Dolev Haziza finally pulled on a Maccabi Netanya shirt on Sunday night, and the occasion did not go the way the Diamonds would have scripted it. Hapoel Ramat Gan Givatayim came from behind to win 3-2 in the Toto Cup, with Haziza sent on as a substitute for his first competitive minutes since leaving Maccabi Haifa.
The 31-year-old winger, who left Haifa last month after seven years, was, by ONE's account, lively from the moment he entered, drifting to the left flank and setting up Matheus Dabo's second goal of the night in the 87th minute — too late to rescue a result that had slipped away from Roni Levi's side.
Luan Campos opened the scoring for Ramat Gan Givatayim in the 34th minute before Dabo levelled for Netanya five minutes later. The visitors then pulled away in the second half, with a goal credited to Eden Barnes/Dov Asanko in the 53rd minute and Maxim Felatschenko converting a penalty in the 61st to make it 3-1, by which point Netanya's night was already unravelling.
"I don't accept a defeat like that. We shouldn't be conceding three goals at home," Haziza said afterwards, according to ONE, even as he tried to process his own return to action.
The bigger story for Haziza was personal rather than tactical. "I missed playing. Personally and emotionally I was down, whatever way it was portrayed," he said, referring to his final weeks at Maccabi Haifa before the move across the coast to Netanya. "I'm trying to suppress the last month and a half I went through, because at the end of the day I spent seven years at Maccabi Haifa."
Haziza did not elaborate publicly on what exactly made the period so difficult, but his comments confirm it was an unhappy exit from a club where he had been a central figure for the better part of a decade.
He joined Haifa in the summer of 2019 and grew into one of the dressing room's leaders, captaining the side for the first time in a Champions League qualifier against Slovan Bratislava in August 2023 when regular skipper Sherjil Cheron was unavailable. He won three straight Israeli championships with the club (2020/21, 2021/22 and 2022/23) and played a leading role in its Champions League group-stage campaign.
According to Sport5 and Walla Sport, Haziza signed a two-year contract with Netanya on a reported salary of roughly $250,000 per season after the move was finalised on July 24, with Haifa due around 400,000 shekels in compensation for the early termination of his contract.
Netanya had already opened their Toto Cup campaign without him, with reports beforehand noting he had not been considered fully match-fit and had been left out of the squad against Hapoel Jerusalem before working his way back into contention for Sunday's tie.
For Roni Levi's team, the defeat interrupts what had otherwise been a positive start to preparations, and the manager will now have a fully available Haziza to work into a rotating squad ahead of the new Ligat Ha'al season. For the player himself, Sunday's cameo was less about the scoreline and more about simply being back on a pitch competing — a first small step in putting a turbulent summer behind him.
