Over the course of Maccabi Tel Aviv’s history, the club had plenty of ups and downs and the 1960’s had not been a particularly successful decade. With the coming of the 1970’s, all that was about to change. Jerry Beit HaLevi’s “Babies” who came on board during the 60’s transformed into a formidable force at the start of the following decade as the club won 4 championships and two State Cups.
The very first year of the decade, 1969/70 was a stellar indication of that change as the team, under the able leadership of the late David Schweitzer, won an historic double. Some of the greats wore the Yellow & Blue shirt including Tzvika Rosen, Meir Nimni, Miki Belo, Moshe Asis, Nissim Bachar, Giora Speigel, Dror Bar Nir, Rahamim Talbi and David Karako.
We’ll get to the dramatic top of the table shortly, but during that same season the club had one of their finest performances. January 24, 1970 Maccabi Tel Aviv defeated their city rivals Hapoel 5:0 which was the biggest Derby win up until recently. Despite the poor rainy weather conditions, over 21,000 fans packed into Bloomfield for an unforgettable match by Giora Speigel in which he scored a hat trick. Later that same year, he would play in the World Cup in Mexico representing Israel. In the 7’ Speigel scored his first, and 20 minutes later he doubled the lead via a free kick. Speigel assisted on the third goal by Rahamim Talbi’s (47’) as well as the 4th by Nissim Bachar (54’). Finally the maestro scored his third of the contest thanks to an assist by Talbi in the 61’ for a 5:0 historic Derby win that would be matched 46 years later on September 9, 2016 with yet another 5:0 victory over the Reds.
But despite that defeat, Hapoel stayed neck-and-neck with Maccabi until the very last week. At the beginning of the season it was decided that should there be a tie for first place on points, goal differential would be used to determine the champion and not average goals as had been done in the past. After 30 Matchdays (2 points were awarded for a win, unlike today) the two club’s each had 39 points, but Maccabi had a better goal differential with 6. In essence, the 5:0 Derby determined the title handing the championship to Schweitzer‘s side.
In order to close out the dream season, on October 7, 1970 Maccabi completed the Double and lifted the 14th State Cup in club history. The Final (under Coach Israel Halivner who had replaced Schweitzer) saw the Yellow & Blue take on Motele Speigler’s Maccabi Netanya who took the lead in the 31’. In the book entitled “The First 102 Years” by Danny Dvorin and Asher Goldberg, it’s told that Nissim Bachar screamed at his teammates during halftime that “We’ll score within 5 minutes.” In fact, Bachar erred. It took only two minutes for Ezra Ozeri to find the equalizer and in the 77’ the comeback was complete. Moshe Asis took a David Karako pass and scored the decisive winner. A 70’s performance – Maccabi Tel Aviv style.
Moshe Sliman one of the Maccabi’s stars of the 70’s
