The atmosphere tonight at Turner Stadium was electrifying. A wonderful evening of football with the flavor of a season game, perhaps with Beer Sheva’s last chance to make a leap in the table. The game was mainly characterized by the impressive ability of the host in front of the yellows, who, although accumulating points, fail to produce an impressive ability on the grass.
The Reds from Be’er Sheva arrive after the successful meeting in Spain against Villarreal. With a lot of audacity, Breda opened with an offensive formation of a back four, two brakes two attacking defenders, a condensed, dynamic, physical and aggressive link and a front trio. An array that eliminated the yellows from the first second. Maccabi Tel Aviv continues to play in a formation of three defenders with a numerical disadvantage in the center of the field and comes to away games as a bottom team that is built on passing attacks that are sufficient against the weak teams of the Premier League, but not good enough as of now against Maccabi Haifa and Hapoel Beer Sheva.
Beer Sheva came determined and aggressive, first for every ball, winning all the physical battles and took a justified lead after a good preparation by Shafi Suleimanov and a light finish by Adrian Fawn, who put Beer Sheva ahead 0:1 with absolute supremacy on the grass. The yellows looked pale, gray, lacking in creativity and without any offensive orientation. If it weren’t for Salmani’s big miss towards the end of the first half, the Yellows would have already gone into the half with a two-goal deficit. If that wasn’t enough, at the end of the first half, Maccabi Tel Aviv was down to ten players after a late and unnecessary tackle by Dan Glazer that put Maccabi Tel Aviv in a much bigger problem heading into the second half.
At the beginning of the second half, Ivić made three extreme substitutions when Eran Zahavi, Ofir Davidzadeh and Oskar Gluch (whom I wouldn’t replace him at halftime under any circumstances) left and were replaced by Dor Peretz, Parfa Goyagon and Joris van Overeem in order to strengthen the center of the pitch. With no choice, the yellows returned to a formation of four players in defense, a link quartet and Djorja Jovanovic was alone in the top.
Barda, on the other hand, made offensive changes with the introduction of Rotem Hatuel and Tomer Hamed at the expense of a striker and a second midfielder – offensive players of much higher quality than the weak Salmani, with the hope of scoring additional goals that came quite quickly when a stationary shot by Roy Gordana found Shagiv Yehezkel. The latter lowered his head to Hatuel, who pushed in from close range and quite rightly gave Beer Sheva a 0:2 lead.
Breda made additional substitutions with Spuri and Breiro who added quality and freshness and Beer Sheva was superior to the Yellows from the opening whistle until the final whistle, when the Yellows had 11 players in the first half and all the more, Beer Sheva remained superior when it had a numerical advantage. Beer Sheva and Barda with a great victory that combined tactics with courage and creativity, where Barda deserves great credit for that. This victory should give the Reds from Beer Sheva a big push forward towards a real fight and joining the Greens from Haifa and the Yellows from Tel Aviv in a real war for the Premier League championship.
Back to the yellows who can be very disappointed with tonight’s game, but maybe Ivic will understand and realize after tonight’s game what he should have understood a long time ago. Maccabi Tel Aviv cannot come to away games as a bottom team, shut down and go on transition attacks. The Yellows must play in a formation of a defensive quartet, a dynamic and physical link trio with a combination of creativity and a balanced forward trio. This is the only way that can leave Maccabi Tel Aviv the chance to fight for the championship until the end.
Maccabi Tel Aviv will of course have to upgrade significantly in January because it is quite clear that mistakes were made in building the team, but even with the existing squad, as of now, Ivić is not able to get the most out of it and above all he has not found the right formula in terms of the formation that is suitable for the composition of the players that he currently has at his disposal. Back to Be’er Sheva who should receive tremendous credit for tonight’s game in her best performance of the season, when she might join as a third side in the championship fight.
A final word to Ivic, who is an excellent coach for me. The first thing Ivic needs to understand is that he has arrived at a different reality than he was used to three years ago when there were no real teams to threaten the Yellows. Maccabi Tel Aviv must return to being an initiative and attacking team on every field, against every team, certainly in the Premier League. After all, the losses to Maccabi Haifa and Be’er Sheva are not accepted with understanding, especially not in the disappointing way. After all, beating the weak teams in the Premier League is not the real test for Ivić, but the confrontation against the real rivals of the Yellows, who as of now have failed their real tests this season.
