The team's Spanish defender Carlos Garcia is confident that he and the other players are ready for Ramat HaSharon: "If we lose, it won't be because of the security situation"
Today Maccabi Tel Aviv held their press conference in advance of the upcoming game against Hapoel Ramat Hasharon on Saturday. It will be Maccabi's first time playing at Ramat Hasharon's new Grundman Stadium and after having lost both their encounters with the club last campaign they will hope to register their first victory over their rivals since they joined the Premier League last year.
Maccabi head coach Oscar Garcia spoke of his concerns about the security situation and of the personal conversations he held with the players: "The good thing is that most of the players are local and for them the situation is more or less normal, they know how to cope and reassure the foreign players. I have to know what the personal feelings are of my players and who is prepared to play and who isn't, and that's why I spoke to them, the foreign players in particular. I knew more or less how the local players would feel about the situation and all the players are focused and ready for the match".
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0gKFMpsB_gs&feature=youtu.be
After a turbulent week in terms of the security situation, the club are trying to get back to focusing on football alone. As Oscar tried to explain: "These are odd days, but if I'm still here, it means that I feel comfortable and all is well, so I'm staying here and thinking about Ramat HaSharon".
Despite two games without a goal, Oscar believes that his team will soon get back to scoring and he refuses to blame the players for not taking advantage of opportunities: "There are games in which you just don't score, but that will change soon and I hope that, as in the last game, we will have many opportunities on Saturday and that this time we will take advantage of them and score. I don’t think that we failed to score just because one particular player wasn't in the lineup. There are games like that in every season and now we have to change that with a victory against Ramat HaSharon".
Defender Carlos Garcia had an original twist on his feelings regarding the security situation: "I compare it to a fly – if people around it are calm, it will be calm. I saw that the Israeli players were calm, so I knew everything was okay. In addition, I saw people still going to cafés and walking around the city. The attack on the bus unsettled me a bit, but I was very calm about the rockets, because we have protection against them and we can feel safe".
Carlos is confident that nothing of last week's events will impact upon the game on Saturday: "I'm here to play football, I feel ready to play and it is important for us to win after the last two games. If we lose, it won't be because of the security situation."
