Maccabi Tel Aviv captured the Israel Super Cup with a 3-1 win over Hapoel Beer Sheva at Turner Stadium to open up the 2026/27 season. Sayed Abu Farhi scored a brace for the yellow-and-blue while Dor Peretz found the back of the goal as well for Kenny Miller’s squad while Kings Kangwa scored the lone marker of the match for the southern reds.

In the annual clash between league champions and State Cup holders from the previous campaign, Abu Farhi put Maccabi on the board first but Kangwa quickly drew Ron Kozuk’s side even as the game went into the break knotted up at 1-1. However, the yellow-and-blue took control of the contest in the second half and dominated play with goals by Peretz and Abu Farhi’s second strike despite going down a man with Roy Revivo being sent off after his second yellow card to wrap up the title.

The Super Cup was presented by the League Administration Chairman Erez Kalfon, together with Eldad Maman, a Maccabi Tel Aviv supporter. Eldad, 36, was wounded about three months ago while serving in the IDF Reserves in Lebanon. He served as a combat soldier in Battalion 8552, assigned to the deputy battalion commander’s tactical command post. He was seriously wounded on June 6, 2026, by an explosive drone in the village of Al-Khiam in southern Lebanon.

Eldad recalls, “I fired at the drone so that the rest of the command post team could get into cover. When I realized the drone’s camera had locked onto me as its target, I ran into the shelter, and the drone exploded at the entrance, about five meters away from me. Thank God, I’m here today, proud of the journey I’ve been through and of what I did for my country. Am Yisrael Chai! Only Maccabi.”

League Administration Chairman Erez Kalfon said, “We salute you, Eldad, and all the soldiers of the IDF and members of Israel’s security forces. Thanks to you, we are able to continue playing football. Congratulations to Maccabi Tel Aviv, to owner Mitch Goldhar, to head coach Kenny Miller and his staff, to the players, and above all to the fans. You, together with the supporters of Hapoel Beer Sheva, showed today the best face of Israeli football. Wishing all of us a successful season filled with achievements, both on the pitch and in the stands.”

Maccabi Tel Aviv Head Coach Kenny Miller spoke about the victory, “It’s a new season and there are expectations and demands. It’s important to start off the season well and it was terrific to win the game after also having won the State Cup. After we lost a player we really worked hard to make sure we would win and the staff gave everything they could.

Hapoel Beer Sheva Head Coach Ron Kozuk shared his thoughts about the match, “I think that our defensive game was not good at all in this game across the board by everyone to say the least. There were a lot of things that didn’t go the way we wanted and we will need to go and look back at what we can improve. I think this loss can do us some good as we will need to work hard this coming week ahead of the Champions League qualifiers and it’s tough for us as we did lose a title but we can come back strong and reward our fans after disappointing them.”

Sayed Abu Farhi discussed the win, “I’m very happy that we came in and won the game and we battled all the ay to the end, before and after the red card, we played our game just like Kenny worked with us. Every season we are trying to win as many titles as we can and we want to win the league championship as well. I am hungry to score more goals and I want to have a great season. It was fun to get back playing and it was great to have our fans with us. They were really happy and I feel great to give them that joy.”

Ofir Davdizada looked back at the loss, “This was a match for a title and we wanted to win it, but this wasn’t a good game from us. We wanted to play better but we need to see where we erred in this match and make the corrections ahead of our next match. We had good energy going into the game and we will really need to go back and work on things that we could have done better.”

Maccabi Tel Aviv took control early on as Dor Peretz and Sayed Abu Farchi were active up front which paid off by the 10th minute when the latter took a Sagiv Yehezkel pass and slotted home the ball into an empty goal up to give the yellow-and-blue a 1-0 lead. However, just five minutes later Hapoel Beer Sheva evened the game up at 1-1 when Kings Kangwa scored in the box off a pair of chances from Guy Mizrachi and Ofir Davidzada whose errant attempt made its way to the Zambian who found the bid of the goal and then stared down the Maccabi fans.

Abu Farhi almost gave Kenny Miller’s squad the lead but his opportunity was pawed to safety by an alert Ofir Marciano but Peretz then headed home the ball on the next attack but the goal was called off due to Abu Farhi being offside in the 20th minute. An active Abu Farhi again was in the middle of the nonstop action but Marciano made the stop while Eliel Peretz’s screamer went way over the bar.

Issouf Sissokho and Yehezkel had chances from outside of the box, at the other end, Amir Ganach sent a beauty of a ball to Igor Zlatanovic in the box but just missed latching onto it, Ganach then hit the woodwork off a free kick play while Kangwa also most caught keeper Ofek Melika out of the goal but the shot stopper made the save as the half ended deadlocked at 1-1.

Yehezkel and Peretz both had chances as the second half got underway, as Maccabi kept applying all kinds of pressure which finally resulted in the latter polishing off a team passing play to give the yellow-and-blue a 2-1 lead in the 57th minute. Beer Sheva made wholesale substitutions as newcomer Joao Victor made his debut, but just minutes later Roy Revivo picked up his second yellow card and was sent off leaving Maccabi Tel Aviv with only ten men in the 65th minute.

But that didn’t stop the yellow-and-blue as Abu Farhi put in his second of the match while Yehezkel picked up his third assist of the match to out Miller’s troops up 3-1 in the 72nd minute. Ron Kozuk’s team took control of the the pace of play from that point on but couldn’t muster up any quality chances as Maccabi took home the season opening title.