The Maccabi squad have finished their preparations for tomorrow night's Tel Aviv derby against Hapoel Tel Aviv. Maccabi head coach Paulo Sousa knows it will be a difficult game: "They have great quality players"
This morning the Maccabi Tel Aviv squad held a final pre-match practice ahead of tomorrow night's game against Hapoel Tel Aviv in the last matchweek of the pre-playoff season. Before the practice he and team defender Carlos Garcia held the weekly press conference at the Kiryat Shalom training ground: "It's always a big game for us. All the games are big, especially this one," said the coach at the start of the conference. Asked if the three injured defenders – Sheran Yeini, Eytan Tibi and Carlos Garcia – would be fit for the match, he responded: "They've been integrated this week into most parts of the training. For this we have more than 24 hours before the game. We'll see and evaluate and make decisions tomorrow". Asked if winning tomorrow would affect the team's title chances he said: "I think we have lots of points ahead of us. It would be a good step of course because we'll create a better gap but we have points enough to deal with concentrating game by game".
Sousa continued: "Every player wants to play in this kind of game. It will always be a "warm" game because the environment is like that. We're always looking to provide our football philosophy in each game. It will be a balanced game like we had at the first derby this season, very close to each other. In my opinion this is the team that at some moments of their game play the best football in the league. They have great quality players who can provide the right decisions. We for our part also have quality in our players. For that I'm sure it will be balanced with good emotions throughout the game. They know it will be difficult to win the league this season and when they have the chance to play against us they want to win. Not only to ruin what we are looking to achieve but simply to beat us and it's up to us to do our job well and to get the result we're looking for all the time ".
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqUfqhvDflg
As a result of Hapoel Beer Sheva's losing yesterday to Hapoel Ra'anana, a derby win for Maccabi tomorrow would widen their margin at the top of the Israeli Premier League table to seven points. But Sousa knows there are still plenty of games left to play: "We are always focused on our football philosophy and our culture. We always look game by game. We need to play against Beer Sheva twice in the play-offs so there are lots of things that can happen this season. But if we win all our games till the end of the season, why do we need to care about the results of the other teams? Of course we analyse our opponents. We analyse what they are doing. We analyse players, sectors, their collective game and all these things because this is part of our job. But we are mainly focused on everything that we are doing".
Towards the end of the news conference Sousa also spoke about Maccabi and ex-Hapoel midfielder Eran Zahavi, who was the focus of attention in the last derby. "I already spoke about him. All his energy is not only in the derby, he's a player who loves to play football and has lots of passion. He puts all his energy into all the training sessions. Hopefully the focus will again be on him, positively, because he's a player who is always looking to perform the best he can, focusing on helping the team to get success and working hard like he does to help the team to win". Asked about the negative reactions to him by Hapoel fans and how he might react Sousa replied: "This is part of the game. He's always responding because he has lots of passion for everything he does and I'm sure he'll do it again, with all his teammates, with all their energy on the pitch throughout the game to get the result".
Defender Carlos Garcia, who hasn't played in the last three matches, has returned to training ahead of the match. He was reminded that victory for Maccabi tomorrow means another derby next week: "Yes, I hope again next week we'll be playing against Hapoel. It's important to the fans but also for us. We want to win all the games, especially this one. Me, I feel better and better. I took some steps this week and we'll see tomorrow if finally I can play". Asked about the emotions in the dressing room, he responded: "In all the big games the emotion in the dressing room is different, and this game will be the same. It's a very important game for us, for the league, it's very important because it's the derby, it's very important for the fans. But first of all we must respect the opponent and we must think and win the game. Afterward if we win by more than one goal it's good for us. But the first thing must be to win".
