The Greatest Double in History? - Football Forums at footytube.com

Last week the Israeli Premier League ended with Hapoel Tel Aviv winning the double (IPL Championship and the Israeli Cup). Hapoel Tel Aviv is one of Israel's biggest names and has made impressive European appearances in the 2001/2002 and 2009/2010 seasons. In 2001/2002, Hapoel qualified for the UEFA Cup after winning the double the previous year.coming as an obvious underdog, HTA managed to beat Chelsea, Parma and Lokomotiv Moscow before being eliminated in the Quarter Finals by Milan (after winning 1-0 at home and losing 2-0 in Italy because of an own goal). This season, Hapoel was in the Europa Cup Group Stages with Rapid Wien, Celtic and Hamburg, placing 1st after impressive victories against Wien (5-1 and 3-0), Celtic (2-1) and Hamburg (1-0). Hapoel was eliminated by Rubin Kazan on the first knockout round.

While HTA seems like just another club with the occasional European appearance, how can I call their recent double the greatest in history? For that you need to understand the background of the 2009/2010 season in the IPL. After several seasons with a known champion in the middle of the season, the Israeli Football Association made a radical change to the league's format - expanding it from 12 to 16 teams and adding a playoff system. After 2 rounds, the league was divided into 3 tiers - Lower, Middle and Top. The last rounds of the league were inter-tier, but the most notable step was that after being placed into the tiers, the team's points were halved to add interest to the league. While it may seem not in the sport spirit, it definitely worked.

A few round before the playoffs, Hapoel Tel Aviv was 12 points behind Maccabi Haifa. Pressure did its thing and Haifa lost twice. During the tier stage, the difference between the two teams was only 3 points. During the Season Match between the two teams, Hapoel won 1-0 and the title seemed to be theirs. But then rival Maccabi Tel Aviv played "opened its legs" before Haifa and played a heavy denfesive match against Hapoel which ended in 0-0.coming to the last round after winning the Cup, Hapoel was 2 points behind Haifa but with a better goal difference. It was all down to 90 minutes.

Hapoel was against rival Beitar Jerusalem while Haifa was against Hapoel's other city rival, Bnei Yehuda, who lost to HTA in the cup final. The game(s) started good for Hapoel, which scored after only 3 minutes, putting them in the first place. In the 30th minute a foolish offense by defender Omri Canada cost him a red card and left Hapoel with 10 players. In the 44th minute Beitar scored and it was 1-1, with Haifa the champions (thier game was still at 0-0). In the 50th minute Bnei Yehuda scored, showing that they will not be like their neighbors Maccabi. In the 55th minute Hapoel was given a penalty and Beitar was shown a red card. Hapoel's goalkeeper and excellent penalty taker, Vincent Enyema, shot the ball wide and it seemed that god just made his decision. It was made worse when Haifa scored in the 77th minute.

When all hope seemed lost, it happened. The extra times were 4 minutes for Hapoel and 6 for Haifa, and both games were tied at 1-1. In the 92nd minute, after a relentless blitz on Beitar's goal, Hapoel found the net. The Champions were decided in the season's extra time, literally. After the final whistle, Hapoel players, fans and crew members gathered around their cellphones to hear the news from the Haifa games. After a false rumor spread and some players and fans started celebrating, it seemed that the ultimate jinx was let loose. But 2 minutes of extreme tension passed, and Hapoel celebrated the greatest comeback in Israeli football. Here are the highlights from the final game:

As a HTA and Chelsea fan, it was an amazing day after both of my teams won an amazing double. I really believe that Hapoel's double is the greatest in history - but what do you think?