David Kuperman, Colombian Jewish defender of M.S. Ashdod will open tonight (Saturday, 20:15, Sport4) for the first time this season in the league in a match against Maccabi Tel Aviv. Kuperman, who plays in the position of left defender, has not played in the Premier League so far due to injury, but he will come up tonight in the 11 of Ran Ben Shimon, who will continue with the formation of five players in defense, but will make some internal changes. Gil Cohen, who played until now as a left defender, will be shifted to the left brake position alongside Timothy Avani and Nenad Tsvatkovic. Captain Tom Ben-Zakan, who has so far played in the league as a stopper on the left side, will be shifted to his original position as a right defender. Whoever pays the price and goes down to the bench is Zohar Zasno.
The young foreigner Martin Nedzi, who in the previous game committed a penalty on a player of Hapoel Jerusalem immediately when he entered the game as a substitute, will not dress tonight. In Ashdod, they are debating how many minutes to give to Hammoudi Kanaan, who returned to play in the Toto Cup match against Beitar Jerusalem last Wednesday as a substitute, and a decision has not yet been made if he will start tonight and how many minutes he will play. The one who will be missing is Brazilian midfielder Lucas Salinas, who injured a muscle against Hapoel Jerusalem. Varden Saban may also start for the first time in the lineup tonight.
Tonight’s game will be a meeting between two coaches who have long since become friends. Ran Ben Shimon said yesterday about Valdan Ivitch: “I really like him on a personal level.” Ivitch said the other day about Ben Shimon: “Ashdod has an excellent coach.” The two have maintained a warm relationship since Ivić’s first term in Israel and occasionally also play tennis together. There is a great mutual respect between them. Both are expected to go up tonight in identical formations of 1:4:5.
Ivić will come to tonight’s game with a single striker, Eran Zahavi. Djorja Jovanovic is suspended and Dor Turgeman did not receive permission to go to training from the rookies last week. Dan Glazer, Dor Peretz, Gabi Kanikovski and Parfa Giagon are supposed to start together in the midfield.
Maccabi Tel Aviv deny that there are any contacts for a trade for Dan Bitton.