{"id":169010,"date":"2026-01-27T13:23:16","date_gmt":"2026-01-27T13:23:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/?p=169010"},"modified":"2026-01-27T13:23:16","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T13:23:16","slug":"more-than-just-another-derby-grief-and-football-meet-on-monday-night-at-bloomfield","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/en\/more-than-just-another-derby-grief-and-football-meet-on-monday-night-at-bloomfield\/","title":{"rendered":"More than just another Derby: Grief and Football meet on Monday night at Bloomfield"},"content":{"rendered":"

Monday night\u2019s Tel Aviv derby was never going to be just another football match. Not in this city, not between these teams and certainly not on a day like yesterday.<\/p>\n

Hours before kick-off, the body of Ran Gvili, the last remaining hostage who was taken by Hamas on October 7, 2023, was returned to Israel. With that, a grim and painful milestone was reached: for the first time since 2014, there are no Israeli hostages \u2013 living or dead \u2013 being held in Gaza. It was a moment that carried both relief and unbearable sadness. Closure, of a sort, but not comfort. An ending to a chapter that none of us ever wanted written.<\/p>\n

That weight followed us into Bloomfield Stadium.<\/p>\n

During the pre-game ceremony, when Maccabi announcer Shai Sidi mentioned Gvili\u2019s return, something rare, but also familiar over the course of the last two years, happened. Maccabi Tel Aviv fans and Hapoel Tel Aviv fans \u2013 sworn enemies in any normal circumstances \u2013 stood together and applauded. Yellow and red, shoulder to shoulder. The applause wasn\u2019t celebratory, but rather respectful, heavy and exhausted. It held grief and relief in equal measure. For a brief moment, rivalry disappeared, replaced by the shared understanding that some things are bigger than football.
\n

\"\"

Photo credit: Yehuda Halickman<\/p><\/div>
\nThat moment mattered. And then, inevitably, football took over.<\/p>\n

Once the match began, the derby returned to its familiar chaos. In typical fashion, both sets of supporters lit flares from opposite ends of the stadium. Hapoel\u2019s end escalated things further, launching fireworks into the night sky. The result was a ten-minute delay \u2013 a spectacle that was as frustrating as it was predictable. It was also, in its own twisted way, a reminder of how deeply this rivalry runs. Even on a night loaded with national emotion, neither side was prepared to be quiet.<\/p>\n

When the ball finally started moving, Maccabi looked like the more composed side. In the 32nd minute, captain Dor Peretz finished a well-worked move, sending the ball into the back of the net from a precise cross by Helio Varela. It was a goal that felt earned and controlled, giving the Yellows a deserved 1\u20130 lead at halftime. From the stands, it felt like Maccabi had the match where they wanted it: not spectacular, but managed.<\/p>\n

But derbies don\u2019t care about control; they care about moments.
\n

\"\"

Photo credit: Yehuda Halickman<\/p><\/div>
\nAs the second half wore on, the tension built. Hapoel pushed and Maccabi resisted, while the clock ticked toward what felt like an inevitable Maccabi victory. Then came injury time, the most cruel and dramatic space football occupies.<\/p>\n

First, substitute Omri Altman rose to meet a cross and headed in the equalizer. Behind the goals, the Hapoel fans erupted. Before anyone could properly process what had just happened, Hapoel struck again on the very last play of the match, with Chico Alves scored the winner, sealing a 2\u20131 victory for the Reds and their first Tel Aviv derby win since 2014.<\/p>\n

For Maccabi supporters, it was devastating. For Hapoel supporters, it was everything, celebrating in the stadium for long after the final whistle blew.<\/p>\n

And here\u2019s the honest truth: even as a Maccabi fan, it was impossible not to feel the electricity of that moment. To watch Hapoel players sprint toward their fans, to see an entire stand explode in disbelief and, for the Hapoel fans, joy after more than a decade of waiting, that\u2019s football at its purest. It\u2019s painful when you\u2019re on the wrong side of it, yes, but undeniably powerful. Credit where it\u2019s due \u2013 congratulations to Hapoel and to their coach, Elyaniv Barda, especially after the heartbreak they had suffered just two weeks earlier, losing dramatically to Maccabi in a penalty shootout in the State Cup.
\n

\"\"

Photo credit: Yehuda Halickman<\/p><\/div>
\nThe night, however, wasn\u2019t done dealing out consequences.<\/p>\n

In the press conference after the match, Maccabi coach \u017darko Lazetic faced a barrage of aggressive, at times hostile, questions. Watching it, it was hard not to feel sympathy. Results matter though, especially at a club like Maccabi which has suffered historical losses this season both in Europe and at home, but football can be ruthless. By the following morning, Lazetic \u2013 who only last season guided the Yellows to a League Championship \u2013 was out, his dismissal officially announced. Another chapter closed, abruptly, as football so often does.<\/p>\n

And yet, walking away from the stadium on Monday night, my overriding feeling wasn\u2019t just about tactics, goals or managerial decisions. It was about perspective.<\/p>\n

We are living through heavy times. War has reshaped our daily lives, our conversations, and our emotional bandwidth. The return of Ran Gvili\u2019s body felt like the end of a chapter \u2013 not because the pain is gone, but because a long, agonizing uncertainty has finally resolved into something painfully final. That kind of national weight doesn\u2019t disappear when the referee blows his whistle.
\n

\"\"

Photo credit: Yehuda Halickman<\/p><\/div>
\nAnd that\u2019s why football matters. Not because it distracts us from reality, but because it gives us a place to release what reality builds up inside us. Ninety minutes where joy, anger, heartbreak, hope and belonging are allowed to exist loudly and without apology. A space where strangers sing together, argue together and sometimes \u2013 just sometimes \u2013 stand together in silence and applause.<\/p>\n

Last night had all of it: unity and division, beauty and ugliness, triumph and despair. I\u2019ll remember the flares, the goals and the shock at full-time. But I\u2019ll also remember that moment before kick-off, when yellow and red clapped as one.<\/p>\n

With everything going on in our lives, that escape \u2013 flawed, chaotic and emotional \u2013 is something I will continue to cherish. Football doesn\u2019t solve our problems, but on nights like Monday, it reminds us why feeling still matters. Right now, that\u2019s no small thing.
\n

\"\"

Photo credit: Yehuda Halickman<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Monday night\u2019s Tel Aviv derby was never going to be just another football match. Not in this city, not between these teams and certainly not on a day like yesterday. Hours before kick-off, the body of Ran Gvili, the last remaining hostage who was taken by Hamas on October 7, 2023, was returned to Israel. 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