TFT Issue 3284!

Today’s featured game is the Israeli Ligat Ha’al encounter between Beitar Jerusalem and Hapoel Be’er Sheva.

The bookies are right to make Beitar Jerusalem favourites, at least on paper. However, the quality gap in Israel seldom makes that much of a difference, really. Maccabi Tel-Aviv is the only team that can claim that it does, and with half of the referees in the country at their beck and call, it’s somewhat difficult to prove that that is the case. The rest? They’re all fair game for one another, circumstances permitting, and no team at this level is good enough tactically to be trusted to cope when players are out. No, I’m afraid that almost all Ligat Ha’al games follow a similar pattern; poor defending, lightning attacking, poor composure, coin toss on the outcome.

All that said, I think that the bookies have perhaps misjudged this one just a tad. I stand by everything that I said in my Maccabi Haifa vs Beitar Jerusalem preview last week; tonight’s hosts are still the greatest circus in Israeli football. The talks are ongoing with an Emirati businessman to take control of the club, which is just bonkers, honestly. Beitar Jerusalem are easily the most racist club in Israel so I’ll let your minds wander as to what can happen if an Arab takes over one of the country’s biggest clubs.

It’s more than just the circus element, though. It never takes a lot to set this team out of their stride, basically. They’re without a win in four matches now, losing three along the way. They’ve got no leaders to pull them out of this shit, the men behind the scenes are creating the completely wrong type of diversion, and I am sure that Drapic will soon face the axe because that’s the nature of this club. Like I said last week, I rate the Serbian manager rather highly, at least for this level, but Beitar Jerusalem don’t care about that; just results on the pitch.

On top of the above, Beitar Jerusalem are without players – again. A lot of them are backups or have been out for a while now. I still maintain that they’re crap at the back when Verdasca is out though, which he is. Their defeat against Maccabi Haifa has also resulted in them having a couple of doubts ahead of yet another tricky fixture tonight, namely leading goal-scorer Ohana and number one goalkeeper Nltzan. There’s not enough of anything in this squad to make me think that Beitar Jerusalem can win this one, even with Konstantini back in defence (arguably their most potent attacker!). Atar and Shuacan cause problems up front but where the service will come from, I don’t know, and Shua is still lacking in confidence after his premature transfer to Maccabi Haifa.

Understand that I am not guaranteeing that Beitar Jerusalem will be crucified here; it’s more that, at the present moment in time, it’s a good idea to oppose them. I believe it’s also a good time to get back on the Hapoel Be’er Sheva wagon too. A run of poor results from them was only to be expected when you fuse their lack of depth with fixture congestion and then key absentees. Vitor’s absence may not be new news for Hapoel Be’er Sheva; the Portuguese centre-back never really seems to get fit nowadays. However, he remains their best defender, and thus his absence is relevant, even during good runs. Then losing his fellow countryman, Josue, because of his inability to control his temper off the pitch, was the last thing that boss Abukasis needed.

Still, the creative midfielder is back for the visitors tonight, and I’d like to think that tips the scales in favour of the away team. They still have some noteworthy absentees, and I certainly cannot ignore the potential defensive disaster looming with both Goldberg and Acolatse potentially joining Vitor on the sidelines here; it depends upon late fitness tests. It would certainly make sense to check line-ups before betting on this one because without a defence, chances are very slender that the visitors will win this one. If Goldberg and Acolatse are passed fit though, I trust Hapoel Be’er Sheva to get something here.

It helps that boss Abukasis is there too. By no means is he a popular manager, but he knows how to annoy opponents, and how to grind out positive results. He’s one of those managers that you hate when he’s managing an opponent, but love when he’s managing your team. He’s certainly getting more out of this limited Hapoel Be’er Sheva than most before him for the past few years. He’s instilled some excellent midfield engines for Josue to ping passes to, and has got an experience Ligat Ha’al striker – Varenne – to lead the line, whilst emerging youngster Shviro also shoulders the responsibility for goal-scoring. The approach and shape of Hapoel Be’er Sheva makes sense to me, basically – and I’ve not been able to say that for a while now.

Again, I’ve seen better Hapoel Be’er Sheva sides than this – but not for four years or so. This team looks effective, and should be able to prove it more when they’re not playing a match every three days. Only MS Ashdod and bogey team Maccabi Haifa have bested Hapoel Be’er Sheva in the Ligat Ha’al this season, and that is not a coincidence. There’s still work to do, but I like where this team is at, and I trust them more with Josue back. I certainly think they’re in a far better place than their hosts tonight, and that’s why I’m not convinced that they merit the ‘underdogs’ tag the bookies have given them.

Therefore, I believe it’s worth backing Hapoel Be’er Sheva to pick up their first win at the Teddi since 2018 tonight because they simply won’t get a better chance than this to do so.