Last night Maccabi Tel Aviv registered their eighth league victory since the start of the season. Mahran Radi: "Clubs always try harder when they play against Maccabi"
This morning the Maccabi Tel Aviv squad enjoyed time off after their 3-1 victory at Bloomfield Stadium against Israeli Premier League newcomers Hapoel Ra'anana. The win capped a successful run for the team, which began ten days ago with victory against Hapoel Haifa and continued last Thursday night in Cyprus with a draw against APOEL Nicosia in the Europa League that left them just one point short of qualifying for the next round of the competition. Maccabi head coach Paulo Sousa summed up last night's display: "In brief I'm quite pleased with the win and the performance, we always want to develop as a team and to know where we have to invest our hard work so as to improve and grow stronger. It's all part of the process. It's my feeling that we have to dictate the pace of the game, especially because we have more matches to play than other league sides and each one with a different nature. That's why the maturity of the team is helping us to dominate matches and take a lion's share of possession".
Sousa continued: "Sometimes the team react quickly and execute fast moves to finish off the game, sometimes you make more precarious passes but when you play deep you create more chances in front of goal. It's a matter of balance and we can deal with the danger because we're good in defence".
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4pqjHITlUA&feature=c4-overview&list=UU-oWQqnf8B8a_TsmVi0mTUg
The head coach also addressed himself to the criticism of team goalkeeper Juan Pablo Colinas and explained: "Quite naturally I expect my players to make the best possible decisions, Juan Pablo makes more good decisions than bad decisions and of course we'd like all our players, not just Juan Pablo, to make just the right decisions all through the match. That's very difficult. We have to understand and deal with the fact that players don't always make the right decisions, not just Juan Carlos, and it will happen again in future and we'll just have to learn to cope with it".
Winger Tal Ben Haim, who was involved in all three of last night's goals, had this to say at the end of the match: "We began the match perfectly and that made our job that much easier. It's a bit of a pity that in the last fifteen minutes we went off the boil, it shouldn't happen, but it's understandable because this is our third match in eight days and it's to be expected that everyone gets a bit tired. Bottom line, we came home to Bloomfield (Stadium), we needed to win and we got the job done. It was a difficult tie against a tough opponent, who've made life difficult for all the teams in the league this season and it's no coincidence they're near the top of the table. I played well tonight and I have to carry on doing my job like that. I said last week that if you work hard you get your reward. I mean, I started out the match with the cross that got us the first goal but what was more important for me was the hard work for the team to make sure we won the match in the end and that too produced its reward with my goal in the second half".
Striker Munas Dabbur, whose fourth goal of the season put Maccabi out in front after just 38 seconds, talked about his feelings after the match: "I feel great, I couldn't have wished for more. From the moment I saw that I was in the starting eleven I said to myself this is my chance and I'll give it everything and I'm really happy it all worked out. Ra'anana are really strong competitors, they've got a few really excellent players and we're really happy we beat them tonight and got all three points and that's what's important. I'm in good form now, I just hope I can carry on this way. After being injured at the start of the season it took me some time to get back into things and what's important is that I managed to get beyond that time and I hope that it continues that way".
Midfielder Mahran Radi, who completed his third consecutive match for team and scored his first goal of the season, summed things up: "I think we played less well in the second half, maybe because we were still tired from Thursday night's match, but I'm not trying to make any excuses. We got the three points and that's what's most important, Ra'anana are a good side and have made life difficult for most of the teams in the Premier League. When teams play against Maccabi Tel Aviv they always come at us full throttle and I'm really chuffed we were able to score right at the start. I think the rotation system is helping us to recover between matches, me personally I played something like eighty minutes on Thursday and then again tonight. We had a rough flight coming back (from Nicosia), went to sleep at six or seven in the morning and were back in training that afternoon. Tonight was our first time winning in the league after playing in Europe, it was a test of our character and we passed the test so no complaints. I've been playing better this past month and I feel better too. I'm playing in the same position as last season but I've been given a different job to do, so if you've been expecting more goals that's fine but I've been working on other things. Tonight's goal was a bonus, it's a good feeling to score or assist on a goal but that's not always what I'm looking for. Right now I'm focusing on tactics to help my teammates and to help the work of the professional staff".
