Hapoel Kfar Saba U20

10 Jan 2027
Sunday
Process
23 Edition

The Hapoel Kfar Saba Post

4 Jan 2027
From our football correspondent Crisis

Match

The wait goes on for Hapoel Kfar Saba

20 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.

Match

The goals have deserted Hapoel Kfar Saba

11 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.

Boardroom

Ofir Peretz has until the next board meeting

What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Hapoel Kfar Saba can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.

Boardroom

The scrutiny sharpens at Hapoel Kfar Saba

Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Hapoel Kfar Saba is running low.

Market

Noam Cohen asks to leave Hapoel Kfar Saba

“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.

Squad

A falling-out at Hapoel Kfar Saba

Denny Gropper and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

Adam Khan is a better footballer than he was

Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 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.

Player ratings

Gilbert Bandama beats them one at a time

Successful dribbles: 18. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.

Transfer targets

Hapoel Kfar Saba ask about Jubayer Bushnak

A loan enquiry to Bnei Sakhnin: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.

In brief

Back issues
22 Edition

The Hapoel Kfar Saba Post

28 Dec 2026
From our football correspondent Crisis

Match

19 matches without a win for Hapoel Kfar Saba

The run now stands at 19, and the questions being asked around Hapoel Kfar Saba are no longer polite ones.

The terraces

Supporters organise against the Hapoel Kfar Saba board

A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.

Match

Hapoel Kfar Saba cannot find the net

10 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.

Squad

Nahuel Pezzini wants to go home

“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 Kfar Saba know it.

Player ratings

Gilbert Bandama beats them one at a time

Successful dribbles: 20. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.

Squad

A falling-out at Hapoel Kfar Saba

Yoav Koren and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Match

A bad afternoon for Hapoel Kfar Saba against Bnei Yehuda

0‑1 to Bnei Yehuda, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.

The dugout

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 Peretz left the room before anybody could ask which.

Squad

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.

In brief

21 Edition

The Hapoel Kfar Saba Post

21 Dec 2026
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Match

18 matches without a win for Hapoel Kfar Saba

The run now stands at 18, and the questions being asked around Hapoel Kfar Saba are no longer polite ones.

Match

9 matches without a goal for Hapoel Kfar Saba

The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 9 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.

The dugout

Guy Shelah keeps the receipts

“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Hapoel Kfar Saba may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.

Squad

Denis Parkinson arrives at the club he grew up with

Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Denis Parkinson has, at Hapoel Kfar Saba, and the first month will show what that does to a man.

The terraces

One of their own: Gilbert Bandama

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.

Squad

Tempers go at Hapoel Kfar Saba

Gitai Sofir 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.

Squad

Words at Hapoel Kfar Saba training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Noam Cohen 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.

Squad

Denis Parkinson stays put

“The easiest signature of my career.” Denis Parkinson and Hapoel Kfar Saba agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.

Player ratings

Gilbert Bandama was the difference for Hapoel Kfar Saba

Marked 7.18. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.

In brief

20 Edition

The Hapoel Kfar Saba Post

14 Dec 2026
From our football correspondent Crisis

Match

The wait goes on for Hapoel Kfar Saba

17 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 ratings

Nobody could get near Gilbert Bandama

Successful dribbles: 37. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Match

Hapoel Kfar Saba are in real trouble now

Position 13, 6 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.

Match

Hapoel Kfar Saba cannot find the net

8 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.

Squad

Words exchanged at Hapoel Kfar Saba

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.

Market

One of our own: Dan Glazer joins the Hapoel Kfar Saba first team

Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Dan Glazer is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.

Match

Hapoel Acre take the points off Hapoel Kfar Saba

Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.

Looking ahead

A six-pointer for Hapoel Kfar Saba

Hapoel Raanana next, and both sides can do the sum. Win and the table looks different; lose and it looks the way everybody has been fearing.

The dugout

Ofir Peretz answers for it

“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.

In brief

19 Edition

The Hapoel Kfar Saba Post

7 Dec 2026
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Match

The wait goes on for Hapoel Kfar Saba

16 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.

Match

Hapoel Kfar Saba cannot find the net

7 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.

Market

Yanir Nimni 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 Hapoel Kfar Saba can pretend not to have heard.

Squad

A falling-out at Hapoel Kfar Saba

Denny Gropper and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Looking ahead

Everything rides on Hapoel Acre

Both clubs in the mire, one fixture between them, and a ground that will be louder and more frightened than at any point in the season. Hapoel Kfar Saba know what is at stake and so does everybody in the away end.

Squad

Words at Hapoel Kfar Saba training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Noam Cohen 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.

Boardroom

Wages eat 90% of everything Hapoel Kfar Saba earn

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.

Player ratings

Konadu Yiadom was the difference for Hapoel Kfar Saba

Marked 7.35. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.

Squad

Gilbert Bandama named in the team of the month

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.

In brief

18 Edition

The Hapoel Kfar Saba Post

30 Nov 2026
From our football correspondent Crisis

Match

The wait goes on for Hapoel Kfar Saba

15 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.

The terraces

The mood at Hapoel Kfar Saba has turned into something else

Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.

Match

6 matches without a goal for Hapoel Kfar Saba

The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 6 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.

Squad

Denny Gropper 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 Hapoel Kfar Saba this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Match

Hapoel Tel Aviv take the points off Hapoel Kfar Saba

Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.

Player ratings

Gilbert Bandama was unplayable

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 dugout

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 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Ofir Peretz to a room that had heard them before.

Squad

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 dugout

Roy Harel gets it from the manager

“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.

In brief

17 Edition

The Hapoel Kfar Saba Post

23 Nov 2026
From our football correspondent Crisis

Match

No end in sight to Hapoel Kfar Saba's wait for a win

14 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.

Match

Hapoel Kfar Saba taken apart

0‑3 to Maccabi Netanya, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.

Match

The goals have deserted Hapoel Kfar Saba

5 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.

Squad

Tempers go at Hapoel Kfar Saba

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.

Player ratings

Gilbert Bandama was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 19. 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.

Match

Halfway: Hapoel Kfar Saba sit in position 12

5 points at the turn. The first half of a season is a promise; the second is a bill, and the town is about to find out which of the two this one was.

Boardroom

Nobody left the Hapoel Kfar Saba dressing room in a hurry

The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.

The dugout

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 0‑3 Ofir Peretz left the room before anybody could ask which.

The dugout

No hiding place for Dan Kaduri

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Dan Kaduri, and the manager let it.

In brief

16 Edition

The Hapoel Kfar Saba Post

16 Nov 2026
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Match

The wait goes on for Hapoel Kfar Saba

13 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.

Match

Hapoel Kfar Saba are in real trouble now

Position 12, 5 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.

Match

4 matches without a goal for Hapoel Kfar Saba

The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 4 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.

Squad

Words exchanged at Hapoel Kfar Saba

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.

Squad

Words at Hapoel Kfar Saba training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Noam Cohen 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 dugout

The view from the dugout

“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Ofir Peretz chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.

The dugout

Somebody else is better right now than Niv Tubul

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.

Match

Point won or two lost for Hapoel Kfar Saba?

Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Maccabi Tel Aviv? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.

Looking ahead

Razi Abu Hamdan faces his old club

Maccabi Netanya next, and one man in the Hapoel Kfar Saba dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.

In brief

15 Edition

The Hapoel Kfar Saba Post

9 Nov 2026
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Match

No end in sight to Hapoel Kfar Saba's wait for a win

12 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.

Market

Yanir Nimni 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 Hapoel Kfar Saba can pretend not to have heard.

Player ratings

Gilbert Bandama beats them one at a time

Successful dribbles: 25. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.

Match

Hapoel Kfar Saba cannot find the net

3 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.

Squad

Yoav Koren 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 Hapoel Kfar Saba this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

The dugout

Liran Sardal gets it from the manager

“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.

Squad

Words at Hapoel Kfar Saba training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Noam Cohen 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 dugout

Ofir Peretz: “We have to be better”

“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.

Looking ahead

A test against the best for Hapoel Kfar Saba

The team at the top of the table next, and the honest measure of where this side actually is. Anybody can beat the club below them; the question is what happens against Maccabi Tel Aviv.

In brief

14 Edition

The Hapoel Kfar Saba Post

2 Nov 2026
From our football correspondent Crisis

Match

No end in sight to Hapoel Kfar Saba's wait for a win

11 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.

The terraces

Anger at Hapoel Kfar Saba spills outside the ground

It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.

Squad

6 saves: Nahuel Pezzini was the team

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.

Squad

Nahuel Pezzini wants to go home

“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 Kfar Saba know it.

Match

Hapoel Kiryat Shmona take the points off Hapoel Kfar Saba

Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.

Squad

Gitai Sofir 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 Hapoel Kfar Saba this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

The dugout

Ofir Peretz: “No excuses”

“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑1, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.

Squad

Amit Arazi makes the team of the month

Four or five weekends of consistency, measured against everybody else in the division. A quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.

The dugout

Niv Tubul gets it from the manager

“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.

In brief

13 Edition

The Hapoel Kfar Saba Post

26 Oct 2026
From our football correspondent Crisis

Match

10 matches without a win for Hapoel Kfar Saba

The run now stands at 10, and the questions being asked around Hapoel Kfar Saba are no longer polite ones.

Squad

Tempers go at Hapoel Kfar Saba

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.

Match

Beitar Jerusalem take the points off Hapoel Kfar Saba

Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.

Player ratings

Gilbert Bandama runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 17. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Squad

Too much change too quickly at Hapoel Kfar Saba

16 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.

The dugout

Ofir Peretz faces the questions

“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Ofir Peretz after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.

The dugout

Roy Harel gets it from the manager

“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.

Squad

A row about effort at Hapoel Kfar Saba

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Noam Cohen was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

The dugout

Hapoel Kfar Saba pick somebody else ahead of Sahar Hershkovich

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.

In brief

12 Edition

The Hapoel Kfar Saba Post

19 Oct 2026
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Match

No end in sight to Hapoel Kfar Saba's wait for a win

9 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.

Match

Every point is an argument now for Hapoel Kfar Saba

Position 14 and 3 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.

Player ratings

Gitai Sofir pops up at the right end — 7.38

7.38, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.

Squad

Real improvement from Moran Waheb at Hapoel Kfar Saba

Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Moran Waheb is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.

Squad

Tempers go at Hapoel Kfar Saba

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.

Match

Late, late show earns Hapoel Kfar Saba a point

Minute 87, against Hapoel Haifa, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.

The dugout

Yoav Koren gets it from the manager

“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.

Match

Gitai Sofir rescues a point for Hapoel Kfar Saba

It needed Gitai Sofir to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Hapoel Haifa, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.

The dugout

The manager’s verdict

“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Ofir Peretz was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Hapoel Kfar Saba dressing room was either.

In brief

11 Edition

The Hapoel Kfar Saba Post

12 Oct 2026
From our football correspondent Crisis

Match

The wait goes on for Hapoel Kfar Saba

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.

Squad

Nahuel Pezzini keeps Hapoel Kfar Saba in it on his own

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.

Market

Yanir Nimni 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 Hapoel Kfar Saba can pretend not to have heard.

Squad

A falling-out at Hapoel Kfar Saba

Denny Gropper and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

Itai Danor is a better footballer than he was

Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 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.

Market

Hapoel Kfar Saba promote Eli Shechter from within

The academy exists for exactly this morning. Eli Shechter 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.

Market

Omer Melikson steps up from the Hapoel Kfar Saba academy

There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Omer Melikson 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.

Match

Hapoel Kfar Saba come up short against Maccabi Haifa

Maccabi Haifa left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.

The dugout

A promise honoured at Hapoel Kfar Saba

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.

In brief

10 Edition

The Hapoel Kfar Saba Post

5 Oct 2026
From our football correspondent Crisis

Match

The wait goes on for Hapoel Kfar Saba

7 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.

Squad

Hapoel Kfar Saba count the cost of losing Liran Sardal

14 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.

Squad

Denny Gropper 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 Hapoel Kfar Saba this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Match

Maccabi Petach Tikva take the points off Hapoel Kfar Saba

Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.

Player ratings

Gilbert Bandama runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 19. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Squad

Almog Elshtein 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.

The dugout

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 1‑2 Ofir Peretz left the room before anybody could ask which.

Boardroom

92% of the income goes out in wages at Hapoel Kfar Saba

Every club in football 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 somebody has tried it.

Squad

Gilbert Bandama named in the team of the month

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.

In brief

9 Edition

The Hapoel Kfar Saba Post

28 Sep 2026
From our football correspondent Crisis

Match

The small margins put Hapoel Kfar Saba out

Out, 0‑3 to Hapoel Tel Aviv, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.

The terraces

Hapoel Kfar Saba are taken apart by Hapoel Tel Aviv — and the town wants answers

It finished 0-3. A cup exit is a disappointment; this was a public dismantling, and the difference between the two is the number of people who will still be talking about it in August.

Match

The wait goes on for Hapoel Kfar Saba

6 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.

Squad

Tempers go at Hapoel Kfar Saba

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.

Match

Bnei Yehuda take the points off Hapoel Kfar Saba

Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Nahuel Pezzini

“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.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Gilbert Bandama

Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Boardroom

Inquest at Hapoel Kfar Saba

The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.

Squad

16 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.

In brief

  • The dugout The view from the dugout
  • Player ratings Wrong net for Niv Tubul
  • Squad Manor Shechter signs on for more
8 Edition

The Hapoel Kfar Saba Post

21 Sep 2026
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Player ratings

Up for the corner, and Gitai Sofir delivers — 7.64

Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Gitai Sofir scored, was marked 7.64, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.

Match

4 matches without a win for Hapoel Kfar Saba

The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Hapoel Kfar Saba are no longer polite ones.

Squad

Moran Waheb is a better footballer than he was

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.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Gilbert Bandama

Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Transfer targets

Morón tell Hapoel Kfar Saba: Tomás Ramírez is not for sale

The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.

Squad

Tempers go at Hapoel Kfar Saba

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.

Match

Gitai Sofir rescues a point for Hapoel Kfar Saba

It needed Gitai Sofir to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Hapoel Raanana, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.

The dugout

No hiding place for Roy Harel

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Roy Harel, and the manager let it.

The dugout

Half-satisfied: Ofir Peretz on the draw

“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.

In brief

7 Edition

The Hapoel Kfar Saba Post

14 Sep 2026
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Market

Yanir Nimni asks to leave Hapoel Kfar Saba

“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.

Match

Hapoel Kfar Saba cannot find the net

3 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.

Transfer targets

Sport Recife tell Hapoel Kfar Saba: Maik is not for sale

The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.

The terraces

The crowd has taken to Gilbert Bandama

At 20 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.

Market

Hapoel Kfar Saba promote Shon Melikson from within

The academy exists for exactly this morning. Shon Melikson 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.

Squad

A falling-out at Hapoel Kfar Saba

Gitai Sofir and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Player ratings

Gilbert Bandama takes the honours

Marked 7.29 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Hapoel Kfar Saba had the best player on the pitch.

The dugout

Ofir Peretz: “We have to be better”

“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.

Squad

A row about effort at Hapoel Kfar Saba

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Noam Cohen was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

In brief

6 Edition

The Hapoel Kfar Saba Post

7 Sep 2026
From our football correspondent Crisis

Match

A hiding for Hapoel Kfar Saba

Beaten 0‑3 by Hapoel Beer Sheva, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.

Boardroom

Window shuts: 16 in, 1 out at Hapoel Kfar Saba

The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 16 arrived, 1 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.

Squad

Hapoel Kfar Saba lose Liran Sardal

43 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.

Squad

Denny Gropper 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 Hapoel Kfar Saba this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Transfer targets

Hapoel Beer Sheva tell Hapoel Kfar Saba: Yonas Malede is not for sale

The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.

Boardroom

Doors closed at Hapoel Kfar Saba

The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.

Squad

Konadu Yiadom slips down the pecking order

The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Konadu Yiadom is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.

The dugout

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 0‑3 defeat, delivered by Ofir Peretz to a room that had heard them before.

Player ratings

Gilbert Bandama was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 14. 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.

In brief

5 Edition

The Hapoel Kfar Saba Post

31 Aug 2026
From our football correspondent Crisis

Market

Hapoel Kfar Saba break the bank for Nahuel Pezzini

$1.2M. No player has ever cost Hapoel Kfar Saba more, and expectation arrives with him.

Squad

A one-man rearguard from Nahuel Pezzini

There were 6 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.

Squad

A move Nahuel Pezzini would have made for nothing

There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Nahuel Pezzini is living that version at Hapoel Kfar Saba, and it tends to show in the first month.

Transfer targets

Door shut on Dyogo Alves

Hapoel Kfar Saba asked and Flamengo said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.

Squad

Words exchanged at Hapoel Kfar Saba

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.

Match

A bad afternoon for Hapoel Kfar Saba against Hapoel Tel Aviv

0‑2 to Hapoel Tel Aviv, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.

Squad

16 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 dugout

Ofir Peretz: “No excuses”

“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑2, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.

Transfer targets

Hapoel Kfar Saba ask about Kauã

A loan enquiry to Criciuma: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.

In brief

4 Edition

The Hapoel Kfar Saba Post

24 Aug 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Transfer targets

$1.2M settles it between the clubs for Nahuel Pezzini

Arsenal 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.

Market

Tom Shelah asks to leave Hapoel Kfar Saba

“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.

Transfer targets

Door shut on Miguel Terceros

Hapoel Kfar Saba asked and Santos said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.

Squad

Tempers go at Hapoel Kfar Saba

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.

Squad

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.

Boardroom

Hapoel Kfar Saba say no to the training-ground money

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.

In brief

3 Edition

The Hapoel Kfar Saba Post

17 Aug 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Transfer targets

Hapoel Kfar Saba rebuffed over Gil Cohen

Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Beitar Jerusalem have kept their man, and Hapoel Kfar Saba go back to a list with one name crossed off it.

Transfer targets

Too dear: Hapoel Kfar Saba walk away from Shachar Rosen

$220.0K was the most the club would pay and Maccabi Tel Aviv 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.

Squad

Yoav Koren 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 Hapoel Kfar Saba this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Transfer targets

Hapoel Kfar Saba ask about Dyogo Alves

A loan enquiry to Flamengo: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.

Transfer targets

Hapoel Kfar Saba ask about JP Murilo

A loan enquiry to Vasco da Gama: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.

Squad

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.

In brief

2 Edition

The Hapoel Kfar Saba Post

10 Aug 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Transfer targets

Door shut on Yonas Malede

Hapoel Kfar Saba asked and Hapoel Beer Sheva said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.

Squad

Words exchanged at Hapoel Kfar Saba

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.

Market

One of our own: Eitan Natcho joins the Hapoel Kfar Saba first team

Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Eitan Natcho is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.

Market

Hapoel Kfar Saba promote Uri Atzili from within

The academy exists for exactly this morning. Uri Atzili 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.

Market

Uri Glazer steps up from the Hapoel Kfar Saba academy

There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Uri Glazer 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.

Market

Hapoel Kfar Saba promote Avi Shechter from within

The academy exists for exactly this morning. Avi Shechter 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.

In brief

1 Edition

The Hapoel Kfar Saba Post

3 Aug 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

Konadu Yiadom stays put

“The easiest signature of my career.” Konadu Yiadom and Hapoel Kfar Saba agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.

Squad

A falling-out at Hapoel Kfar Saba

Yoav Koren and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Market

Talks stall between Hapoel Kfar Saba and Razi Abu Hamdan

“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.

Squad

Too much change too quickly at Hapoel Kfar Saba

12 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.

Transfer targets

Hapoel Kfar Saba try to borrow Denny Gropper

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.

Transfer targets

Hapoel Kfar Saba try to borrow Sahar Hershkovich

Bnei Yehuda 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.

In brief