Maccabi Tel Aviv head coach Paulo Sousa praised the 2,600 fans that made the trip north yesterday afternoon to see their team Play Hapoel Acre and summed up the match: "It's to be expected that some of the tension goes out of the game after two quick goals"
After two early goals in yesterday's away match against Hapoel Acre, Maccabi Tel Aviv placed the first tick in the win column of the 2013/14 Israeli Premier League season. It took striker Barak Yitzchaki just 49 seconds to score Maccabi's opening goal of the new season and just six minutes later midfielder Eran Zahavi sealed the final result with the second. After those two quick goals the game's tempo dropped somewhat and after the match Maccabi head coach Paulo Sousa had this to say on the matter: ""When you start a match with two goals the way we did this afternoon it's to be expected that some of the tension goes out of the game and it affects the alertness of the players and the decisions they make".
"It's equally obvious in such hot and humid conditions as we played today to scale down the intensity of the play and control the pace of the game. What's most important is that we won and that we felt like we were playing a home tie with all our supporters that came to see the match and cheer us on, that was simply amazing. This is the kind of support we need at every match and they really deserve a huge hug from all of us".
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wY85V-2o7T0&feature=c4-overview&list=UU-oWQqnf8B8a_TsmVi0mTUg
Midfielder Eran Zahavi, who scored Maccabi's second goal, added: "First of all it's important that we started the new season with a win. We scored quickly, started the match well and in the second half took our foot off the gas pedal, but it's only natural when you take such a quick 2-0 lead that you start concentrating more on how you pass the ball around. They should have put us under more pressure but they didn't so we passed the ball at will and did our work".
Maccabi's new signing, the Serbian midfielder Nikola Mitrovich, made his debut for the club as a substitute in the second half: "I'm very pleased after my first match here. I'm very impressed with the club and the fans, I feel very comfortable at Maccabi also in terms of their professionalism after having trained with the team these last three weeks. True, I also played under Paulo Sousa at (Hungarian side) Videoton, but there's no comparison between the clubs, here we have very talented players like Yitzchaki, Prica, Zahavi and Ben Chaim. It's a much more attack minded side".
