Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 5‑0 against Semen Padang, and it could have been more.
Player ratings24 May 2032
A brace, and Itay Buganim takes the afternoon — 8.53
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Itay Buganim provided it, and the 8.53 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Two goals and a mark of 8.33 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.27 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
10 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Shay Ben-David and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Syahrian Nugroho has, at Dewa United, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
There is a particular helplessness in conceding 2 times before the twentieth minute. Semen Padang tried to reorganise, Dewa United did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
The words a physio says slowly. 14 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Two goals and a mark of 8.87 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.06 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Shay Ben-David was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Dewa United are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
8 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
In brief
Looking aheadTop-of-the-table clash for Dewa United
21 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Dewa United lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Dewa United is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Ramon Tanque and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Ramon Tanque scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑2 to Bali United, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Squad3 May 2032
Words at Dewa United training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Raz Twizer is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
28 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Dewa United lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
6 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.89 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Dewa United have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Dewa United they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dewa United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Shay Ben-David was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
200 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
In brief
Player ratingsItay Buganim was on a different afternoon to everybody else
35 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Dewa United lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Position 3, 27 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
5 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Ivar Jenner was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Shay Ben-David was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Itay Buganim. 2‑0 against Bhayangkara Presisi, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Marked 8.51 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Two goals and a mark of 9.16 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Arel Shriki will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Dewa United the goodbyes have quietly begun.
4 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dewa United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Raz Twizer. 3‑1 against Maluku Utara United, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Dewa United are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
In brief
SquadWords at Dewa United training over how hard people work
Two goals and a mark of 9.22 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Ronen Gradashov is living that version at Dewa United, and it tends to show in the first month.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Dewa United they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Squad5 Apr 2032
Words at Dewa United training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Shay Ben-David is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Alonso López was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad5 Apr 2032
5 new faces, and Dewa United are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Dewa United they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dewa United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Marked 8.53 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Dewa United know it.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑0, Bagas Firmansyah could afford to be generous.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Dewa United are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Raz Twizer. 1‑0 against Arema, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Raz Twizer was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout22 Mar 2032
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Bagas Firmansyah, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Dewa United will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Arel Shriki will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Dewa United the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Dewa United, and it is not being withdrawn.
Ramon Tanque and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
21 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad15 Mar 2032
Words at Dewa United training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Shay Ben-David is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 25 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
4 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Dewa United they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Ivar Jenner and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Ahmad Pato has just signed for Dewa United, and for once the answer mattered.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sihran Amarullah was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Dewa United will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ambrizal Umanailo will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Dewa United the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Ivar Jenner was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Dewa United will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Dewa United can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Dewa United is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Dewa United asked and Hapoel Tel Aviv said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Dewa United will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Dewa United can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Dewa United they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Ivar Jenner and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad9 Feb 2032
Raz Twizer falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Dewa United will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Arel Shriki will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Dewa United the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Dewa United, and it is not being withdrawn.
Ivar Jenner and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad19 Jan 2032
Raz Twizer falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Flora have kept their man, and Dewa United go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Dewa United know it.
Dewa United have made the call to Maccabi Netanya. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Dewa United will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Dewa United can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Dewa United they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Ivar Jenner and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Persib will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Angga Saputra has pre-agreed a move to Dewa United, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Dewa United asked and Persijap said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Successful dribbles: 29. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Rafael Pontelo wants continental football; whether Hapoel Haifa can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mohamed Abo Fani was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
200 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
Player ratings30 Dec 2030
Willy Agada was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.21. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Hapoel Haifa told Dor Benyamini something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Hapoel Haifa they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hapoel Haifa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
Willy Agada and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mohamed Abo Fani was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Hapoel Haifa know it.
In brief
The dugoutSomebody else is better right now than Hamoudi Kalaily
The dugoutItai Zafrani has become a man the manager trusts
Sa'ar Fadida was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad18 Nov 2030
Words at Hapoel Haifa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohamed Abo Fani is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Half the programme played, position 5, 20 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Two goals and a mark of 8.47 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Hapoel Haifa have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Sa'ar Fadida and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad11 Nov 2030
Words at Hapoel Haifa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohamed Abo Fani is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Shai Elias was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.33. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.92 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yonatan Hemed was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Eitan Refaelov has come out of that comparison in the side, and Hapoel Haifa have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
The dugout4 Nov 2030
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Anthony Murray kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Successful dribbles: 25. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hapoel Haifa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mohamed Abo Fani was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Anthony Murray after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Hapoel Haifa has been clear about where Tohirbek To'xtasinov stands, which is more than many ever get.
Willy Agada and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad7 Oct 2030
Words at Hapoel Haifa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohamed Abo Fani is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Hamoudi Kalaily has his answer from Hapoel Haifa; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
The 2-goal deficit was real and so was the recovery. Sa'ar Fadida was at the centre of it, Maccabi Netanya were at the end of it, and everybody who left early will hear about this one for years.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.99 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Willy Agada and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
6 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Maccabi Netanya were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Everything agreed with Hapoel Tel Aviv, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hapoel Haifa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
4 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Hapoel Haifa can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Boardroom26 Aug 2030
5 academy players handed senior numbers at Hapoel Haifa
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
At 18 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mohamed Abo Fani was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Hapoel Haifa asked and Maccabi Tel Aviv said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
At 33 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Hapoel Haifa have made the call to Hapoel Tel Aviv. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
A loan enquiry to Hapoel Kiryat Shmona: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Hapoel Haifa, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Sa'ar Fadida signs something — a contract at Hapoel Haifa or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.