8 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.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Hapoel Kfar Saba can tell you which week it ends in.
Yoav Koren 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.
Position 11, 8 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Hapoel Kfar Saba can pretend not to have heard.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Matheus Destro and Hapoel Kfar Saba agree another 1 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Ori Dabbur has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Sagiv Cohen is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
2 in front and in complete control, and it finished with Hapoel Kiryat Shmona the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that Hapoel Kfar Saba will enjoy reviewing.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Gilbert Bandama, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 8.22
A mark of 8.22 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Hapoel Kfar Saba has to find a result from somewhere.
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 Kfar Saba this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Gilbert Bandama has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
The young player of the month award goes to a 20-year-old at Hapoel Kfar Saba who has looked like the finished article for four weekends running. The next four are the ones that decide whether he is.
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 Razi Abu Hamdan is on it.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Gilbert Bandama did not need any: 7.99, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
4 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.
Denny Gropper 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.
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Hapoel Kfar Saba and Beitar Jerusalem in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Beaten 6 times, 4 saves, and an afternoon that will go on his record whether it was his fault or the defence’s. It is the quiet unfairness of the position.
Something was said to Denny Gropper and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Denny Gropper 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.
At 19 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.
Hapoel Haifa left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Ofir Abada left the room before anybody could ask which.
“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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Noam Cohen 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.
Nobody at Hapoel Kfar Saba is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 11 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Hapoel Kfar Saba can pretend not to have heard.
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.
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 Kfar Saba this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Uri Benayoun has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Ofir Solomon has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
At 20 he was better than everybody his age in the division for four weeks running, which is harder than one good afternoon. Hapoel Kfar Saba will try not to make too much of it.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Ofir Abada after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Gilbert Bandama is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Noam Cohen 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.
Successful dribbles: 38. 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.
There were 8 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Amit Arazi, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.70
A mark of 7.70 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Yoav Koren 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 a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Amit Arazi has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
At 24 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.
A brace, and Niv Vaknin takes the afternoon — 8.78
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Niv Vaknin provided it, and the 8.78 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Denny Gropper 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.
He is 20 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
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.” Ofir Abada kept it short after the 2‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Hamza Shibli’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Hapoel Kfar Saba needing him to play as if none of it matters.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Gilbert Bandama did not need any: 7.63, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Hapoel Kfar Saba asked and Juventude said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Dan Solomon is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Almog Weissman has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Beaten 1‑4 by Hapoel Beer Sheva, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Up for the corner, and Denny Gropper delivers — 7.22
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Denny Gropper scored, was marked 7.22, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 18 arrived, 1 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
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 Kfar Saba this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Epicentr have kept their man, and Hapoel Kfar Saba go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Successful dribbles: 18. 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.
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑4 Ofir Abada left the room before anybody could ask which.
Hapoel Kfar Saba 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.
Yoav Koren 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.
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad31 Aug 2026
14 new faces, and Hapoel Kfar Saba 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.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑2 Ofir Abada left the room before anybody could ask which.
Hapoel Kfar Saba have made the call to Bnei Yehuda. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
$1.9M was the most the club would pay and Beitar Jerusalem were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Maccabi Petach Tikva did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $420.0K for Gal Ma'atook, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
Everything agreed with Maccabi 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 is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $420.0K for Gal Ma'atook, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.
Yoav Koren 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Dan Weissman and Hapoel Kfar Saba agree another 3 years.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Noam Cohen 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.
$5.8M was the most the club would pay and Hapoel Beer Sheva were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Apollon have kept their man, and Maccabi Haifa go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The offer went to Maccabi Tel Aviv this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jelle Bataille was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The plan went upstairs and came back down. Nothing about that will make a headline anywhere else, and everybody who works at the training ground will remember it for years.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Omri Glazer’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Maccabi Haifa needing him to play as if none of it matters.
$2.9M settles it between the clubs for Matty Cudjoe
Bnei Sakhnin have accepted the money. What Maccabi Tel Aviv do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Maccabi Tel Aviv have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Maccabi Tel Aviv offered $1.3M; Hapoel Tel Aviv said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
The offer from Beitar Jerusalem for Shachar Rosen was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
Beitar Jerusalem pay $220.0K, 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.
Hapoel Beer Sheva wanted more than $5.2M and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
$420.0K settles it between the clubs for Gal Ma'atook
Maccabi Petach Tikva have accepted the money. What Hapoel Kfar Saba do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
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 Kfar Saba this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Maccabi Tel Aviv have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Noam Cohen 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.
The offer from Hapoel Tel Aviv for Mohamed Camara was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Maccabi Tel Aviv have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The offer went to Beitar Jerusalem this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Maccabi Tel Aviv this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hélio Varela 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 academy exists for exactly this morning. Eli Hemed has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.