{"id":187479,"date":"2026-08-09T10:03:29","date_gmt":"2026-08-09T10:03:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/?p=187479"},"modified":"2026-08-09T10:03:29","modified_gmt":"2026-08-09T10:03:29","slug":"maccabi-haifa-picks-up-win-kityat-shemona-punches-toto-cup-semifinal-spot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/en\/maccabi-haifa-picks-up-win-kityat-shemona-punches-toto-cup-semifinal-spot\/","title":{"rendered":"Maccabi Haifa picks up win, Kityat Shemona punches Toto Cup semifinal spot"},"content":{"rendered":"

Maccabi Haifa blanked Bnei Sakhnin 1-0<\/strong> as Silva Kani put the ball in off Cedric Don\u2019s shot that had hit the post to give the Greens the Toto Cup victory. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis was a better game, it wasn\u2019t great, but it was definitely one that was more aggressive,\u201d Haifa Head Coach Barak Bachar began after the win. \u201cWe didn\u2019t concede and they didn\u2019t create chances as easily as they have in recent games. We\u2019re working and putting the pieces together. We\u2019re trying to establish a core of players who can play together and we\u2019re working and will continue to work. I saw improvement and I expect to see further improvement going forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yossi Abukasis summed up loss, \u201cWe\u2019re playing without a natural striker at all; everyone is a midfielder. The only striker in the squad is suspended after receiving a red card and we\u2019re waiting for a foreign striker to arrive. Our attacking play isn\u2019t good because we don\u2019t have a natural striker. We haven\u2019t been worse than our opponents in these games.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kiryat Shemona defeated Hapoel Haifa 3-1<\/strong> as the northerners turned around an early deficit with a trio of second half goals to finish atop of Group A in Toto Cup play with four wins and a spot in the semifinals. Liran Rotman gave the Carmel Reds a lead off a poor clearance by keeper Daniel Tennebaum but from that point on it was all Shai Barda\u2019s squad. Adrian Ugarriza drew Kiryat Shemona even from the penalty spot in the 64th minute while two minutes later Ariel Sheratzky sent a left footed scorcher into the top corner of the goal to snatch a 2-1 lead. Shai Sabag polished off the victory during second half injury time as he scored into a wide open goal to secure the win and a place in the semifinals.<\/p>\n

Goal scorer Ariel Sheratzky spoke about the match, \u201cWe really wanted to reach the semifinals. We wanted it badly and we appreciate the situation we\u2019re in. We need to continue working hard so that we can be even more prepared for the league, because that\u2019s the real money time. We\u2019ll try to be as prepared as possible and win the next game but for now the entire team looks good and is giving everything, so I\u2019m happy about that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hapoel Haifa Head Coach Haim Silvas summed up the loss, \u201cFirst of all, credit goes to Kiryat Shmona, who reached the semifinals after recording four wins. We had an excellent first half and we gave Kiryat Shemona no chances. But the second half is something that has characterized us somewhat so far. Our response to the penalty wasn\u2019t good enough and we\u2019ll have to learn from that, it\u2019s an excellent lesson. The fact that we conceded a goal immediately after the penalty is something I don\u2019t like. We got ourselves into trouble with the ball in the second half.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Maccabi Haifa blanked Bnei Sakhnin 1-0 as Silva Kani put the ball in off Cedric Don\u2019s shot that had hit the post to give the Greens the Toto Cup victory. \u201cThis was a better game, it wasn\u2019t great, but it was definitely one that was more aggressive,\u201d Haifa Head Coach Barak Bachar began after the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":187443,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[80],"class_list":["post-187479","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-football-israel-2","tag-maccabi-haifa","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"yoast_head":"\nMaccabi Haifa picks up win, Kityat Shemona punches Toto Cup semifinal spot - Sports Rabbi<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/en\/maccabi-haifa-picks-up-win-kityat-shemona-punches-toto-cup-semifinal-spot\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Maccabi Haifa picks up win, Kityat Shemona punches Toto Cup semifinal spot - Sports Rabbi\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Maccabi Haifa blanked Bnei Sakhnin 1-0 as Silva Kani put the ball in off Cedric Don\u2019s shot that had hit the post to give the Greens the Toto Cup victory. \u201cThis was a better game, it wasn\u2019t great, but it was definitely one that was more aggressive,\u201d Haifa Head Coach Barak Bachar began after the […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/en\/maccabi-haifa-picks-up-win-kityat-shemona-punches-toto-cup-semifinal-spot\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sports Rabbi\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-08-09T10:03:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Image-10-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1088\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Joshua Halickman\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Joshua Halickman\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sportsrabbi.com\\\/en\\\/maccabi-haifa-picks-up-win-kityat-shemona-punches-toto-cup-semifinal-spot\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sportsrabbi.com\\\/en\\\/maccabi-haifa-picks-up-win-kityat-shemona-punches-toto-cup-semifinal-spot\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Joshua Halickman\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sportsrabbi.com\\\/en\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/10150053309b5bf124d40c3812a32bf0\"},\"headline\":\"Maccabi Haifa picks up win, Kityat Shemona punches Toto Cup semifinal spot\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-08-09T10:03:29+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sportsrabbi.com\\\/en\\\/maccabi-haifa-picks-up-win-kityat-shemona-punches-toto-cup-semifinal-spot\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":516,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sportsrabbi.com\\\/en\\\/maccabi-haifa-picks-up-win-kityat-shemona-punches-toto-cup-semifinal-spot\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sportsrabbi.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/08\\\/Image-10-scaled.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"maccabi haifa\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Football\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/sportsrabbi.com\\\/en\\\/maccabi-haifa-picks-up-win-kityat-shemona-punches-toto-cup-semifinal-spot\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sportsrabbi.com\\\/en\\\/maccabi-haifa-picks-up-win-kityat-shemona-punches-toto-cup-semifinal-spot\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sportsrabbi.com\\\/en\\\/maccabi-haifa-picks-up-win-kityat-shemona-punches-toto-cup-semifinal-spot\\\/\",\"name\":\"Maccabi Haifa picks up win, Kityat Shemona punches Toto Cup semifinal spot - 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