Israel: Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv falls at home
It’s not difficult to look around the world of athletic competitions to find teams that have dominated their competitors for a period of time. Real Madrid, the New York Yankees, the Chicago Bulls, Western Province Rugby team, Bombay/Mumbai cricket team, and the Montreal Canadiens, to name a few, have all been long dominating in their sport and leagues. Few, if any, can match the success of the Maccabi Tel Aviv basketball club and their string of champion and runners-up trophies that they have won over the last 58 years in the Israel Super League. Since the formation of the league in 1954, the Maccabi Tel Aviv club has either won the league championship (50 times) or finished as the runner-up (6 times) in 56 of 58 years. That domination also includes winning the championship 23 consecutive years, from the 1969-70 season through the 1991-92 season.
With a string of successes that extensive, it’s no wonder why people start looking for clues that the Mayans might have just misjudged the end of the world by a few months when Maccabi Tel Aviv loses two games in a row in the Super League, as they have now done.
With only two weeks remaining on the second round of competition in the Super League, there’s no chance that Maccabi TA won’t finish the first phase of competitive at the top of the leader board as they are four games up on Maccabi Haifa. On March 3rd they lost to Hapoel Tel Aviv 69:65 and on Sunday they lost at home to No. 6 in the league Elitzur Maccabi Netanya. The losses drop Electra’s record to 17-3, with Maccabi Haifa sitting in the No. 2 spot in the league at 13-7, Hapoel Eilat is No. 3 at 12-8, Maccabi R. Lez is No. 4 at 11-9, Hapoel M. Jerusalem is also No. 4 at 11-9, Elitzur Maccabi Netanya is No. 6 at 10-10. Knocking at the door of the ‘Upper House’ is No. 7 Maccabi Ashdod at 9-11. The rest of the league is No. 8 – Hapoel Tel Aviv at 9-11, No. 9 is Bnei Herzliya at 8-12, No. 10 is Galil Elyon at 8-12, No. 11 is Hapoel Holon at 7-13, and in the basement at No. 12 is Elitzur Ashkelon at 5-15.
Week 20 was tough on the Super League Top six as three of the clubs fell to much lower ranked clubs. Not only did Maccabi Electra lose to Elitzur Maccabi Netanya, 70:76, so did No. 3 Hapoel Eilat to No. 7 Maccabi Ashdod, 98:87 and No. 5 Hapoel Jerusalem lost to Maccabi Haifa, 91:84.
Week 20 Matches
Maccabi Haifa – Hapoel Jerusalem, 91-84
Holon – Hapoel Tel Aviv, 73-76
Maccabi Ashdod – Hapoel Eilat, 98-87
Pandor Rothschild – Elitzur Ashkelon, 98-96
Gilboa Galil – Bnei Herzliya, 93-92
Maccabi Electra – Netanya, 70-76