Maccabi Tel Aviv defeated Kiryat Shemona 3:0 on Saturday night and added another record in a season of many broken records. Since the beginning of the league season, this was the 23rd match that the Yellow & Blue have gone undefeated – the most in club history. The prior record was in 1953/54 and 1957/58 when Maccabi also went undefeated in a season of 22 matches.
The Maccabi defenders and keeper Predrag Rajkovic kept a clean sheet for the 11th time this season in league play. In 23 Matchdays the Yellow & Blue have given up only 11 goals.
This was the second match in a row that Maccabi didn’t concede a goal after last week’s 0:0 draw at Bnei Sakhnin.
How about another great stat: This is the 6th straight match that there were 3 goals scored in a match between Maccabi and Kiryat Shemona (6 Maccabi 2:1 wins, two 3:0 victories).
The MAC Trio
Three players were involved in the Maccabi goals. Eliran Atar scored a brace, Dor Micha scored a lone marker and assisted on another while Chico Ofoedu assisted on Micha’s goal and one of Atar’s.
Atar draws even with Itzik Zohar
After Atar entered the top 10 all-time Maccabi scorers in league play, Atar moved into 8th place with 70 league goals. The striker drew even with Itzik Zohar who also has 70 goals and will now set his sights on Dror Bar Nur who has 83.
Atar’s brace gave him 10 league goals on the season and is now tied with Mavis Tchibota who is at the top of the Ligat Japanika leader list.
This was also Atar’s 4th brace of the season and has done it 3 times at home and once away. Just one day before his birthday which is today, #16 scored his 18th goal across all competitions.
Micha closes in on history
In terms of assists, Dor Micha now has 9 league helpers and has also made it to the top of the league leaders drawing even with Valon Ahmedi from Kiryat Shemona.
Micha has 65 league assists over the course of his career and he’s closing in on the Maccabi leader Avi Nimni who has 81.
In Micha’s last 9 matches across all competitions the midfielder has recorded 5 goals and 4 assists.
Chico Ofoedu’s pair of assists now brings his league total to 3 and 4 overall.
Speed demons
According to league stats, it’s no surprise that Chico was the fastest Maccabi player hitting 33.8kph. Yonatan Cohen was second with 33.5kph.
Maccabi’s midfielders didn’t stop running as Dan Glezer and Dor Peretz ran 11.8km and 11km respectively.
