Haifa - We lost again

Just came back from the field, lost at home 2-1 to Hakoah Ramat-Gan (11/12 in the league). We are now only 11 points above the red line with 10 games to go.

I'm starting to feel what West-ham fans must feel

How did you place in the table last season?

Last season we won our 3rd consecutive championship, our 5th in 6 years. for 6 years we were the dominent team in Israel. now we cant even win at home

so what's happened this year, what's wrong ?

3 main players (Idan Tal - Bolton, Zandeberg and Benado - Beitar Jerusalem) left and no worthy subs came.

What confuses me (and the press here) is that we are having a great run in the UEFA cup yet we cant even beat the weakest teams domesticly

Apart from the three transfers mentioned what do you think the problem is? Player effort? Management issues?

Well, both.

It's seems the players arent working as hard when it comes to the league games, I can also see a mental change with them. In the prior years if they conceeded a goal (it was rare but it happened) they wouldnt give up or change their way of playing because they believed they were the better team and they'll win, this year after they get a goal every player tries to save the team alone, passes go down to 0, no trust between the players.

2nd there's the manager (rony Levi), true it's the same manager we had for the last 3 years (3 titles) but tight from the 1st season you could see that the team is running by itself and sometime even despite him.
Haifa is knows in Israel for years for it's attacking football no matter what and he came and ruined it, his subs come late and almost never influence the game he is not a good coach even if he has 3 titles in his 1st 3 years as a coach. Unfortently for us he was just signed for another season.

Back to those transfers, when teams play Haifa here in Israel, they close up thier defense and try to score by surprise with a quick attack. Idan Tal and Zandberg where the talented guys incharge of breaking those bunkers. No worthy subs came to replace them and what bothers me the most is that Idan Tal is hardly playing at Bolton, COME HOME TAL!!

Some years ago Roma did the same.. the best thing to do is to change the manager, with us it worked *well we changed 3 or 4 that season but after that year we chose the right one*

the fans want to change the manager, unfortenetly our president is pleased with this one and as i said before he signed him for another season

I ws watching something about the isreali League on Sky the last day, you lost 3-0 to Beitar Jerusalem recently too didnt you?

Yes we did do you have to rub my face in it?

Bad weekend for Haifa people.
On thursday, during the UEFA cup 1/8 final match the home of our best striker, Roberto Colaoti was broken into, they "cleaned" it.
Today, Saturday, our coach, Rony Levi lost his brother in law in a car accident, 2 of his nephews are badly injured

Sorry for you, you have a good subsitute to replace him ?

Manchester, Chelsea have not this problem because for them the subsitutes are sometimes as good as the titular players. But for teams like us, it can be a problem and it's the reason why we had problems to finish something and to win a cup or a championship.

To replace who? the coach? he'll be at the next game. And about the striker, those as holes only stole stuff from his home, he is not hurt, he can and will play.

ok i have understood, and thought that your striker was injuried.

And again, now we lost the away game in Jerusalem (1st in the league) 4-1.
On the 18th minute Colaoti headed in and gave us a 0-1 lead, all was going well till the 1st half stopage time when the ref decided to finish the game. He gave them a penalty and sent our center back and manager off when there was no foul at all. our keeper saved the penalty but their striker got to the rebound 1st and made 1-1 on stopage time. on the 2nd half he (the ref) let their players do whatever they wanted on the field, almost injuring 3 of our main players while every little touch by our players was considered a foul, he killed the game for us and they socred 3 more goals who sent them back to 1st place . we are again 7th. god i wish they wont win the league this year, i hate them!!
about the ref... well, he's not worth mentioning, he got 1/10 in the papers

lol 1/10

How does the table look like at the moment?

it looks bad:


Team Pld Pts

1 Beitar Jerusalm_________47
2 H. Tel-Aviv_____________45
3 M. Tel-Aviv_____________43
4 M. Petach-Tikva_________37
5 M. Netanya_____________36
6 Ashdod________________35
7 M. Haifa________________32
8 H. Kfar-Saba____________31
9 Bnei Yehuda_____________27
10 Hakoah Maccabi Amidar__21
11 M. Herzliya_____________18
12 H. Petach-Tikva_________14

It seems that after 14 years Haifa wont be in any european competition next year.

Yep isn't the best of the situations for you It's alsways sad when a good side have a bad season

Are the first 3 who qualify to european cups?

1st go to the CL qualifyers, 2nd, 3rd and cup winner go to the UEFA cup and 4th go to the InterToto cup