25/7/2013 : Maccabi Haifa and Hapoel T.A both seek to advance in Europa League, with one foot already in the next round

Football:

Arik Benado and Dekel Keinan at
the press conference (maccabi haifa)

Maccabi Haifa will go into their UEFA Europa League 2^nd Qulifying Round 2^nd Leg match tonight at 19:00 against Azerbaijani side Khazar Lankaran with a 2-0 lead from the first leg. The Haifa players landed in Azerbaijan yesterday morning and their manager Arik Benado already had his pre-match press conference and in it spoke about how he and his team were going to approach the match. "We finished the first game with a good result, but we will not underestimate Lankaran", said Benado, "We know that they are a dangerous team but we also want to win this leg and be in the next round. In the first leg we dominated and had control of the game, but nevertheless we know how good Lankaran are. Overall I was happy with the first game even though we could have won by a larger margin". Haifa's Israeli defender Dekel Keinan was also present at the press-conference and also shared a few words about what he thought about the tie: "Already in Kiryat Eliezer we realized that they are a good team. Most of the time during the game we were in control but the moment that we found ourselves in the wrong place they took advantage of our mistakes and created good chances".

Ironically amongst the names' of all of the members of the Lankaran club the name of the manager is the one that stands out the most, former legendary Liverpool striker John Toshack who signed on as the club's manager in March.

Haifa's expected lineup:

GK: Bojan Saronov, DF: Elad Gabai, Dekel Keinan, Taleb Twatiha, Edin Cocalic, MF: Gustavo Boccoli, Yaniv Katan (captain), Ruben Rayos, Hen Ezra, Eyal Golasa (or Alon Turgeman), FW: Shimon Abuhatzira.

      (The game will be broadcasted live on Sport5 from 19:00)

 

Hapoel Tel Aviv will also play their Europa League 2^nd Qualifying Round 2^nd Leg tonight in Tel Aviv at 20:00 but with a bigger advantage then Haifa as Hapoel won the first leg 4-1 in their tie against Bulgarian side Beroe Stara Zagora who last season won the Bulgaria Cup for just the second time in the club's history.

   Hapoel's star midfielder Gili Vermouth who has been out of action for a very long time through injury is expected to return to the squad for tonight's match and despite the fact that they are winning the tie by 3 goals Hapoel will probably play with a similar starting 11 as it will be their first home game of the season and Bloomfield Stadium is expected to be a sell-out for the occasion so the team will want to notch up a win in order to impress their fans.

   When Hapoel's manager Ran Ben Shimon was asked whether or not Vermouth will take part at all in the game at the pre-match press conference, he said: "I understand why everyone wants to know about Gili. I would be very glad for him to take part in the game, my plan is to put him on the pitch at some point. I see in him hunger that I don't see in a lot of other players. At the moment it is important for me to work with him in the right way and at the right pace, that is much more important. I can say that Gili is one of those players that every time that he steps on to the pitch he causes things to move".

Ran Ben Shimon at his press conference yesterday 

   Despite the fact that Hapoel have not yet officially advanced to the next round of the Europa League Ben Shimon was already looking forward to the domestic league season. "I am collecting information and coming to conclusions about all the teams in the league not only the big ones", said Ben Shimon, "Of course I am preparing for all the games, I want to get to know all of our opponents in the league and every single little peace of information interests me, we always want our team to be the best team. I must make sure that Hapoel is always moving forward in all aspects of the game and we must never lay back and think that we can just rest. The goal is to move Hapoel Tel Aviv forward".

    Also Beroe's manager Petar Houbchev had e few words to say about the game: "We are coming to the game with the will to try our best to get a good result. We have already got used to the weather here in Israel".

 

Tal Ben Haim

Israel national team defender Tal Ben Haim has completed his move to Belgian side Standard Liege on a 2 year deal. At Standard he will meet up with fellow Israeli's, former Israel U-21 national team coach Guy Luzon who is currently the manager there and Dudu Biton who is a player there. Ben Haim who started his professional career at Maccabi Tel Aviv where he helped them win the 02/03 championship played the beginning of last season in the English Premier League with Queens Park Rangers under Harry Redknapp, but towards the end of the season after only making 3 appearances for the London club, was apparently loaned out to MLS side Toronto FC but 4 days later Toronto's general manager Kevin Payne announced that Ben Haim had never actually signed at the club so the Israeli didn't end up joining them. Although in the recent past Ben Haim has had an up and down career that included Short spells at English sides West Ham, Sunderland, Portsmouth and as mentioned Q.P.R the 31 year old played 110 Premier League games for Chelsea, Manchester City and Bolton Wanderers between 2004 and 2008. By signing for Standard, Ben Haim who also has 72 international caps for Israel joined the 9^th team of his career.

Eric Djemba Djemba

 Eric Djemba Djemba who played last season for Hapoel Tel Aviv in midfield and is also a former Manchester United midfielder has joined Serbian club Partizan Belgrade. Djemba Djemba was written off by Manchester United legend Gary Neville in his autobiography as "not good enough to be a first team regular at United" Neville also controversially titled the years between 2004 and 2006 where United failed to win the Premier League "the Djemba Djemba years".

Pre-Season friendly results:

Hapoel Haifa 0-0 Wadzobach 

Athletics:

Donald Sanford shows of his record  after the race

Israeli sprinter Donald Sanford broke the Israeli men's 400m record yesterday in the 19^th Maccabiah Games when he ran it in 45.65 seconds. Also participating in the same race was Israeli Olympic Finalist Steven Solomon who only managed a time of 46.24 seconds. Despite winning the race and breaking the Israeli record Sanford looked annoyed after the race, probably due to the fact that he missed out by just 0.05 second on qualifying for the World Championships in Moscow that starts on the 10^th of August. "It was a great contest", Sanford said after the win, "It was very special for me to race against Steven Solomon. He is a great runner and I fully respect him. It is because of him and because of my training that I have reached such a result. This win is dour and sweet at the same time but because I am currently feeling the best that I have felt in the last 2 years, I am at present a happy person".