The 1995 season was not as good as the 1994
season for Maccabi Haifa but at least they won the cup and struggled on
the championship untill the final week of the season.
The league
The players market - Although
the 94 season was the best season
ever for Maccabi Haifa the team changed a lot-4 important players were
sold and 4 others came to replace them.Two of the Maccabi Haifa
symbols-Reuven Atar and Eytan Aharoni were sold to Hapoel Haifa.The top
scorer of the league three years in a row-Alon Mizrahi was sold to the
runners up last season-Maccabi Tel aviv.The substitute striker-Getsko was
sold to an Ukranian team.The new players were Haim Revivo
which was also the
most expensive transfer ever in Israel (bought from Hapoel Tel Aviv
),Najuan Grayeb from Ahi Natsrat Vasily Kardash as a replacer for
Alon
Mizrahi and Oleg Kozneitsov from Glazgo Rangers.
Maccabi Haifa finished the last season
without a defeat and it was obvious that it would be very difficult to
keep this marvellous achivement.
The season started well with a 4:2
victory over Herzlia.The next three games ended in a draw (against
Maccabi Petah
Tikva,Hapoel Beer Sheva and against the runners up last season-Maccabi Tel
Aviv).The fourth
game made a history-Ironi Ashdod came to Haifa led
2:0,saved a penalty shot,got a goal,scored another goal,got another goal
and in the end won-3:2 and stopped the undefeated row of games Maccabi
Haifa had.Maccabi Haifa won barely next game but then they lost
again,at
home to Beitar Tel Aviv that was promoted only that year !.Now it was
obvious that Maccabi Haifa has a problem-they lost two of the last
three games to much worse team.The two foreigners-Kozneitsov in the
defence and
Kardash in the front (that didn't score even one goal! ) were sent
back.Haifa started to look for a foreign replacer for Kardash because the
young substitute that was replacing him-Holtsman didn't score at all.The
replacer for Kozneitsov-Daniel did an excellent job.There was some
improvement in the next games-Haifa won most of them,two were ended in a
draw but none was lost.Haifa moved untill the second place in the league
when the first half of the league was over.The leaders were Maccabi Tel
Aviv.The foreigner replacer for Kardash was a Zimbabweian player called
Mugay.In the first week of the second half of rhe league Maccabi Haifa won
nicely-4:1 against Herzlia.But a week later,again at Haifa she lost to a
a much worse team (Maccabi Petah Tikva ) 1:0.The leaders Maccabi Tel Aviv
had now a 5 point lead,if Maccabi Tel Aviv will beat us next week they
will have a 8 point lead that will surely give the championship to
them.However,our players played brilliantly and won 3:0 in Tel Aviv.In the
next few weeks we played the best football in the league and won
convincingly in 3 matches.The two stars were Haim Revivo,that was later
choosed as "player of the year" and the striker-Ofer Shitrit that came in
the middle of the year from Lod,after it was found out that Mugay was a
horrible striker.
The next game was against Beitar Tel Aviv-the
promoted team that beat us in the first round of the league.They scored a
goal played only in the defence in the end won 1:0.Maccabi Haifa recovered
quickly and won the next two games convincingly.In the next game we
lost
1:0 to a preety good team-Hapoel Tel Aviv-a reasonable loss.Maccabi Haifa
won the next game and drawn in the next one.The gap was 4 points
from Maccabi Tel Aviv,three weeks to go.Maccabi Haifa won again and
Maccabi Tel Aviv only drawn.The gap was now 2 points two matches to
go.Both teams won next week so the championship will be decided in the
final week.Maccabi Haifa had a better goal diffrence (thanks to Revivo and
Shitrit).Maccabi Tel Aviv played away against Hapoel Beer Sheva that
didn't loss in their home that season.Maccabi Haifa was against the
promoted team-Hapoel Bet Shean that struggled against relegation.If
Maccabi Haifa doesn't win-the championship will go to Tel Aviv no
matter
waht will be the result in their game.If Maccabi Haifa wins and Maccabi
Tel doesn't win (draw or a loss) the championship will go again to
Haifa.Hapoel Bet Shean which is a small,poor sympatic team needed a win at
Haifa in order to stay in the league-and that seemed unpossible.Maccabi
Haifa got a 2 goals lead from Shitrit,Bet Shean pooled one back and it was
2:1 in half time.In injury time of the first half Maccabi Tel Aviv scored
and went 1:0.Bet Shean started the next half with a lot of enthusiasm and
scored another-2:2. 15 minutes from time they made a huge sensation when
they scored another one and won the match 3:2.It didn't make any
difference because Maccabi Tel Aviv won their game.In the end the Haifa
fans applauded the Bet Shean players for the fight they gave and the fact
that they stayed in the league.Their only confort was the cup.Haim Revivo
won the top scorer title and the "player of the year "title".
The European Cup
Maccabi Haifa played against the
Austrian Club Cazino Zaltsburg for the ticket to the champions league.The
first game was in Haifa and we got a penalty after Kardash was
fouled.Revivo scored the penalty.A few minutes later Kardash was one on
one with the Austrian keeper but the keeper saved.10 minutes from time
Zaltsbarg scored a nice goal and in the 86 minute they got a penalty.They
scored again and won 2:1.The mission that was facing Maccabi Haifa was al
most impossible-they had to win 2:0 in Austria.The first half ended in a
0:0 draw but the Austrian scored in the early minutes of the second
half.Haifa still needed two goals to go into extra time but the Austrian
used the fact that all the Haifa players were in front to score two other
goals.Hazan goal in the end didn't change nothing.The score was 3:1 5:2 on
aggrigate and Haifa missed a golden opportunity to go to the champions
league (in the same group with Milan and Ajax!).
The Toto cup
The toto cup is similar to the league
cup in Europe but it is less important.There are 4 groups,4 teams in each
group,the winner of the group progresses to the second stage.Maccabi Haifa
finished second in the group and didn't qualify.
The Cup
Maccabi Haifa won the cup for the third
time in five years.The star of the cup was Sergei Kandaurov that scored
two goals in each game except the semi final and the final.In the first
round Haifa beat a team from the 4th league-Hapoel Karmiel 3:1 (Kandaurov
2,Mugay).The next game was against Maccabi Tel Aviv-the cup holders,the
leaders of the league and the runners up last season.A year ago in the
same stage Tel Aviv beat Haifa 2:1 in Haifa and won the cup in the end.Now
the game was in Tel Aviv.Kandaurov scored for Haifa but then Balbul was
sent off and Haifa stayed with 10 players.Tel Aviv pressured Haifa
(opposite to the situation a year ago-Tel Aviv led,Haifa pressured but Tel
Aviv won in the end) and finally scored a goal (Nimni).Haifa satrted a
wonderful break attack and then Kandaurov headed the goal scored with a
wonderful header to give the win to Haifa 2:1 (exactly opposite to the
situation a year ago).In the end,The Maccabi Tel Aviv captain said:"We are
a dumn team" (don't feel sorry for them because they later won the
championship).In the quarter finals Haifa met the 2nd league team-Kfar
Saba in Haifa.Kfar Saba led 2:0 but Revivo fought back greatly,got a
penalty (scored by Kandaurov) passed another ball to Kandaurov (that
scored again) and scored himself to give the avoid a huge sensation.In the
semi finals we easily beat Beitar Jerusalem 2:0 (Shitrit and Grayeb).The
final was a derby against Hapoel Haifa-we won very easily 2:0 (Shitrit and
Glam) and Hazan the captain,got the trophy.
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