In just about two weeks Maccabi Tel Aviv will return to Kiryat Shalom to begin preparations for the upcoming season. The campaign that just finished didn’t end with any titles but we certainly had some great moments, records and some terrific Yellow & Blue action. Just before we turn over a new page let’s take a look back at the past season:
Non-stop – 58 official matches in one campaign. Yes, 58 of them. Maccabi had a very long year that began on July 14th in Malta against Hibernians where they fell 1:2 but ended their European experience with a visit to Stamford Bridge, The Dragao and other amazing football stops.
Clean sheets – Maccabi and Hapoel Beer Sheva gave up only 24 goals all season long in 36 games. But where the Yellow & Blue had a huge advantage over every other club in the league were matches where they kept the ball out of the goal. Predrag Rajikovic picked up 20 clean sheets, an unbelievable amount of shutouts for the young Serbian keeper.
Team picture – Maccabi had 26 squad members play over the course of the WINNER League season. If we also take into account the Toto and State Cups there was another five players who featured for Slavisa Jokanovic and Peter Bosz which leads us to the next item.
Coaches – We began the year with Serbian Slavisa Jokanovic who helped the Club advance to the Champions League before he headed off to the English Championship and ended the campaign off with Peter Bosz from Holland who had a good run but ended without any titles. However, right before the Dutchman arrived you may recall that Javier Perrera, Slavisa’s assistant coach, stood on the sidelines for the league match against Maccabi Petach Tikva. Did anyone say 100% success rate?
75% – 81 out of a possible 108 points is the success rate we got this season, but Hapoel Beer Sheva were just a bit better and finished with 76.85%. Close, very close.
Zahavi – Everyone watched the Captain have a historic season and rewrite the history books. 35 league goals, five more than Nisim Elmaliach who held the single season goal scoring record before number 7. Let’s add another 7 goals in the Champions League qualification matches, one in the group stages, a pair of goals in the Super Cup, another marker in the Toto Cup Derby plus two more in the State Cup competition. If you add them all up you get a grand total of 48 goals this season. A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!
15 – Different goals scorers for Maccabi Tel Aviv in league action this season
Fountain of Youth – The youngest player to suit up for the First Team this season was Eylon Almog who made his debut against Hapoel Kfar Saba in the State Cup as a 17-year old. Almog played with central defender Tal Ben Haim who is double his age and Yoav Ziv who is double his age plus one. Hopefully we’ll see them play together again next season.
