Maccabi Tel Aviv last night (Monday) said goodbye to Maccabi Haifa 1:1 and as happened to the Greens in their first championship in the Barak Becher era, they are currently doing it without beating their main rival in the league. So the greens were unable to beat the yellows, which did not prevent them from winning the championship, and this season Robbie Keane’s team is unable to beat Masai Dago’s in the league, which should not hinder the achievement of the title either.
And yet, as far as the yellow players are concerned, the main goal is clear and that is to win the championship. The 10 table advantage points are very significant and hence it is up to them to achieve it. After the elimination from the cup, Robbie Keane made seven changes in the lineup last night, when those who kept their place in the 11 were among the best on the field. Idan Nachmias, who cooked for Eran Zahavi, andOfir Davidzadeh who in the eyes of many was the best on the field.
Ofir, when did you know you would start in the band?
“I only knew at noon that I would start, we are professional players, it doesn’t matter if the decision is made a few days before the game or on the same day, there are high-level players here who are ready at any moment to go on the field and give their 100 percent. I felt good from the beginning and I’m happy that I had a game Good. In the first half we were better, in the second half there was a drop in ability, we will analyze why it happened and where we went wrong for the next games. It was a close game, everyone fought for the result, to continue the good season and we need to take the ability from the first half to the rest of the season.”
“Everyone fought.” Ofir Davidzadeh (Haggai Michaeli)
Would it be correct to say that the draw reflects, or are you satisfied with the fact that you didn’t lose with how the second half developed?
“In my eyes, a draw is a reflection. In the first half we were excellent, we pressed, we had opportunities, we moved the ball. In the second half Haifa was better. It was a close game here and you also need that to win a championship, not everything always goes well, it’s part of football and in the worst moments you have to Knowing how to stand on your feet and maintain a result and move on.”
Lior Rafalov underestimated a bit, said that you just flew balls, was disappointed with your ball movement. How do you treat it?
“I don’t bother with it and as far as I’m concerned the table speaks for itself and that’s what it should be. We do our job, concentrate on ourselves and that’s what brought us to where we are right now. If we continue like this and don’t concentrate on other teams or other players then in the end we’ll be happy at the end of the season “.
Let’s leave Rafalov for a moment, but it will be possible to understand the fans who, for them, are disappointed by almost an entire season of not beating Maccabi Haifa in the league. One more game left to fix it.
“So first of all – there’s one more game left against them. Maccabi Haifa is a good team. There were certain seasons when we beat Maccabi Haifa and didn’t win the championship, so if you ask me, ‘What’s better?’, then it’s better to win the championship and not beat Haifa. Of course we want to win In every game, it’s Maccabi and there’s really no such question here. There was a really good rivalry here on the grass, a good game with a good pace and this draw reflects that.”
“Don’t bother with it.” Rafalov in confrontation with Zahavi (Radad Jabara)
Saborit: If we continue like this we will win the championship
Another player who was interviewed was the Spanish defender, Enrique Saburitwho is scheduled to leave at the end of the season after six years in Israel, and he wants to do so with a third championship in the yellow uniform: “We showed character, we did good things, but we have to think about what happened to us in the second half in order to improve. Does it worry me that we don’t win decisive games? Maybe , but the games against Olympiakos and Maccabi Pat are different because those were tough losses.
“If you analyze our level this season and compare it to previous seasons, to my six seasons here, then you can say that we are good, our situation overall is fine, the gap is 10 points, and from here we have to work on many things and improve them, especially work on what happened to us in the half The second, but if we continue like this we will win the championship and that is the main goal we set this season,” continued the Spaniard.
“We didn’t suffer from a stationary situation, there were a few ‘almost’, but I agree that we need to improve a lot in this section defensively as well as offensively,” concluded Saborit who was asked about Haifa’s dangerous situations at the end. “Nothing is over in this fight and we already lost a 10-point lead just two months ago. We learned a lot from our two losses to Olympiakos and Maccabi Pat, that nothing is ever over. Maccabi Haifa is good, Beer Sheva is good, we need to improve in many things, take care of our performances and I think if we do that then in the end we will win the championship.”
Listen to the podcast for the game summary:
Cain: “They had more to lose”