Marked for Or Mesika
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad26 Apr 2027
Andrian Kraev 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.
Market26 Apr 2027
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Fernand Mayembo signs something — a contract at Hapoel Tel Aviv or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Questions about Or Mesika on the training pitch
The standards have slipped, and in a building where everybody watches everybody it has not gone unremarked. This is how a player loses a place before he loses one.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad19 Apr 2027
Andrian Kraev 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.
Loan watch19 Apr 2027
26 starts and a season average of 7.21. The loan is doing exactly what it was arranged to do.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Tal Archel knocks on the manager's door
“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 Tel Aviv, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad29 Mar 2027
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 Tel Aviv this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings29 Mar 2027
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad1 Mar 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Hapoel Tel Aviv may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad1 Mar 2027
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 Tel Aviv this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad1 Mar 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Dor Benyamini, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match13 Feb 2027
11 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Player ratings15 Feb 2027
Successful dribbles: 35. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad15 Feb 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Semen Padang this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad15 Feb 2027
63 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Match13 Feb 2027
Persik left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad15 Feb 2027
The manager makes an example of Jaime Giraldo
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Market15 Feb 2027
The name of Aditya Sentosa has come up in conversations Semen Padang were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Player ratings15 Feb 2027
Ten men and a goalkeeper behind him, and it still finished in the net. He knew before anybody told him, and nobody at Semen Padang needed to.
Player ratings15 Feb 2027
The one thing Or Mesika could not do
Shots: 8, enough of them from close enough that a striker in form scores two. He is not a striker in form.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad11 Jan 2027
Ravy Tsouka in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Semen Padang this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market11 Jan 2027
PSM pay $84.0K, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Squad11 Jan 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Wahyu Agong and Semen Padang agree another 3 years.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 33. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad4 Jan 2027
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 Tel Aviv this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.31, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad4 Jan 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Fernand Mayembo, and the manager let it.
Market4 Jan 2027
Dor Benyamini is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Hapoel Tel Aviv has been clear about where Dor Benyamini stands, which is more than many ever get.
The terraces4 Jan 2027
Every touch is being weighed now, in print and everywhere else. Some players grow into that and some are quietly ruined by it, and nobody knows which in advance.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 33. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad7 Dec 2026
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 Tel Aviv this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match5 Dec 2026
Maccabi Petach Tikva left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad7 Dec 2026
“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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
The award is a small thing with a heavy meaning: for four weeks nobody in this division did his job better. Hapoel Tel Aviv have the trophy on a shelf and the player in the side.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
One lapse, one goal, and ninety minutes of honest work counting for nothing. That is the job at Hapoel Tel Aviv, and it is a cruel one.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Hapoel Tel Aviv will explain it as a decision about the team, and it may well be one. A dressing room has never once read it that way.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
The one thing Daniel Dappa could not do
Shots: 10, enough of them from close enough that a striker in form scores two. He is not a striker in form.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Marked 5.66, and generously at that. Nothing came off, and by the end the crowd had stopped expecting it to.