might be a bit difficult to grasp how time has flown so quickly. Only recently we marked 10 years since that night which we would not exaggerate by naming it as one of Maccabi’s most memorable exciting nights of the current era. On February 18th 2013 Bnei Yehuda hosted Maccabi at Bloomfield stadium for a mini Tel Aviv derby in the middle of a league campaign which restored the club to the front of Israeli football.
Oscar Garcia’s charges arrived at the match on the back of a 4-0 victory over arch city rivals Hapoel on MD22 with an 8-point-lead at the top of the table. Maccabi’s fans were fantasizing in the stands at Bloomfield of a first leg title in many a year (10) but on the pitch the team encountered a complex affair against the neighboring Hatiqva Quarter outfit.
Bnei Yehuda pulled a late comeback and were on the brink of forcing Maccabi to drop precious points in the race for the league title.
But what ultimately saw the match and night enter the history books is a bizarre script which unfolded right before our eyes deep inside injury time.
From being a goal down after the 90th minute, the team wearing that season’s blue away kit, managed to dig themselves out of the grave with a match and a championship winning goal that coined a new phrase – ‘The Lugassi rocket’.
