Paulo Sousa, Maccabi Tel Aviv head coach, knew that last night's derby against Hapoel Tel Aviv would be a difficult game. Still, he had hoped for better: "We missed the last pass"
Last night Maccabi Tel Aviv dropped two points at Bloomfield Stadium for only the second time this season after playing out a goalless draw against Hapoel Tel Aviv that ended a run of five consecutive derby victories. Just one week after the last derby, that ended in such a spectacularly dramatic fashion, Maccabi failed to win and saw their margin over Hapoel Beer Sheva at the top of the Israeli Premier League narrow to five points. "I said and predicted from the first derby that they would be balanced games," said head coach Paulo Sousa when he was asked at the end of the match to describe his feelings about the game. "I'm also happy, especially for the first half, where we played with lots of quality, missing the best decisions in the last third, the last pass, the final cross. For that in general I should be happy because it was a balanced game, with Hapoel having the best chances, the clear ones, but in general I can be happy with the performance".
"Sometimes the hunger and the desire make us rush in those small details, to make the final touch. In the second half also, that desire and that ambition among all the players made us lose control of the game because we started to make quick decisions. We're playing at home, with our fans, and many times that gives this kind of input and the team need to recognise these moments and get back control of the game because at that moment we began to lose control of the game. We gave to Hapoel the possibility to be where they love to be. Hopefully we'll keep working on that. Sometimes that happens during the season. Hopefully in the next games we will recognise these moments and come back quicker into control because we are able to do that".
As for Maccabi's advantage at the top of the league, narrowed to five points just prior to the "match of the season" next week against second-placed Hapoel Beer Sheva, Sousa said: "I think the gap has already been closer. We're still playing at home, we're still playing against our rivals, we still have the pressure from the first day we started to be first in the league. That's something we're dealing with. Hopefully we can perform well, both individually and collectively, in the next game and deliver through the performance a victory that will extend the gap".
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Okm0HoLUuGE&list=UU-oWQqnf8B8a_TsmVi0mTUg
Sousa was also asked about the substitutions he made in the second half of last night's derby: "The game gives me the possibility to think and consider what kinds of changes I need to make. I did what I did. We tried to create more capacity on both sides because we started to lose control, we started to give more space between lines. To accomplish this we thought to send on players like (winger Dor) Micha and with (winger ) Tal (Ben Haim) to cover both sides with the possibility to do different things and create more difficulties for our opponent".
Defender Carlos Garcia, returning to active duty after a month sidelined with injury, talked about the influence of the last derby and rejected the suggestion that the celebrations may have hindered the players' mental preparedness for the current one: "We finished the celebrations the same day we finished the derby. We knew beforehand it would be a very difficult game and I think that mentally we arrived at the match very well. Maybe people expect that we'll come with a lot of confidence, more than normal, but it wasn't this. We didn't win, but not because of this". Garcia also gave his own professional view of the match: "I think the first half we played well. Maybe in the last bit of the pitch we couldn't find the last pass, the last cross. In the second half Hapoel played better than us. They managed the game better and when we recovered the ball the maximum number of passes we did was three. Like this it's very difficult to manage the game and sometimes I think when we cannot do it we must be a little smarter and know what we have to do".
Team captain Sheran Yeini also summed up the match and addressed himself to the influence last week's dramatic victory might have had on the players in tonight's encounter: "Tonight's game was a question of moments. We were pretty good in the first half and they had some good chances towards the end of the game. But we had them too, either side could have put the match to bed. It's not the result we were looking for but I wouldn't exactly call it a disaster. Mentally we have to working on getting back to form after big games but it's not something that really bothers us. Even when they were pressing us we felt very confident".
