Maccabi’s outstanding start to the league season continued on Saturday as Vladimir Ivic’s charges beat Ironi Kiryat Shmona 3-1 to maintain a perfect record of nine points from the opening three matches. The day after the match we plunged into the stats to check the interesting numbers the team achieved so far this season.
A record start
Maccabi kicked-off the league campaign with 3 victories out of the first 3 league matches and a 14-1 goal difference. This is Maccabi’s best ever start to a league campaign as only Beitar Tel Aviv (1949/50) had a better start – 3 wins and a 14+ goal difference.
Of the 71 seasons in Israel’s history, this is the 12th season Maccabi begin a league campaign with 3 wins and the first time since the 2013/14 campaign.
A new league record:
Gabi Kanichowsky and Parfait Guiagon became the 8th and 9th Maccabi Tel Aviv players to score goals in the 2022/23 league campaign. This set a new record of the number of goals corers from one team which improved the previous record of 7.
Since foreign coaches began guiding Maccabi Tel Aviv (2012/13) the home record in 15 matches against Ironi Kiryat Shmona is 13 wins and 2 draws.
A 91% success rate against Kiryat Shmona is the highest against any of the 13 top flight opponents Maccabi hosted in 5 matches or more.
A first league brace
The injury time consolation goal Maccabi conceded from Kiryat Shmona’s, Itamar Shviro, ended a 270 minutes of a clean sheet. Maccabi kept a clean sheet after 3 league matches only 7 times in its’ history with the record set by Daniel Tewnenbaum in the 2019/20 campaign – first goal conceded on MD14.
Gabi Kanichowsky who was named as the BOSS Player of the Match, scored his first brace in the league. Kanichowsky, who scored 3 league goals last season, scored his first Maccabi brace during the Conference League 5-0 victory away to HJK Helsinki.
Maccabi’s record against Kiryat Shmona’s coach Menachem Koretzki after yesterday’s match is now: 14 victories, 1 defeat and a draw – 91.7% which places him as the coach with the lowest success rate who faced Maccabi in 10 matches or more.
