Midfielder Eran Zahavi scored in his tenth consecutive league game during Maccabi's 1-4 win against Hapoel Acre
After last night's 1-4 victory in Netanya against Hapoel Acre, Maccabi Tel Aviv can tick off the first of their three league matches in just over a week. This morning they began preparations ahead of their mid-week tie against Ashdod FC on Wednesday, to be followed in close order next Monday by this season's first derby against Hapoel Tel Aviv. Despite last night's good result, Maccabi head coach Pako Ayesteran didn't seem quite satisfied when after the match he was asked what he thought: "We had two different faces, one close to the way we want to play and the second one quite far from the way we want to play. We are getting closer and for fifteen, twenty minutes we saw the team I would like to see in the future ".The assembled press wondered if this was the reason he'd called his players immediately to the dressing room after the match: "Sometimes with feedback, the quicker the better. When you have done so magnificently in the first half, and quite a poor second half, the quicker everyone knows what we have done wrong, and I say 'we' because I include myself, the better".
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oanOVpm-xJI&feature=youtu.be
The coach was also quick to respond to questions concerning international striker Eden Ben Basat's absence from the playing field: "I think there were more players that didn't play. Rade Prica, Ben Reichert, Yuval (Shpungin) and Yoav (Ziv) who weren't in the squad, Gael (Margulies) who is so professional he was training this morning without being in the squad. I think you missed too many names. Gael is a player from the squad, Rade Prica is a player from the squad. Everybody's a player from the squad. For me there are no different players. As soon as he (Ben Basat) shows professionalism, commitment and respect he's one more. He practises really well, if he wouldn't practise well he wouldn't be in the squad. But up till now I cannot play with more than eleven and eighteen in the squad. In this case I have to choose".
Asked if the squad he chose for this match reflected his planning for the three matches his team have to play in just over a week, the Spaniard replied: "I don't plan too much in advance. I made the starting eleven to win this game and after we will see how I put them in the next game. I don't think too long in advance".
Eran Zahavi, whose brace tonight brought him to six goals in five league encounters this season, has now broken the record set seventeen years ago by Hapoel Petach Tikva's Motti Kakon by scoring in ten consecutive league matches, starting last April: "I already knew two, three matches ago I might be able to do it and it became a kind of objective for me. I did it, I'm happy and it's nice get in the record books, but the results are far more important and for the time being we're playing one game at a time. We need to improve, and in the second half we weren't up to standards, but we have a coach and I'm sure he'll sort that out. I'm not out to score more goals just to up the ante, it's my job to see I improve and yes, of course I want to score in every match, but not at the expense of everything else".
Asked about what the coach said in the dressing room directly following the match, the midfielder replied: "What he said exactly we'll keep to ourselves, if it's all right. In general he told us what we have to improve, along with things he was happy with, especially from the first half. In the second half we lost focus a little, perhaps some of the lads were already thinking about the matches on Wednesday and next Monday and took their foot off the gas. If the coach knows what to tell us in the dressing room, he'll also know how to fix things and prepare us for the next match".
Barak Badash, celebrating his first league appearance in the starting eleven with his first goal of the league season: "You can just imagine how much I wanted to score after having not started for a while", the striker said. "I'm happy I managed to do it the first time out, I just hope I can carry on this way. I've wanted to score for the new coach for a while now, it was important to me to prove myself out there. It's the coach's job to correct us all the time and today he saw things he didn't like, especially in the second half. And that's what happened, we conceded at the end and that sours it a bit. But still, it was an easy win, a good one at that, so we'll correct what went wrong and carry on".
Badash continued, "I can tell you this, sitting on the bench doesn't bother me as much as it makes me keener. As a player you always want to prove yourself and secure your place on the squad and in the first eleven. The competition at Maccabi Tel Aviv is enormous. One week it's Eden (Ben Basat) and (Rade) Prica, the next week it's me or any other player, so you've got to go out there and give it everything all the time. Eden is a top player and I'm sure he and Prica will be making a difference for Maccabi Tel Aviv, it's only a matter of time".
