Beginning in 1977/78, the top Israeli league began having two full rounds of matches where the second round only began after the first round had finished. Before that, the club’s would play each other home and away but it could be in any type of order and the campaign would end once each team played each other twice.
Maccabi has never been relegated and has participated in 39 second rounds where their record in the opening match of round number two stands at 19 victories, 9 draws and 11 losses.
The Yellow & Blue have played Kfar Saba twice in the opening match of the second round prior to this campaign back in 1997/98 and 1982/83 with both encounters ending in a draw.
Over the past three seasons, Maccabi has won the first match of the second round and in fact has also won each season’s opener. Their opponents over this time period have included Sakhnin, Maccabi Petach Tikva and Hapoel Akko. The Petach Tikva side has actually played Maccabi the most times in the first match since the rounds format was adopted, five times in total. One of those contests ended in dramatic fashion just before Maccabi headed to Torino for a date with Juventus as Erez Mesika scored in the 88th minute to clinch the crucial win over Petach Tikva.
Avram Grant has coached Maccabi Tel Aviv the most times in the opening match of the second round and was able to guide the Yellow & Blue to two League Championships and one State Cup.
And how about the top goal scorers in the first match of the second round? Well we have three names that won’t surprise many of you. Eli Drikes and Eran Zahavi have five goals a piece and sit in second place. Who’s in first? Avi Nimni with 8 markers to be recognized as Maccabi’s all time leading goal scorer in the opening contests of the second round.
