Preparations for the game against Maccabi Haifa have been completed. Pako: "I hope my way will be successful"
Maccabi Tel Aviv completed their preparations for the match against Maccabi Haifa, tomorrow night at 8.55pm at Bloomfield Stadium, with a morning practice at the Kiryat Shalom training ground. Beforehand the club held a pre-match press conference with head coach Pako Ayestran and בentral defender Carlos Garcia. Reminded that last year the reigning champions were triumphant in three of their four matches against their northern namesakes, the head coach was asked if that made them favourites: "You said it at the beginning of your sentence, last year. This year we'll see. That depends on us, it depends on how we approach the game and it will depend on how effective we are in front of goal and how they approach the game as well". He was also queried about the effects of a three-week international and holiday break: "It would have been great these three weeks if I will have had every player with me because I would have had a chance to train with them. But the problem was as you know many of them were with international duties and we had some little injuries as well and there were sometimes not enough to get the best of the training sessions. But the present is today and I am going to try to get the best from the players at the training session today, prepare us, as we always do, for the game we approach tomorrow and that's all".
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_-j7rRYw6I&list=UU-oWQqnf8B8a_TsmVi0mTUg
As for the quality of tomorrow night's opponents, Pako said: "Maccabi Haifa have the strength in their squad to be contenders and I think they've made clear they want to fight for the championship this year. And they've got the line-up and they've got the squad to be able to do it". As for the expected absence of Maccabi Haifa's star international Yossi Benayoun, Pako added: "When you build a squad you have to realise you are not going to have all your main men each week and you have to be able to compete anyway. I think Maccabi Haifa will come here without thinking about what players are not playing. They will try to approach the game with the ones that are available. It won't be an easy game, as you know". Asked if he had met his counterpart, Haifa's Serbian head coach Aleksandar Stanojevic, Pako replied: "No, I haven't met him before. But I'm here to do a job, to put into practice the things I believe in, that's all. And I suppose he's coming here with the same idea. And probably the same as myself he believes in his way. I believe in mine and I hope that way will be successful this year. We are at our level, your worst enemy is always yourself. We've got the potential. In this case we compete at the level of our potential and it shouldn't be any problem. The question is that sometimes you are not at your peak and you perform below your potential and you start having problems".
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Asked if he had made up his mind about tomorrow's first eleven, the Spaniard answered: "I'm quite clear about the line-up for tomorrow but I think everybody has to be on their toes, because you never know which one. Sometimes you change decisions at the last minute, for many reasons, sometimes the game changes after 15 or 20 minutes like happened against Ra'anana, when I realised I had to make a substitution, and everybody has to know that his time is going to arrive and he has to be ready".
And what about the Maccabi Tel Aviv players on the Israeli national team: "I think that they are some of the best players in the national team, that's why they are normally in the line-up. And I think they are performing game in and game out and that's the reason they are so consistent in the national team, all of them. I think that one of the things that we as coaches give great value to is consistency. They can play badly in one game of course, any player can have a bad game, but normally you look in the past, they keep the consistency, they are players you can rely on".
As for the loss to Beer Sheva in the last league match before the break, Pako commented: "We played well, we were dominant but probably we were not so clinical in front of goal and I think we gave them so easy chances to score".
Carlos Garcia was asked if he thought the squad were ready for the match against Maccabi Haifa: "We are always ready, to beat any team, more this team, this game. But like the coach said we didn't have a lot of time to work together. But it's no excuse. We are more than ready to play against them". And will there be any tactical changes from the game in Beer Sheva? "No, we have one idea how we have to play and we'll try to play in our way. We can change a little bit, small things, but we have it really really clear what our idea is on how to play and we will try to win with our idea. I think we are a very good team, I think they are a very good team". Asked if there is a different atmosphere when playing against Haifa, the Spanish defender replied: "Yes, of course. It's a big game, the atmosphere in the stadium is better. They have very good players and that's also a challenge for yourself to play against the very best players. It's always that Maccabi Haifa and Hapoel Tel Aviv are the big games in Israel, for us also Beer Sheva last year and this year. But I think these two games against them are the big games for us, here in Israel, also for the media, right? I feel it's a difference for the fans, for everyone it's different. But it's also like Pako said, to play well you also have to have all the players play well. You try to play your best all the time, not only for these games. We try to perform all the time, to be at a high level, because all the games can be difficult for us. But of course it's nice to play these games. Everyone wants to show his best".
After also expressing his feeling Maccabi deserved to get a better result in Beer Sheva, Carlos was asked if Beer Sheva's draw last night against Hapoel Ra'anana justified his feelings: "Different games. Doesn't matter. We just deserved one thing and yesterday something else happened. It doesn't matter. What happened with Beer Sheva, tomorrow it's what the coach said, it's the past. We keep the good things that we did, we try to change the things we did badly, that's it. To learn about the game, take confidence from the things we did right and that's it".
