The first ninety minutes of Maccabi Tel Aviv's 2013/14 season ended in a goalless draw against German side FC Ingolstadt 04. Head coach Sousa: "A good point of departure"
Maccabi Tel Aviv's first pre-season friendly at their Austrian training camp ended in a goalless draw against FC Ingolstadt 04 from the 2nd Bundesliga. This first test of the squad under the new stewardship of head coach Paulo Sousa saw the Germans dominate the first half with Maccabi taking control after the restart, but to no avail so far goalscoring was concerned. Maccabi Tel Aviv head coach Paulo Sousa summarised the match by reporting to the official Maccabi Tel Aviv website: "This was my first pre-season friendly with the club and the first match under my leadership. It was a match of two very different halves. In the first half we were unable to dominate play in terms of possession and they created chances, but in the second half we already showed signs of improvement. We carved out more chances and the players showed more ability and a better approach and that's a good point of departure for development and improvement in upcoming matches".
The first half of the match, played after a last minute change of venue in the Austrian town of Lenzing, was dominated by the Germans, who last year finished second in the 2nd Bundesliga. They also created the first two scoring opportunities of the match, when both striker Christoph Knasmüllner and defender Alfredo Morales tried, unsuccessfully, to surprise Maccabi goalkeeper Barak Levi with long-range efforts. The best goalscoring chance of the half fell to Ingolstadt's Brazilian striker Caiuby Francisco da Silva who volleyed his effort over the crossbar. Ingolstadt's final effort of the half was smartly saved by Levi leaving both camps empty-handed when the whistle finally sounded.
Maccabi head coach Paulo Sousa replaced his entire opening side for the second half and the change led to more chances, the first by defender and bearer of the captain's band in the second half, Carlos Garcia, who headed close to goal. Just past the hour mark Ingolstadt goalkeeper Ramazan Özcan was just able to push aside a free kick by Maccabi midfielder Maharan Radi, and striker Lanre Kehine's header off the deflection also failed to hit its mark. The final half hour of the match also passed without goals so that at the final whistle the first first pre-season friendly of Maccabi Tel Aviv's 2013/14 season under the stewardship of new head coach Paulo Sousa against FC Ingolstadt 04 ended in a goalless draw.
This coming Wednesday Maccabi Tel Aviv will play their second pre-season friendly at 6.30 P.M. against Russian side FC Krasnodar, whose squad includes ex-Maccabi striker, the Senegalese Pape Moussa Konate.
