Sunday’s match has earned the title of “Match of the Year”. Every football fan in Israel can agree that this is unquestionably the “Match of the Year” and if you look at the past three years you might say that this is becoming a true Super Classico (ok, at least a Classico) in Israeli football. For others like myself who grew up as Maccabists from a very young age in Beer Sheva, anytime the two sides met was like a Derby, my Little Derby.

It’s nothing special to be a Maccabi fan and grow up in a different city as there are thousands, even tens of thousands out there. But we are talking about football here and when it comes to Beer Sheva it’s not just “another city”. There will be plenty of people taking the day off from work on Sunday or leaving early and the classrooms will be a bit emptier as usual, as well as other places of entertainment. Let’s just say they won’t be breaking any revenue records this Sunday.

From the sports point of view, a Maccabi fan in Beer Sheva didn’t have too much of a difficult life in the 1990’s and the turn of the century. In actuality it was quite the opposite. Hapoel Beer Sheva was usually mired in the lower half of the table and was even relegated having to play in the second division for some of those years. So many of the discussions (or loud arguments) about football with friends at school or at work really helped out the Maccabist egos. The Maccabi fans felt that they were always at the top of the table even though the club won the league only once between the years of 1996-2013. But it never stopped us from thinking that we were always candidates to win the championship.

During those years, the Maccabists had to just deal with the likes of Maccabi Haifa, Beitar Jerusalem and Hapoel Tel Aviv who looked down at us. However, the Maccabi fans in Beer Sheva also had some unpleasant moments like the Giovanni Rosso bicycle kick goal in the 1997 Israel State Cup final. Suddenly, going to school the next day was a bit more complicated than usual.

Hapoel Beer Sheva has gotten much better over the past few years (in all aspects) and “My Little Derby” has now become a “Big Derby” and a very important one. Just like everything big that’s happened to Maccabi since Jordi and his crew arrived, I hope that the Yellow-and-Blue will have the upper hand in this Derby as well, my Derby and we can all celebrate.