Anytime that Hapoel Tel Aviv and Beitar Jerusalem get together on the pitch, there seems to always be the chance of some spectacular fireworks. The two arch-rivals or even enemies have been going at one another for years as the players and of course the fans always bring the best to the table when the reds and yellow-and-black do battle.

There will be plenty of end-to-end action as is expected at Bloomfield Stadium on Monday night as Elyaniv Barda and Barak Itzhaki’s squads will be raring to go in order to bring pride and passion to their respective sides.

The two bench bosses happen to be former star players with Barda lighting up the stadiums around Belgium for many seasons while also having been one of the top players for Hapoel Beer Sheva as well as the club he now manages in Hapoel Tel Aviv. That is also true of Itzhaki who was superb for both Maccabi Tel Aviv as well as the team he is now in charge of Beitar Jerusalem.

The pair faced off many times on the pitch, having scored goals for their clubs in the battle of the brawn and will now square off in a battle of brains as each maestro will try to out smart the other in order to bring 3-points home for their team.

The stadium will be hopping without a doubt as close to 30K will pack into the facility right on the edge of Jaffa as both bench bosses will man the sidelines, walking up and down, barking out the orders and seeing how to best the other side in what will also be somewhat of a game of chess. Each team have potent offenses and attackers that can do damage while both have some issues on defense that the other will try to expose.

There have been classics upon classics with these teams from Beitar’s State Cup win over the reds at Ramat Gan Stadium that went to penalties in front of close to 50K fans including yours truly back in 2008. In what was a classic pitting former Hapoel defender Shimon Gershon scoring a penalty against his old team against top notch keeper Vincent Eneyema while Baruch Dego came up short on his with the Cup on the line, to Reiven Oved weakly sending his kick right to an awaiting Beitar keeper Kala, this game had all of the relish and mustard that was needed to make the game one that would be talked about for years.

Or another incredible game that had Eran Zahavi scoring in the 92nd minute against Beitar at Teddy Stadium to win the 2010 title as the Reds needed to not only win on the last matchday but Maccabi Haifa had to win at Bnei Yehuda which everyone thought was going to be a shoe in but it was anything but as Hapoel Tel Aviv won the championship at the death. In fact, Barak Itzhaki was ejected after Zahavi’s goal in what was a barnburner for sure.

But back to the here and now.

Both teams are coming off of the international break and will be looking to show their wares on the field as best to their abilities, but has that time off been a help or hindrance to Beitar?
“We’ll find out tomorrow,” Itzhaki said ahead of the match. “These are questions that can’t be answered that easily. There was time to prepare and work, there were players on the national team, they came back and now we have a full squad after a few training sessions. When there are players who are in good shape, players who are available for the national team and a player who plays for his national team and is close to going to the World Cup, it’s a positive headache, we’ll do everything to come in at our best and do our utmost to win the game.”

Barda also is interested in seeing how his team will come into the matchup, “We are preparing as best as we can and it starts with our attitude and concentration. We just moved up a league, we want to be the best we can. We will meet a very good team with a lot of qualities, but we have already played quality teams and we knew how to do things well. We will focus on ourselves and try to improve the things that we need to do better.”

Itzhaki is aware that Hapoel has a number of key attackers that will need to be shut down including Stav Turiel and starlet Daniel Dappa, “We don’t look at this or that player when we play against our rivals, but at Hapoel as a team. They have a lot of talented players and they are a tough and good team. We have a difficult game ahead of us.”

Another player that may impact the game for Hapoel is youngster Mor Buskila who after a lengthy saga finally is now Reds property, “Mor hasn’t trained with the team for over a month and only did personal training. From practice session to practice session, we are progressing with him and we will make the decision whether he will be included in the squad as we get closer to the game itself.”

There will be a huge crowd that will be in attendance at Bloomfield, but Barda doesn’t see that as an issue for his charges, “We have already had games here with a full Bloomfield and we had a Cup semi-final with a full Teddy stadium. The players are gaining experience in these situations, it is very important that we know how to take advantage of it because the push from our crowd is extraordinary at home and away.”

For Itzhaki, would this be a statement win for his Beitar game that has been playing their best football in quite some time?

“It’s still too early to talk about a statement, but a victory could give us a lot of confidence going forward.”

Will Hapoel Tel Aviv and Beitar Jerusalem write yet another chapter in their long history on Monday night? There’s no question that both teams would certainly like to and we’ll find out at 8:30pm at Bloomfield Stadium!