Maccabi closed out the round with 33 points out of a possible 39 for a 84% success rate.
How successful was this round? This was the second best all-time round of matches in Maccabi’s history. The best was back in 1994 when the Yellow & Blue collected 37 points for a 94.9 success rate.
This was also Maccabi’s best start to the campaign since the 1995/96 Double Season (the first round had 15 Matchdays). That season Maccabi won 11 contests, drew once and lost once in the first 13 matches.
For comparison purposes, Paulo Sousa’s 2012/13 Maccabi finished the first round with 32 points.
Vladimir Ivic’s squad also sports the best goal differential in the league – +24 (best since 95/96 +25), along with the most goals – 31 (the best was 34 goals in 95/96) and the least goals conceded – 7 (lowest since 93/94, 6).
If Hapoel Hadera doesn’t win this evening when they face Maccabi Netanya the gap between first and second place will be the largest ever after 13 Matchdays (11 points). Should Hadera win the gap will be 9 points.
The first round also saw Maccabi extend their league unbeaten streak to 19 matches which of course began last season.
13 Maccabi players scored in the first round:
Omer Atzili 5, Eliran Atar 13, Itay Shechter 4, Chico Ofoedu 3, Dor Peretz 3, Eyal Golasa 2, Yonatan Cohen 2, Avi Rikan 2, Eli Dasa 1, Enric Saborit 1, Sheran Yeini 1, Maor Kandil 1, Aron Schoenfeld 1.
Yonatan Cohen added his name to the list last night with his first two league goals.
Eli Dasa assisted on one of Cohen’s goals and tied Dor Micha with 5 assists for the team lead.
Omer Atzili didn’t score yesterday but was very active among the Maccabi players with 5 attempts towards the target. Yonatan Cohen had three attempts and scored twice.
Itay Shechter scored his 4th league goal and was the player who ran the fastest reaching 32.1kph.
Ruslan Barsky led Maccabi once again distance run with 12.2km. Dor Micha and Dor Peretz each ran 11.2km good for second place.
