Barak Bachar is giving three of Maccabi Haifa's headline summer arrivals their first taste of competitive action together, naming Bruninho, Wanderson "Tsunami" and Nigel Lonwijk in his starting eleven for Tuesday's Toto Cup trip to Ironi Kiryat Shmona, ONE reports.
The match, the second round of the Toto Cup group phase, kicks off at Miriam Stadium with Maccabi Haifa needing a response after an unexpected 3-2 loss to city rivals Hapoel Haifa in their opening fixture of the campaign.
That derby defeat left the Greens without a point from their first outing, and Bachar has clearly decided the moment is right to fast-track his new signings into the side rather than easing them in gradually.
Bruninho, the Brazilian midfielder who arrived from Ukrainian side Karpaty Lviv for roughly €1.5 million — a fee that can rise to about €1.8 million with add-ons — starts having signed a three-year deal in Haifa. The 26-year-old, an Atletico Mineiro academy product, scored 17 goals and set up eight more across two seasons at Karpaty.
Alongside him comes Wanderson, known to Israeli fans as "Tsunami," a 30-year-old Brazilian left-back who joined this summer after captaining Levski Sofia and, more recently, playing in Turkey's second tier. Born in Belém, Pará, the 1.89-metre defender also holds Bulgarian citizenship and is expected to add height and experience to Bachar's back line.
The third debutant, Nigel Lonwijk, is a 23-year-old Dutch-Surinamese defender signed from Wolverhampton Wanderers for around €500,000 on a three-year contract. A product of PSV's youth academy who moved to England as a teenager, he is the club's sixth summer addition alongside Omri Glazer, Yair Mordechai, Tsunami, Bruninho and Andrea Novakovich.
Omri Glazer starts in goal behind a reshaped back line, with Itai Ahood also involved as Bachar experiments with personnel before the Ligat Ha'al season proper gets under way.
Ironi Kiryat Shmona, managed by Shai Barda, are playing their first official match of the new season and go into it on the back of a mixed preseason that included a 0-0 draw with Hapoel Haifa and a 2-0 defeat to Bnei Yehuda.
History strongly favours the visitors: Maccabi Haifa have won each of their last six league meetings with Kiryat Shmona, the most recent of them a comfortable 4-1 victory.
For Bachar, the priority is less about the head-to-head record and more about seeing how quickly his rebuilt squad can gel — with Tsunami, Bruninho and Lonwijk all thrown in together from the first whistle, the Toto Cup trip to the Galilee doubles as an early audition for the season ahead.
