Maccabi Tel Aviv have played all 68 seasons in the Israeli top flight but for Ness Ziona, this is only the third season with the big boys.

The two clubs met in the starting fixture of this season’s TASE Premier League and Maccabi kicked off their campaign with a comfortable 2-0 away win at the Moshava Stadium in Petah Tikva.

Maccabi Tel Aviv have never dropped a point or lost a match to Ness Ziona over the years. In the distant past, as Maccabi Ness Ziona, the top club in the town in the early days of the league, Tel Aviv won 7-1 in December 1949. Maccabi Ness Ziona folded in March 1950 and all their subsequent games were determined as 3-0 defeats, including the one against Maccabi. Football Section Ness Ziona, an amalgamation of the town’s outfits and Maccabi Ness Ziona’s successors, were formed in 1955 and are the club currently in existence.

Maccabi have also played Ness Zion in the State Cup four times and have won all four ties.

Past and present players:

Two players have turned out for both outfits, Avraham Stemberg and the legendary Shiye Glazer.

Stemberg played for Ness Ziona in the 1960s, including the famed 1966-68 double season when they were in the top flight, and he moved to Maccabi in 1969-70 where he played for six seasons and won two league championship medals.

Glazer, one of Maccabi’s all-time greats where he played between 1945-1963, moved down to the second division towards the end of his career and played for Hapoel Kfar Sava, Beitar Netanya and Beitar Jerusalem. He finally retired after playing with Ness Ziona when they were in the top flight.

Of the current crop, Dor Galili and Osher Abu, who are Ness Ziona players, grew up in Maccabi’s youth setup and each has played once for the full team in the Toto Cup.

Starting the second phase:

For the 54th time, the second phase of the league is starting with a corresponding round to the opening of the season and on the 53 previous occasions that this has happened, Maccabi have notched 27 wins and 15 draws and have suffered 11 defeats.

Maccabi have met 21 different opponents at the start of the second phase and the most common opponents have been Maccabi Petah Tikva (seven times).

The biggest wins at the start of the second phase have been 5-0 wins over Hapoel Rishon Lezion in 1978-79 and Hapoel Acre in 2013-14. Both those seasons ended with Maccabi winning the league title.

This will be the third of five planned consecutive league games at Bloomfield. The longest number of consecutive games at Bloomfield was seven, in 1972-73. Four of those were home games and three were away fixtures. They were against Tel Aviv rivals, Beitar, Shimshon and Hapoel.

The first phase of the TASE Premier League will be completed this weekend and Maccabi Tel Aviv will host Maccabi Netanya, the only outfit who can still do what none of their rivals have yet managed this season in the league, to score a goal against Maccabi.

This will be the 140th league meeting between the two clubs, third on Maccabi’s list of most-played rivals, behind Maccabi Haifa (160) and Hapoel Tel Aviv (154).

Over years of league contests, Maccabi have beaten Netanya 69 times, the most wins against any opponents.

Maccabi have hosted Netanya 73 times in all competitions and have won 43 of those clashes. More significantly, perhaps, they have won their last eight meetings.

Only 12 of the meetings between the clubs have finished goalless and there have been no such results in the past decade, so the odds would point heavily to goals being scored on Saturday.

Last season, the two clubs met four times and Maccabi won all four matches. In one of those, they scored within 28 seconds, a league record for the season and the third fastest goal ever.

The biggest ever win over Netanya, 9-0, was scored in 1946-47 when Shiye Glazer and Aharon Sidi each scored four goals.

The biggest win since Israel’s foundation in 1948 was 7-1, achieved in 1949-50 when Joe Merimovich and Shmuel Israeli each scored hat tricks.

The best half for Maccabi against Netanya was in 1977 when after a 1-1 scoreline in their State Cup semi-final, Maccabi scored five more goals to win 6-1, as Viki Peretz and Benny Tabak each scored hat tricks.

Maccabi Tel Aviv will host Hapoel Beersheba at Bloomfield tonight for what will be the first meeting between the two clubs this season. The rivalry between them is full of interesting statistics, so just before the kickoff, here are a few of the interesting ones worth keeping in mind.

There have been 112 league meetings between the sides. Maccabi have won 53 times, 33 have been draws and Beersheba have won on 26 occasions. Maccabi have a clear lead in goals scored: 165-97. 

There have been 35 matches at Bloomfield of which Maccabi have won 16 and lost five, the other 14 ended in draws. The goal difference is 53-26. 

The last clash at Bloomfield in May 2016 was a goalless draw. It was the first of five matches at the old stadium in which Maccabi did not concede a goal at home, the run that is still ongoing and includes two matches at the old stadium and three in the new one. 

The biggest Maccabi win over Beersheba, 5-0, has been achieved twice and both were league clashes at Bloomfield, in 1995-96 and in 2012-13.

The largest attendance for a match between the two teams was 23,000 at Teddy Stadium in 2015-16 when Beersheba were the hosts.

Both teams have dominated the domestic scene for the past seven seasons during which they have shared league titles, the longest continuousl two-team domination since statehood in 1948.

Benny Tabak has scored most goals for Maccabi against Beersheba with nine, and Tabak and Eli Driks share the most appearances, with 28 each. 

The last clash between the two sides which was at Beersheba’s Toto Turner stadium last season, ended in a 4-0 win for Maccabi, and since the southerners’ return to the top division in 2009-10, they have lost by a four-goal margin on six occasions. Three of those defeats were inflicted by Maccabi, in 2011-12, 2012-13 and 2018-19.

This season, Maccabi have not conceded a league goal in seven matches. This is equal with Hapoel Yahud’s record for clean sheets since the start of the season, set in 1981-82. Yahud finally conceded a goal in the 58th minute of their subsequent match, and tonight we will have to see whether Maccabi can better that record.

The “Factory 54” Man of the Match competition is back and one supporter who picks the outstanding player in Saturday’s fixture between Maccabi Tel Aviv and Maccabi Haifa will earn a 500 shekel voucher to purchase clothes by designer brand Hugo Boss at the Factory 54 outlet. To participate, shortly after kickoff, come back to this page and make your choice. The player chosen will be announced around the 90^th minute of the game.

 

Maccabi Tel Aviv will host Hapoel Hadera at 18:00 on Saturday at Bloomfield in the sixth round of the TASE Premier League and midfielder Dor Peretz spoke about the challenge that lies ahead.

 

“We had waited for a game like the win over Beitar that would pull things together for us and would give us the momentum we have needed. Now is the time to push on and show what we can do,” Peretz said at the pre-match news conference.

“After losing (to Beitar) four days previously in the Toto Cup final, we managed to do the best thing possible and to put the defeat behind us and we are so happy that our fighting spirit and will to win brought us a decisive win that shows we are improving.”

“We look forward to the game against Hadera and are preparing as we do for every game. Hadera are formidable opponents and this is reflected in their position in the standings. We respect them but we are looking at ourselves first and foremost.”

Peretz said it was great to be able to include young players in the main squad.

“It’s always lots of fun that youngsters can be included in the team. They receive all our support as they progress and advance to become fully fledged senior team players and this is important for the club and it shows that we have a new crop of players coming up. I hope that Eilon Almog will also advance, because he’s fitting in well.”

Peretz said that talk in the off-season of him possibly moving on had passed and he was pleased that he could now concentrate on his play.

“I’m happy that it is behind us and that I am here, this is my place,” he said.

Over the years, Maccabi Tel Aviv have played Hapoel Hadera on 20 occasions in league action and the record shows 13 wins, three draws and four defeats, with a positive goal difference of 30-15.

In home matches, Maccabi’s record is eight wins, one draw and one defeat, with a goal difference of 18-5.

This season, Maccabi have not conceded a goal in any of their five league outings, the second time this has happened over the years. The clean sheet over at least this period was last kept in 2013-14. Maccabi finally conceded a goal in the seventh round of the league.

Last season, Maccabi met Hadera, who had been promoted, four times and won all their encounters without conceding, the first time this has happened. The biggest win was 4-0. It was the sixth time that the club had beaten opponents four times in a season and against Hadera, the winning streak stretches for five matches in all competitions.

The longest winning streak without conceding in the league is six wins and this has been achieved four time, twice by Maccabi — against Maccabi Jaffa in 1999 and against Hapoel Jerusalem in 2000. Kiryat Shmona and Maccabi Haifa were the other two clubs to have achieved the feat, respectively against Ramat Hasharon (2013) and Beitar Jerusalem (1970).

Nineteen Maccabi players have scored against Hadera, with Dror Bar Nur notching a record five goals. Miko Bello has played against Hadera 12 times, a record achieved between May 1971 and March 1979.