won 1:2 in the 94th minute in the previous meeting between the two.
In the meantime, just before the match against Bnei Shafaram Union, Kfar Cana Youth was fined NIS 7,000 due to the fact that its crowd lit a flare in the home game against Hapoel Buaina in the 22nd round of the league, in which Kfar Cana Youth won 1:3. The team was prosecuted in front of attorney Wafa Zoevi-Pahum, and the judge’s report stated: “In the 24th minute of the game, a flare was lit in the stands housing the youth of Kfar Kana (it should be noted that the flare smoke did not affect the flow of the game).” Muhammad Khatib, the director of the group, was present at the discussion on behalf of the youth of Kfar Kana.