Hapoel TA stays perfect

Hapoel Tel Aviv made it two wins out of two in the Premier League on Sunday night, comfortably beating Hapoel Haifa 2-0 at Bloomfield Stadium.

Tel Aviv was far from convincing, but it showed an improvement from last week’s 1-0 victory over Hapoel Ramat Gan and goals from Hanan Maman (26) and Omer Damari (60) clinched all three points.

Maman netted the opener with a super finish after a delightful assist by Bruno and Damari secured the win from the penalty spot after being brought down in the box by Fabian Stoller.

Sunday was also a busy day for Tel Aviv off the field, with the club bringing back Gili Vermut and signing defenders Tomer Ben-Yosef and Serbian Nikola Petkovic.

Vermut was one of the stars of the Hapoel team which won the Premier League and State Cup double in the 2009/10 season and helped the club to the Champions League group stage the following campaign.

The 27-year-old moved to German club Kaiserslautern last summer, but never settled in the Bundesliga, and spent half of last season on-loan at Dutch side De Graafschap.

Hapoel owner Haim Ramon sealed the deal after a meeting with Kaiserslautern officials on Sunday and Vermut signed a five-year contract with the Reds.

Ben-Yosef has spent the past seven seasons at Betar Jerusalem, but injuries limited his role in recent years and he will have plenty to prove in Tel Aviv.

“I’m happy to be back home. I can’t wait to get started,” said Vermut.

Elsewhere, Nissan Yehezkel became the first coaching casualty of the season, being sacked by Hapoel Ramat Hasharon just two matches into the season.

Ramat Hasharon claimed a 3-1 win over Hapoel Acre on Saturday, but Yehezkel was fired on Sunday after the club claimed that he had signed an additional contract under the table with former chairman Meir Itzhaki.

On TV: Maccabi Netanya vs Maccabi Tel Aviv (Live on Channel 1 at 8:50 p.m.)