This past Thursday night, I made my 50th European appearance in club competitions when we defeated Alkmaar 2:1 in the Europa League and this wasn’t something that I had even realized prior to the match. It was only when the Official Maccabi Website updated me that I found out that I had reached this milestone. Throughout my career I really didn’t keep track of how many times I had played in Europe but rather how we did as a team and for me to just play as much as possible. However, the win on Thursday night in Holland was very exciting for me.

This was a very important victory. There’s always a lot of talk about how important it is for Maccabi to participate in European competitions each and every year, so it’s certainly crucial that we also win these games since this is what Maccabi strives and wants to reach for; the highest of heights.

Not only was it important to take the three points in Alkmaar, but the win was also critical before facing Maccabi Haifa in league play after a three week break from domestic action. The victory gave us a lot of confidence. There’s never an easy game against Maccabi Haifa, which is a good team that has undergone some changes over the last little while. We are preparing and concentrating on our play and we all know that this match will not be easy. But we are playing at home in front of our fans and we will come into this contest in tip top form with one goal in mind – to win.

The match against Haifa will begin two weeks of intensive action with a number of games that will not be easy including a tilt against Kiryat Shemona in the Toto Cup quarterfinals, an away match versus Hapoel Beer Sheva and a Europa League Matchday Four encounter at home against Alkmaar. We are entering a crucial point of the season and we are in good shape. The professional staff knows exactly how to get us prepared properly to ensure that we are ready to go. We how to pace ourselves and how to work on our fitness. Maccabi Tel Aviv has an excellent squad who all know how to play, which will certainly help us compete in all of the various competitions.

Of course, the State Cup final loss last year to Haifa has been bothering us up until today. But now we are in a new season and in a different competition, the League and not the Cup – and we are coming into this game knowing that it is a very important. We always want to win, but even more so because of what happened in the final.

And one last word to our fans. Let me begin with those who made the long trek to Holland to support us in the match against Alkmaar. We felt your presence from the very first moment and it gave us a huge boost. Last league game we defeated Hapoel Tel Aviv and you, the supporters, made the atmosphere in the stadium part of this historic win. I believe that you’ll make the difference once again against Haifa and hopefully we will all make the Holiday even happier.

See you in Netanya!

Stadium: Sammy Ofer (30,000)

Head Coach: Rene Meulensteen (Holland)

The Dutch manager arrived at Sammy Ofer after Roni Levi was relieved of his duties. Meulensteen had a rich playing career in Holland along with a lengthy career on the sidelines as a coach for youth departments in Holland and Qatar. He also served as youth side boss at Manchester United under the tutelage of Alex Ferguson between 2007-2013 and also coached Fulham. Right before landing in Haifa he worked as a consultant for the Philadelphia Union of the MLS.

Muelsteen’s first match with the Greens was a 1:0 Toto Cup Derby win against Hapoel Haifa while he also picked up a victory by the same score by defeating Hapoel Tel Aviv in league action. His club also scored a 2:1 win over the defending champions Hapoel Beer Sheva and sit with 9 points overall.

Comings & Goings:

Even before the Dutchman arrived on the scene, Maccabi Haifa’s Sports Director Tor-Kristian Karlsen made a fair number of changes to the squad. The team bid adieu to the likes of Taleb Tawhatha, Hen Ezra, Yossi Benayoun, Vladimir Stoykovich, Orel Degani, Romario Pires and Ofir Kriaf.

In their places the Norwegian brought aboard Australian-Jewish striker Nikita Rukavysta from Beitar Jerusalem who has scored 4 goals in 14 appearances. Former Yellow & Blue product Roie Kehat also arrived from the Austrian league while Kamil Vacek from the Czech Republic, Gary Kagelmacher, Croatian defensive back Mario Musa and Firas Mugrabi from Bnei Sakhnin who has scored five goals all joined the squad. Second choice keeper Omri Glazer also made the trip up north from Hapoel Raanana giving Haifa some insurance in goal.

Familiar Faces:

If there is any club that should be familiar to Maccabi fans it’s got to be Maccabi Haifa. With three former Yellow & Blue players in Gili Vermouth, who joined Haifa in the middle of last season and already has faced his former team, Roie Kehat who grew up in Maccabi’s Youth Department and played for the First Team, returned from Austria and of course fan favorite, striker Eliran Atar is slated to make his debut next week’s match after returning from injury.

Opening the season:

Following a disappointing start to the season where Haifa was bounced from the first round of Europa League qualifying and an additional loss led to the firing of Roni Levi, Rene Muelsteen was named in his stead.

Under the new coach, the Greens have actually had one of their best starts in a while with 9 points after 6 matches and sit in 5th place. Other than a 1:0 win over Hapoel Tel Aviv and a 2:1 victory against Hapoel Beer Sheva, Muelsteen’s crew lost to Sakhnin 1:0 and have drawn their last two contests against Maccabi Petach Tikva (2:2) and Kiryat Shemona (0:0:).

Under the magnifying glass: Firas Mugrabi

There’s plenty of quality attacking players plying their trade for Haifa and once Eliran Atar returns they will have an even more potent offense. But one player that Maccabi Tel Aviv need to keep a close eye on is striker Firas Mugrabi who found plenty of holes in the Yellow & Blue defense last season and scored.

The speedy Mugrabi leads Haifa in goals with five along with one assist so far this season and will look to take advantage of deep balls coming his way against a Maccabi defense that must be alert.

The Derby’s back in town. It’s become a ritual that there is a Toto Cup Derby but truthfully the feelings and emotions surrounding it feels like it’s a promo. The league derby is the real thing. The tension rises and the preparations become even more real. These are the types of matches you wait for all season long your whole career.

The squad is somewhat going through a renewal of sorts due to the new players that have been added. Myself, along with the other veterans are taking them under our wings and preparing them for this type of match and what to expect. I’m sure that everyone has taken part in a derby of some sort or another, but the Tel Aviv Derby is something extraordinary. Even though it’s not taking place at Bloomfield, there will still be plenty of emotions for this match and we will have to make sure we keep them in check. At the end of the day, we need to continue with our good start to the season and keep collecting points that will help us down the line.

I won’t deny that the match against Zenit was traumatic for all of us and lasted a day or two but from there we moved on and took the good things from the game as there were plenty of minutes where we played quality football against a very tough opponent. When the final whistle sounded, we had to put the frustration and disappointment aside because we knew we had another game to get ready for in just three days and immediately following that, we had more and more games so there was no time for us to let it sink in. In my opinion, we have made it past this match in good shape. Now all of our energies are directed towards the Big Derby on Sunday.

There’s one more thing that’s very important for me to say. The Club is going through some changes. We all have to be united in order to succeed and most importantly we all must put the Club above everything else. Maccabi Tel Aviv’s goal is to bring the championship back home and play hard in Europe and the State Cup. In order to do that, we need all of you, the fans to stand behind us and support us all the way.”

You missed us? We missed you too! Well here we are as we come back from International matches into a very busy and intense month ahead with 6 games in 20 days. Our goal is to always play in as many competitions as possible including in Europe as well. We’re prepared for packed months just like this one so don’t worry – that won’t be an excuse.

I want to remind you that over the past four years we’ve played in European competitions three times, including the Champions League last season, so we are pretty much used to it and will be able to make the necessary adjustments. It’s true that this month in particular will be a very intense, more than any other month this year but we’ve experienced this before and it’s for the good that we have a busy month.

We’re opening up against Beitar Jerusalem and they are a club who gave us plenty of problems last season and took some very valuable points away from us while we battled for the title but ended up falling short. At the end of the day, we can’t look at what was last year, but rather focus on the campaign in front of us. This is a totally different team than last year’s. They are a strong opponent but one that we know and we will have to make sure that we make the proper adjustments.

We always want to win every match. We may be coming into this contest with a perfect record after two Matchdays but it’s way to early to talk about the league table as it’s just the beginning of the season. Also, on Thursday we have a game against Zenit St. Petersburg on Matchday One of the Europa League and we aren’t looking at this match against Beitar as preparation because we treat every game separately.

The Maccabi of this year has been playing a very offensive style. Some claim that it’s at the expense of our defense and I believe that this could be correct only during the last few minutes of a match where we are looking to attack. But at the end of the day, the players fully understand that we can’t forget the defensive side of our game during these critical minutes. We all know that we can’t give up a goal otherwise we will have a much harder time and when we discuss our defensive game we are talking about the whole team’s defense. We are all working on defense while we are also looking to score.

If you want to know what’s going on with me on a personal level, I can tell you that just like any other season there is always a battle between the players for a spot in the Starting XI. I personally know that I have to give it my all in order for me to prove that I deserve to play. I have to make sure to show the coach all of my abilities and prove to him that I belong in the starting lineup. I’m working hard on this and I hope that I’ll succeed and show that I’m up to the task.

We’ve already played matches in Netanya but not in the Ligat Ha’Al. On Sunday, we will play our first league contest at the Netanya Stadium and I can’t emphasize how important it will be that the stands will be packed with all of your support. When the stands aren’t full, we definitely feel it on the pitch. When the stadium isn’t filled to the brim it impacts us as well. We don’t just say that you’re the 12th player for nothing. Your support is the most important thing for us and I call on all of you to be with us for the length of the season and we will do our utmost to give you some amazing moments of joy and happiness.

I hope that we will already be able to give you those moments this Sunday against Beitar.

I look forward to seeing you there.

YALLA MACCABI!