Three veterans of the Champions League, a head coach with 121 goals in a yellow-and-blue jersey and a recent acquisition from Maccabi Tel Aviv. Introducing Hapoel Ramat Hasharon
In the run up to the match at Hapoel Ramat Hasharon, it seemed only appropriate to visit the training grounds next to the local "Grundman" Stadium to get acquainted with Maccabi Tel Aviv's opponent for this Saturday's fixture. There among the players criss-crossing the pitch in blue training kits stands a figure in a white t-shirt with arms folded who once, in the 1980's, lead the Maccabi Tel Aviv attack and is now head coach of Hapoel Ramat Hasharon – Benny Tabak. Better known by his nickname F-15 during his tenure with Maccabi, Tabak joined the club in September along with former Maccabi chairman Danny Laufer, giving the otherwise blue Tel Aviv suburb a yellow tint.
The first seeds of the eventual takeover of Hapoel Ramat Hasharon by Maccabi veterans were sown in the summer of 2009 when Gal Nir, substitute goalkeeper from 2003 to 2005 and starter for Maccabi's Champions League match against Juventus, arrived at the club. After four seasons with Maccabi Netanya, Nir failed to hold down the position of starting goalkeeper in the Israel Premier League and turned to Hapoel Ramat Hasharon, then in the second tier, to ply his trade. In his first season with the club he became a fixture between the uprights and Hapoel Ramat Hasharon finished fifth in the league table. A year later Nir and the team won the league and promotion to the Premier League, for Hapoel Ramat Hasharon for the first time in their history.
Riding their luck the club decided to engage the services of Baruch Dego from Cypriot side Apollon Limassol. The midfielder, who spent five seasons at Maccabi, winning one championship, three Israel Football Association (IFA) Cups and historic appearances that included four goals in the Champions League, had an excellent first season with the club, scoring six goals and finishing 11th with his side in their first year in the Israel Premier League.
This recipe for success seemed to have proven itself once again and last summer two more Maccabi veterans arrived at the club. Defender Tom Mansharov figured in Maccabi head coach Moti Ivanir's side in 2011, but the latter's successor Nir Levin left him on the bench and at the end of the season Mansharov was welcomed with open arms at Hapoel Ramat Hasharon. Defender Kobi Mussa spent eight successive seasons with Maccabi, with the exception of one loan spell at Ashdod FC, but is best remembered for a bust up with a Hapoel Tel Aviv fan who burst on to the pitch during a derby in the 2006/07 season. Mussa too was a part of the Maccabi squad that played in the Champions League in 2004 and together with Dego and Nir formed part of the "trio" that earned Maccabi the famous draw against Juventus at the National Stadium in Ramat Gan in December 2004.
And this season too the recipe continues to work its magic. With ten league matches played Hapoel Ramat Hasharon have won half their encounters and are placed sixth in the table, just six points off the pace. Last season, Hapoel Ramat Hasharon beat Maccabi Tel Aviv twice, both at home (then the Winter Stadium in Ramat Gan) and away at Bloomfield. The fact that this Saturday's encounter will be played at the local Grundman Stadium may once again play into the hands of the host side. Then again this might be an opportunity to make a fresh start.
