Ahead of Maccabi Tel Aviv's round of 32 State Cup match tonight in Ashdod, let's have a closer look at the home side's venue, the Ha Yud Alef Stadium. Some reason for optimism
There's talk of curses, they say the pitch is absolutely unbearable and that winning there is an impossibility. Well all right, it may not be Old Trafford, but you can't argue with the numbers. Or can you? In the last five seasons, Ashdod's Ha Yud Alef Stadium, named after the eleven victims of the Munich Olympic games terrorist attack in 1972 (the Hebrew letters yud and alef together also stand for the number 11), has done Maccabi Tel Aviv no favours, and with the exception of one lone victory in the 2010/11 season, the team have returned from the port city six times without a win, including this season. But take a look at the broader picture and you'll see that the situation is not as bad as you might think. Start with the simple fact that of the 27 league matches they have played there, Maccabi have won 13 of them. Seven matches finished in draws, seven in defeats. In fact, up until the 2008/09 season, the home side had won just three times.
Maccabi have played Ashdod four times in the Cup and three of those matches were played away. Prior to the merger in 1999 that produced Ashdod FC, there were two clubs in Ashdod, Ironi and Hapoel. During the 1981/82 season, Maccabi played their first Cup tie in Ashdod against the former. Maccabi head coach Yakov Grundman was on the touchline, the late Avi Cohen was in central defence and the players responsible for harrying the Ashdod defences were striker (and current first team manager) Benny Tabak and a young Eli Dricks in only his second appearance for the senior squad. In the end it was a lone goal by midfielder Moshe Schweitzer that beat the third division side's stubborn defences and Maccabi advanced to the last 16 where they were eliminated by the ultimate Cup winner Hapoel Yehud.
Sixteen years would pass before Maccabi returned to the port city for a Cup tie, in in the last sixteen of the 1997/98 season. This would be the second and last time they faced Ironi Ashdod at the Ha Yud Alef Stadium before the merger, but this final engagement would leave no pleasant memories for Maccabi as they were dumped out of the competition after a tense and goal-studded encounter. It would take Maccabi seven years to get their "revenge", in the club's first Cup tie against a united Ashdod FC in the last sixteen round of the 2004/05 season. Maccabi won the match 2-3 and their campaign would not be halted until they lifted the Cup itself from the hands of the nation's president, a gesture that has been absent from the club's annals ever since. So perhaps this year, too, the road to Cup glory passes through Ashdod. Whether we like it or not.
