This past Thursday night, I made my 50th European appearance in club competitions when we defeated Alkmaar 2:1 in the Europa League and this wasn’t something that I had even realized prior to the match. It was only when the Official Maccabi Website updated me that I found out that I had reached this milestone. Throughout my career I really didn’t keep track of how many times I had played in Europe but rather how we did as a team and for me to just play as much as possible. However, the win on Thursday night in Holland was very exciting for me.
This was a very important victory. There’s always a lot of talk about how important it is for Maccabi to participate in European competitions each and every year, so it’s certainly crucial that we also win these games since this is what Maccabi strives and wants to reach for; the highest of heights.
Not only was it important to take the three points in Alkmaar, but the win was also critical before facing Maccabi Haifa in league play after a three week break from domestic action. The victory gave us a lot of confidence. There’s never an easy game against Maccabi Haifa, which is a good team that has undergone some changes over the last little while. We are preparing and concentrating on our play and we all know that this match will not be easy. But we are playing at home in front of our fans and we will come into this contest in tip top form with one goal in mind – to win.
The match against Haifa will begin two weeks of intensive action with a number of games that will not be easy including a tilt against Kiryat Shemona in the Toto Cup quarterfinals, an away match versus Hapoel Beer Sheva and a Europa League Matchday Four encounter at home against Alkmaar. We are entering a crucial point of the season and we are in good shape. The professional staff knows exactly how to get us prepared properly to ensure that we are ready to go. We how to pace ourselves and how to work on our fitness. Maccabi Tel Aviv has an excellent squad who all know how to play, which will certainly help us compete in all of the various competitions.
Of course, the State Cup final loss last year to Haifa has been bothering us up until today. But now we are in a new season and in a different competition, the League and not the Cup – and we are coming into this game knowing that it is a very important. We always want to win, but even more so because of what happened in the final.
And one last word to our fans. Let me begin with those who made the long trek to Holland to support us in the match against Alkmaar. We felt your presence from the very first moment and it gave us a huge boost. Last league game we defeated Hapoel Tel Aviv and you, the supporters, made the atmosphere in the stadium part of this historic win. I believe that you’ll make the difference once again against Haifa and hopefully we will all make the Holiday even happier.
See you in Netanya!
