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Soccer / Second division / Race to Premier League heats up By Dor Belach "At the first team meeting, even before we started training, the chairman sidled up behind coach Gili Landau, who was addressing us at the time," said one of the Bnei Lod players this week about his boss Abu Subhi. "Without saying a world, just from looking at his expression, we understood that if we don't get promoted this season, things will get ugly. Afterward, he told us in his own special way that this year's goal is to make it into the Premier League. If not, heads will roll." Lod and Abu Subhi are not alone. No fewer than half of the teams in the second division could find themselves in the top flight next season, and with two clubs destined to drop into the oblivion of the third division, the upcoming season could be even crazier than usual - with second- and third-tier teams leading the arms race. Advertisement Traditionally, the two teams relegated from the Premier League each season automatically find themselves leading candidates for promotion again - thanks in large part to the experienced squad of players at their disposal and the handful of star players who, to their own chagrin, were unable to jump ship in time. This season, things are different. The star players from Hapoel Kfar Sava, which was relegated last season, have gone on to bigger clubs and bigger paychecks (Yeboah and De Silva to Hapoel Tel Aviv, Maor Melikson and Liron Zarko to Be'er Sheva). Furthermore, the team coached by Eli Tabib - who is also skating on very thin ice - will be based this season around Ohad Levita, Avihai Yadin, Eliran Simon and Guy Dayan. Maccabi Herzliya, the second team that is automatically believed to have a good chance of returning to the Premier League, has brought Eyal Lachman back from his African adventure, where he coached Hearts of Oak in Ghana. Lachman brought two players back with him and is rebuilding the club in his own image. The two star players will be Ram Seti and Shlomi Toledo. Omer Buksenbaum and Shalev Menashe were two of the key players who left Herzliya after its relegation at the end of last season. The other clear-cut candidates for promotion are the veterans of Hapoel Be'er Sheva and Hapoel Haifa. The former team, which had a particularly traumatic season last year, has calmed itself down by going on an expansive and expensive shopping spree. In contrast, Yoav Katz understands full well what the significance of the newly structured leagues is: His Hapoel Haifa team did not even fight to hang on to Eden Ben-Bassat and the only acquisition it has to boast about so far is that of Yossi Dora. "Katz has never been a big spender," says one Haifa insider. "Now that we have the chance to make it into the Premier League without really spending much, he is grabbing onto that with both hands. Even though we have a weaker squad than last year, we have a decent set of players who should be enough to finish in the top half of the table." If "the top half of the table" means a top-five finish, Katz's plan could turn out to be a masterstroke. The real story, however, lies with the mid-level teams, which believe that they have a place in a 16-team Premier League, and no longer fear that, once promoted, they will be out of their league. Hapoel Ramat Gan can be used as the test case. Just before the end of last season, when it still seemed possible that there would be a Ramat Gan derby in the Premier League, the question was being asked in the Ramat Gan-Givatayim area whether it was even worth their while getting promoted. "The team will fall apart," was the main argument. "We'd be out of our league in every respect. We'd find ourselves dropping down to the third division." Today, however, they see things a little differently. Veteran goalie Rafi Cohen will stand between the posts, Kobi Musa will run rings around the opposition on the wings and Mor Golan will score dozens of goals. And above them all, Brazilian midfielder William Ribeiro Soares, who signed from local rival Hakoach Ramat Gan, will orchestrate the revival of total soccer in Israel. In order to prove just how serious they are, Yaron Kuris, the chairman of Hapoel Ramat Gan, opened the purse strings and sent the team for a pre-season training camp in Germany - at a cost of NIS 50,000. Coach Yuval Naim is telling everybody who crosses his path that, "last season, we said that sixth place would be a good finish. Since then, we're much stronger and we only need to finish one place above that to get promotion to the Premier League." When one takes into account that Ahi Nazareth, under coach Shimon Hadari, also has promotion hopes, the race for a place in the Premier League appears to be closer than ever. Hadari started off his team's pre-season training by convening all the players and telling them: "This season - we're getting promoted. Every season we talk about having a decent season, about surviving in the league or surprising everybody and finishing in the top half. This season, there are no excuses." To this end, Hadari has signed Tom Almadon, Wiam Amasha and Billy Gonzales, who, along with Haim Silvas, Ashraf Suleiman and Adham Ahdiya, make up a squad of players who, according to Hadari, "with either get promoted or can consider themselves failures." Ramat Gan, Nazareth, Be'er Sheva, Haifa, Herzliya and Kfar Sava will be joined by Hapoel Ra'anana, even if no one in the city will be to heartbroken to remain in the second division for another season. But since all the other teams seem to have declared that they are going for promotion, Ra'anana coach Eli Cohen certainly isn't going to get left behind. "Our goal is promotion," he also declared recently. The main acquisition that Cohen has made in his attempt to achieve this goal has been Haim Malka, who was snapped up from Herzliya, but Cohen stresses that, "in the last two years, we were close to the top of the league and, if we can keep that momentum going, we will be promoted." Last season, the second division was led by a different team every two or three weeks; All it took was a good run of form and a team could find itself at the top of the standings. In the end, the teams that were promoted were those who were most stable throughout the season: Hapoel Petah Tikva and Hakoach Ramat Gan. This season, even a short period of good form could end up with celebrations. Will the last team to leave please turn out the lights? Bookmark to del.icio.us   Shin Bet exploitation Is spying for Israel a fair swap for receiving medical treatment? A French feud French satirist denies making anti-Semitic remarks towards President Sarkozy's son.

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