Marked for Matan Levi
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad5 May 2031
A fracture rules Belal Shahen out for 33 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Maccabi Haifa will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market5 May 2031
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Maccabi Haifa can pretend not to have heard.
Match5 May 2031
Position 3 and 60 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
The dugout5 May 2031
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Maccabi Haifa may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad5 May 2031
Jelle Bataille and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad5 May 2031
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Doron Leidner was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad5 May 2031
A last season at home is what Calvin Verdonk is after
It is sentimental, it is completely genuine, and it is the beginning of a departure nobody has announced. The club can be gracious about it or it can pretend not to have heard.
Market5 May 2031
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
The dugout5 May 2031
Dor Turgeman gets picked when it counts
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 Dor Turgeman is on it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad8 Jul 2030
Doron Leidner breaks a bone — 65 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 65 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market8 Jul 2030
Doron Leidner hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Maccabi Haifa can pretend not to have heard.
Market8 Jul 2030
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Maccabi Haifa have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Match8 Jul 2030
54 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Market8 Jul 2030
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Alisher Shukurov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Maccabi Haifa the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad8 Jul 2030
Jelle Bataille and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad8 Jul 2030
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Calvin Verdonk was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom8 Jul 2030
10 arrivals, an average age nobody would call a squad, and a set of parents being shown around a building their sons will spend more time in than at home. The scouting has already happened; today is only the paperwork.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad29 Apr 2030
Jelle Bataille 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.
Squad29 Apr 2030
Doron Leidner 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.
Squad29 Apr 2030
“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; Maccabi Haifa are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
The dugout29 Apr 2030
Pierre Cornud gets picked when it counts
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 Pierre Cornud is on it.
The dugout29 Apr 2030
“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.
Market29 Apr 2030
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Pierre Cornud signs something — a contract at Maccabi Haifa or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Market29 Apr 2030
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Maccabi Haifa, another week without a signature from Patrick Asiedu.
The dugout29 Apr 2030
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Daniel Felczer has written the date down.
The dugout29 Apr 2030
Matan Levi 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 Maccabi Haifa, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad31 Dec 2029
Dor Turgeman is in the form of his life
A season average of 7.77 with 24 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Match29 Dec 2029
4‑0, and Dor Turgeman took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Maccabi Haifa tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Player ratings31 Dec 2029
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.69, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings31 Dec 2029
At 34 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 8.10, and nobody on the pitch better.
Market31 Dec 2029
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Maccabi Haifa is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad31 Dec 2029
Trivante Stewart and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad31 Dec 2029
Xander Severina 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.
Player ratings31 Dec 2029
Marked 8.47 — 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.
Squad31 Dec 2029
“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; Maccabi Haifa are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 Dec 2029
Dor Turgeman is in the form of his life
A season average of 7.62 with 19 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Market10 Dec 2029
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Maccabi Haifa is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Market10 Dec 2029
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Maccabi Haifa can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Squad10 Dec 2029
Jelle Bataille 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.
Squad10 Dec 2029
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Xander Severina was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match8 Dec 2029
9 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Player ratings10 Dec 2029
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.19, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Market10 Dec 2029
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Squad10 Dec 2029
“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; Maccabi Haifa are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match27 Oct 2029
The unbeaten run reaches 12. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Market29 Oct 2029
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Maccabi Haifa is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Market29 Oct 2029
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Maccabi Haifa heard it as anything else.
Match27 Oct 2029
Another one collected away from home
4 on the bounce on the road for Maccabi Haifa. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
Squad29 Oct 2029
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Xander Severina was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match27 Oct 2029
It finished 1‑0, and it was Dor Turgeman’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Maccabi Haifa.
Squad29 Oct 2029
Dor Turgeman is in the form of his life
A season average of 7.27 with 10 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Squad29 Oct 2029
“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; Maccabi Haifa are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Player ratings29 Oct 2029
Ninety minutes of Dor Turgeman at his very best
Marked 8.05. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Maccabi Haifa.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market15 Oct 2029
Stav Nachmani hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Maccabi Haifa can pretend not to have heard.
Match13 Oct 2029
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 10 matches without defeat is a foundation Maccabi Haifa did not have in the autumn.
Market15 Oct 2029
Stav Nachmani has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Maccabi Haifa they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The dugout15 Oct 2029
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Maccabi Haifa may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad15 Oct 2029
Jelle Bataille 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.
Player ratings15 Oct 2029
Successful dribbles: 21. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad15 Oct 2029
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dor Turgeman was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match13 Oct 2029
5 matches without defeat, and then Maccabi Petach Tikva. Nobody at the ground pretended it would go on forever; nobody expected it to stop here either.
Player ratings15 Oct 2029
A performance of 8.25 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.