On Monday Hapoel Tel Aviv will “host” Maccabi Tel Aviv in *their* arena, Yad Eliyahu, for a heated derby after which only one undefeated team will remain in the Winner League.

Both teams enter the derby with a perfect league record with the Reds at 4–0 and the Yellow-and-Blue at 5–0 following a week in which they both beat Baskonia and lost to Fenerbahçe in the EuroLeague. Beyond these circumstantial facts, it’s hard to imagine two teams, two clubs, more different from one another. The 2025/26 versions of Hapoel and Maccabi Tel Aviv, which will meet in the season’s first Winner League derby at Yad Eliyahu (Monday, 20:50), could not be more opposite.

For as long as anyone can remember, the two squads have been polar opposites, sports antitheses. Throughout most of their existence, the pair of Tel Aviv clubs have differed in their sporting worldview, fan culture, management model, legacy and image. Maccabi spearheaded Israeli sports onto the world stage beginning in the 1970s, synonymous with titles, “the team of the nation.” Hapoel was the eternal underdog, stuck in a 56-year championship drought during which it even sank to the depths of the lower divisions without a home, without an owner, without a future, hope or dreams. Maccabi had the best Israelis and the best foreigners, fighting for every title. And Hapoel? For many years, a derby win over its nemesis was as sensational as lifting a trophy.

This narrative, however, has been challenged over the past two years by Ofer Yanai, with a lot of noise, money, power and tweets.

So far, it seems to be working. Fans of the club who, fifteen years ago, mourned the demolition of the Ussishkin Arena while in the third division, celebrated a sensational EuroCup title and now witness weekly wins in Europe’s top league. It has been two years of a historical role reversal. Maccabi’s management is fractured, repeatedly tightening its budgetary belt despite an urgent need for roster reinforcement, falling behind in EuroLeague competitiveness.

Yanai, on the other hand, is operating freely on the red side of the city, assembling this season’s roster even before the EuroBasket with the aim of going as far as possible. And indeed, with blockbuster signings like Micic, Bryant, Malcolm, Oturu and others, Hapoel Tel Aviv looks like one of the strongest teams in Europe, while the yellow-and-blue fight at the bottom of the EuroLeague standings with odds of climbing out of it as slim as the chances of a European winter in Dubai.

These contrasting approaches between the old yellow empire and the rising red powerhouse produce two teams with massive differences that will collide at full force on Monday in Yad Eliyahu in front of an arena filled with red.

On the court
It’s as clear as a winter sun in November that the “hosts” enter the derby as clear favorites, but under the Israeli league player rules, the professional gap which is stretched from Sofia to Belgrade shrinks significantly. Hapoel Tel Aviv’s near-total reliance on its foreign players in the EuroLeague creates a “Hapoel B,” a version that Maccabi can feel more comfortable facing for two reasons.

First, the foreigners available for league play are less dominant. As of now, Micic and Oturu have not played a single domestic-league minute and may not be available for the derby; it’s still unclear how and when Hapoel will use its remaining two foreign-player slots. Of course, even in this reduced form, Hapoel’s foreigners are still more talented than Maccabi’s: Elijah Bryant has looked like perhaps the most complete guard in the EuroLeague in recent weeks; Antonio Blakeney is a player no one wants to face; Tyler Ennis and Chris Jones handle the ball far better than Jeff Dowtin Jr. and Lonnie Walker; Ish Wainright and Collin Malcolm are top-EuroLeague-level 3-and-D players; and Johnathan Motley plus Tai Odiase bring the size Maccabi sorely lacks in the paint. But not all of them will dress for the derby and only four can be on the court simultaneously significantly reducing the gap between them and the likes of Jaylen Hoard, Marcio Santos, Jimmy Clark, Walker and company.

The second factor giving Maccabi a relative advantage is its Israeli players. In the absence of Yam Madar and Tomer Ginat, Hapoel hardly plays its Israelis unless forced to. So, aside from Guy Palatin and Bar Timor who travel with the team and scrape together minimal minutes the Israelis of “Hapoel B” are outside the hierarchy and struggle to build chemistry with foreigners who rarely play league games and often stay in Sofia until domestic games resume in December.

On the yellow-and-blue side, the Israelis are the beating heart of the team, even in Europe (for better and worse). Of the team’s top five scorers in the league, four are Israelis (Roman Sorkin, Tamir Blatt, John DiBartolomeo and TJ Leaf), compared to only two for Hapoel (Ginat who is injured and Iftach Ziv). Comparing the two clubs’ top available Israelis, Hapoel’s Timor and Palatin combine for 13.5 points and 16 efficiency per game, while Maccabi’s Sorkin and Blatt post 23.2 points and 25.2 efficiency which happens to be nine more points and in nine fewer minutes.

On the sidelines
We will see an intriguing duel between Oded Katash and Dimitrios Itoudis. The latter will surely want revenge for the EuroLeague derby loss in Sofia in front of the red crowd. In that game, the reds succumbed to a brilliant Maccabi 3-point shooting display especially in the second half (8/10) and failed to fully exploit their advantage inside with only 30 attempts in the paint. They also committed too many turnovers (16), costing them 27 points, on a night when Dowtin Jr. scored all 13 of his points in the fourth quarter to tilt the game to the yellow-and-blue.

However, since then Maccabi fell all the way to the basement of the EuroLeague but made a great escape with Thursday’s win over Baskonia (89–83), while the Hapoel remained at the top despite losing to Fenerbahçe (74–68). Maccabi can draw encouragement from its front court (Leaf, Sorkin and Hoard), which repeatedly cut through the Basques’ defense with impressive efficiency and cooperation that could challenge Hapoel’s interior.

On the other hand, the yellow-and-blue should worry about the apathy and complacency that let Baskonia repeatedly claw back into the game instead of closing it out and giving Katash some peace of mind. Perhaps Lonnie Walker’s health is affecting his body language, which signals total indifference once the ball leaves his hands, but the apathy seems contagious on the Maccabi bench and contributes to many of their disappointing losses.

Hapoel hopes to learn from the lessons imposed by Europe’s established giants. Alongside their explosive offensive performances, Hapoel Tel Aviv often finds itself stuck and when the offense stalls, the defense does not seem capable of rescuing them. The loss in the Winner Cup final to Hapoel Jerusalem highlighted the defensive weakness that appears only when the offense fails to click.

Maccabi should note: every game Hapoel lost this season involved chaos, plenty of elbow grease and clawing with their fingernails. That’s how it was in the previous derby, in Athens vs. Olympiacos, in the Arena, and Thursday vs. Fenerbahçe. Sarunas Jasikevicius’ players managed to drag Hapoel out of rhythm and force a game decided by small margins rather than tough shot-making. The Turks neutralized Hapoel’s transition game and offensive-rebounding efficiency and punished every turnover, switch or mistimed help. Istanbul’s yellow-and-blue couldn’t have done this without fire in their eyes and razor blades in their teeth and the yellow-and-blue of Tel Aviv will need to do the exact same. It’s going to be fascinating clash without a doubt.