With head coach Oscar Garcia still serving a touchline ban from an altercation with officials at last week's Derby, assistant coach Ruben Martinez will take his place on the line for tomorrow night's final league tie against Bnei Yehuda. He has full confidence in his squad: "Make no mistake, they want to win this one"
Maccabi Tel Aviv's unforgettable Championship season will come to a close in tomorrow night's final round of the 2012/13 season with the "little" Tel Aviv derby against close city neighbours Bnei Yehuda. In the weekly press conference in the run up to the match, Maccabi's assistant coach Ruben Martinez spoke of the significance of the game for the players who will be opening on the yellow side of the pitch: "In recent matches we've been running out players who haven't had much opportunity to play during the rest of the season, everyone knows that. But I'm quite sure they are as keen to demonstrate their abilities and win the game tomorrow as any of the regular starters".
Martinez took the opportunity to clarify the matter of whether or not the Spanish staff would be staying at Maccabi next season: "Right now we're all under contract at Maccabi Tel Aviv and last time I looked our plane tickets to Spain had a return date of June 18th". He also spoke about the current season which will reach its finale in tomorrow's encounter: "It wasn't as easy a season for us as the gap in the league table might suggest, it's just that as the season wore on the lead opened up. If there's something left to do to get into the record books, we'll certainly try to do it tomorrow".
Israeli born Canadian keeper Tomer Chencinski, who is widely expected tomorrow night to open in the Maccabi goal for the first time since his arrival to the club in January, was also present at the conference held before the team's final training session at the Kiryat Shalom training grounds. "I've been waiting for this, I came here knowing I'd have to work hard and that things would work out. First of all I'm very happy I'll be playing tomorrow and I'm very happy to be at a title winning club. I feel like I'm a part of all this and tomorrow I'll also have the opportunity to be part of the match". Facing Bnei Yehuda, a side that has already scored five goals against Maccabi this season, Chencinski says he's up to the challenge: "Every team that face us want to win and I'm sure all the lads are geared up for this one because this will be one hell of a match, very tough indeed".
Chencinski explained that not having played so far doesn't mean he hasn't trained very hard: "It doesn't make any difference whether I've played so far this season or not, each time I train I hold the thought in the back of my mind that maybe I'll be in the starting eleven soon. There were three of us who were all capable goalkeepers so it just worked out that I haven't started, but anyway tomorrow I'll have my chance and it's all I'm thinking about right now. I'm ready and I want to finish the season with a win".
