A 2‑1 win over Hapoel Kfar Saba, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Bruno Ramires, and the manager let it.
Squad2 Nov 2026
A place in the month's best eleven for Willy Agada
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Willy Agada has come out of that comparison in the side, and Hapoel Haifa have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Sa'ar Fadida is on it.
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at Hapoel Haifa than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
In brief
The dugoutSa'ar Fadida knocks on the manager’s door
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Régis N'do was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Itay Ben-Hemo 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.
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.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Something was said to Zohar Zasano and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Somebody watched every match in the division at the weekend and decided he was the best thing in any of them. A small honour, and most careers end without one.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Hapoel Raanana defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
Chances created: 9. Not on the scoresheet and not remotely anonymous — a passing performance that pulled a defence apart without leaving a mark on the column that gets read.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Andrija Radulović provided it, and the 8.53 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 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.
Successful dribbles: 20. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Régis N'do 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.
Itay Ben-Hemo 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.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 9 combined actions and a mark of 6.73, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Itay Ben-Hemo has improved at 24, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Régis N'do 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.
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.
11 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Maccabi Netanya have kept their man, and Hapoel Haifa go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Maccabi Tel Aviv left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Hapoel Haifa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Régis N'do 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.
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.
Maccabi Netanya next, and one man in the Hapoel Haifa dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Maccabi Tel Aviv moved on, Régis N'do reports back to Hapoel Haifa, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Hapoel Haifa close the window on a squad of their own making
16 in and 0 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Taofeek Otaniyi has, at Hapoel Haifa, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Régis N'do 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.
11 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
A loan enquiry to Maccabi Netanya: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Maccabi Tel Aviv next, and one man in the Hapoel Haifa dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
“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 Hapoel Haifa, and it is not being withdrawn.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Cádiz have kept their man, and Hapoel Haifa go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Roei Zikri and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Tomer Shechter to a room that had heard them before.
Chances created: 9. Nothing on the scoresheet and everything in the match: the pass before the pass, over and over, until the defence stopped guessing right.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Hapoel Haifa know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.