The big three of Israeli football, Maccabi Tel Aviv, Hapoel B’Shlosha and Maccabi Haifa, have dominated the Premier League for the past decade, but exactly a decade ago it was a team north of the periphery that excited an entire country – Kiryat Shmona. Led by the coach Ran Ben Simon It won its first, only and historic championship that it is unclear if it will ever be restored. She was so dominant that the championship was promised as early as April. In a special interview with the sports channel, the captain and the only relic on the squad from that team, Adrian Rochet, runs back the wheels of time and recalls that magical season.
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“If we touch on the social section and the locker room, which in the end is what affects the professional aspect,” says Rochet, “I remember we would drive to the Maccabiah Hotel and at the end of dinner, all the players would walk to the nearest gas station, buy ice cream and sit together on fences “Outside the hotel. We were very cohesive. We were also a really good team, everything connected to us in an amazing way.”
“No matter who plays, it has always been the same method. It was a well-oiled machine, everyone works on an automatic. I would get a ball and I would know where Badash is, what Shimon (Abuhatzira) is going to do and when Elad Gabay will come up. I hardly remember fights in training or “Exchanging accusations, even at the start of the season that we did not get a good result, we kept each other. When players are together all day, you connect on a mental level. I enjoy cuddling up to the past, because it was something special and it has not happened since.”
“It was a lot of fun, we just enjoyed coming to practice, to games,” Rochett continues, “the locker room that was here … it was amazing. The women were all friends, we would come to training and the women would go to the mall to hang out together. After training all the families were “Coming to the stadium, you would see kids running on the grass. It was a feeling you were working with your good friends.”
Although on the turf everything ticked, not everything went smoothly at the club that season. Rochet: “Towards the end of the season there was a crisis in the relationship between Izzy and Ren (Ben Shimon). We went to an away game and a camera crew accompanied us who made a film about the season. We had a game at Bloomfield and we had coffee and cake at the hotel It’s like a hit. He told us that a second before he told the lineup. The way he told us that everyone was in shock. For us Ran Ben Shimon was God this season, he realized there was no point in talking about the game and what would happen. He gave up the tactical briefing “Until the opening whistle, no player uttered a word.”
Most of the players who were part of the championship were unable to replicate their ability in other teams. “There were those who succeeded and those who did not, sometimes we have to be in the right team and at the right time,” says Rochet. “Brian (Grzicic) behind me, Shimon and Badash knew they needed each other. When everyone went to a different team, they were missing something. Eitan Tibi and Shir Tzedek were very successful, we complemented each other.”
In retrospect, it seems that KS’s championship did not really mark a new era in Israeli football. Rochet: “It has had a great impact on KS, it gave a kind of boost. “That it can be done. It whetted the appetite for Izzy, it gave faith to the top league teams that don’t need hundreds of millions to take a championship. A good team is not measured by player salaries. I do not think there was a change in world order due to our championship. “What needs to happen for another team of the big three to win the championship?” Apart from the big three no one has really competed for the title in recent years, it will be difficult for another team to win the title. In K.S.
In those days Bachar served as Ben Shimon’s assistant. Rochet admits he was surprised by the development of the coach’s career: “Barak just got into the assistant coach’s shoes, he learned a lot from him. There were passages he briefed and passed on video, but Ren controlled everything here. He wanted to be involved in everything, even deciding when coffee and cake “When do you go out on the field? He wanted to be the last word, he was very dominant. Barak was right at the beginning of his path. At that time we did not think that was what Barak would become, we thought Sharan would dominate the league for many years.”
A painful point about which Izzy Shretzky often speaks in his interviews is the audience. The championship also failed to attract a large crowd. Rochet: “Even before the championship there would not have been a large crowd, it is difficult to put your finger on something specific that if there is the same stadium it will be full. Upper Galilee fills the hall and instills sympathy for the future generation. “
How is the current KSH different from the one that won the championship?
“I think that team had more players with resume and experience, players like Hasarma, Gazal, Badash, Brian, Shimon and Solari who joined. The home players have also played regularly for several years. The experience was very significant and the coach’s character, Ran coached here 5- 6 years. He caught up with good foreigners, knew how to choose players with good character, today’s football is completely different mainly in the way players are conducted. “The clubs are also building on selling young players and giving them more credit.”
What needs to be done to restore the historic championship?
“I think you need to build a healthy and strong locker room, apart from excellent players you need a good personality. In a place like KS it is not easy to bring stars and convince players to come and sign KS, you have to find the right balance between home players, hungry players and foreign players and find the The character who will connect everyone professionally. “
How will Urbani Kash look on the day Izzy Shretzky leaves?
“It’s scary, it’s uncertainty. I hope it’s good, because what he did and does is no landlord did. He changed the whole image of the city, of the football team. He gave sporting hope to hundreds of children in the city. He’s been over 20 years “At the club, I do not want to think about him not being here. As I know Izzy, even as soon as he decides to leave he will not disappear and will continue to worry about the team.”
