Year Founded: 1912

Stadium: Moshava (11,500)

Head Coach: Ran Ben Shimon

 Players who left: Ivan Herzeg, Dedi Ben Dayan, Roie Dayan, Marwan Khabaa, Daniel Dimov, Almog Ohayon, Bryan Gerzerich, Lior Bratkovsky, Yaniv Sagi, David Solari, Tomer Elbaz

Players who arrived: David Twito, Allyson dos Santos, Mindaugus Panka, Xavier Thomas, Dor Hugi, Mohamed Kalebat, Mor Shaked, Oded Gavish

Key player: Dor Elo

Elo is a young player and extremely gifted with the ability to read situations and move the ball very well. With the exception of last match, most counterattacks go through Elo due to his abilities, speed and ball handling as he knows how to find the attacking players and put the strikers in dangerous situations for the opponent.

Past encounters:

For many years the Luzon family’s club have made Maccabi Tel Aviv’s life difficult though last season was a bit different. Last year, Pako Ayestaran’s side faced Petach Tikva both in the regular season and in the playoffs. On Matchday One the Spanish coach began the campaign with a 3:0 win over Petach Tikva at the Moshava Stadium. As well, on the first Matchday of the second round of games the Yellow-and-Blue defeated the Blues of Ran Ben Shimon 3:0. However, in the playoffs on Matchday One the sides split the points in a 1:1 draw while in the final game of the year Petach Tikva had the upper hand winning 2:0. This season, on the first Matchday of the Toto Cup Slavisa Jokanovic’s charges lost 3:0 at Bloomfield Stadium making them the only team that Maccabi hasn’t defeated since the second round of matches last year.

 Scout  Amir Turgeman:

Petach Tikva hasn’t changed the way they play very much since last season even though they underwent a significant facelift within their squad but Kalebat introduces a bit more speed to their attack. The club opened the season very well with four straight victories, however after the loss to Beer Sheva they may come to play a bit more cautious and use a 5-3-2 formation.

Strengths: Their counter-attack. They try to steal the ball in midfield and breakout quickly. Play is primarily on the wings, specifically with Dor Elo who knows how to locate the strikers and give them opportunities on goal.

Defensive game: Other than last game where they gave up five goals we’re talking about a club that plays a very good defensive game especially as a team. All of the players work very hard at both ends of the pitch.