This morning the Maccabi Tel Aviv squad held a practice ahead of their Sunday evening league tie at 8.50pm against Bnei Sakhnin at the new Netanya Stadium. Ticket sales for the match are in full swing, and those for Maccabi's Europa League away leg against FC Basel are just now getting underway.
Before the practice, the club held their traditional pre-match press conference. Head coach Paulo Sousa began with a word about his squad: "I'm very proud of my players who give everything for the club and I am very confident in each and every one of them". As for Tuesday night's State Cup loss to Ashdod FC, Sousa added: "We all wanted to win, the whole squad worked very hard to put in the best possible performance to win the match for the fans, winning matches is all we want to do". As for the match against Bnei Sakhnin he said: "It's going to be a difficult match, unfortunately not at their home venue but we're hoping the grass pitch (at Netanya) will be good so we can improve the quality of our game. Our first match against them (at Bloomfield) wasn't easy either, even though scoring early on made it easier for us to play one of our best games of the season but the match on Sunday will be difficult because they're a good side. I'm proud of my players, who understand the tactical demands of the game and do everything possible to get results and I'm sure they'll be prepared for all the professional demands we make upon them".
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWT-4jvWbvs&feature=youtu.be
The team's veteran defensive midfielder, Gal Alberman, also had a word to say about losing the Cup tie: "We lost a match and so far everyone who played is concerned we gave it everything we had, we're disappointed but proud to be Maccabi players whether we win or lose and we're in a position now we can be very proud of. I can't imagine why people think the Cup isn't important to us, throughout the year the starting elevens have been quite varied, not something that just applied in this specific match. This time it didn't work and there were plenty of other times that it did. The balls just wouldn't go in to the net and that got on our nerves a bit but only because we wanted to get that winning goal but so far we're concerned it's already history and in every instance we demonstrate that we're a professional side that can cope with losing as well as winning". Alberman added: "The closer we approach the more critical stages of the season, the more important each match gets but we all understand the significance of that and I'm sure we'll be taking our preparations for every match very seriously".
