Maccabi team captain Sheran Yeini celebrated the New Year with a new trophy: "It's brilliant"
As the rest of the world prepared to celebrate the New Year, at Maccabi Tel Aviv the final hours of 2014 were invested in adding yet another treasure to the club's already well-stocked trophy cabinet. An own goal by Maccabi Haifa defender Matan Ohayon and a Nikola Mitrovic penalty were all that were needed to see Maccabi Tel Aviv round off a successful year with a successful "Toto" (League) Cup final. Asked if he enjoyed winning his first trophy in Israel, head coach Pako Ayestaran responded: "It's the only one we could win at this stage of the season and it's in our dressing room already and it's enjoyable, yes". Asked why he left star midfielder Eran Zahavi out of the squad for the final, he replied: "I don't want to talk about Eran Zahavi. I think the squad is more than Eran Zahavi. In this case Eran Zahavi is such a good player, and he is, but this as well is down to the squad and the players surrounding him. For me a great team is like a great movie. You need main actors and secondary ones and sometimes, depending on the game, I think even the secondary ones need a reward. Everything that happens this year is down to the squad, our success or our failure, and I think everyone needs his moment to show that they are capable of jumping into the eleven. As I told you before, for me the squad is more important than any player and I think the players who are training every day need to feel that you believe in them and that you are capable of winning even without your main players".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yP5Y6XfekPU
As for the team's performance on the night, with little used players like the young midfielder Ben Reichert in the first eleven, the Spaniard commented: "It wasn't our best game, for sure it wasn't a good performance. There are people who say that the final you have to win, and we won. But the performance, no, it wasn't good. But if you don't give them the opportunity you will never know if they will grab it or not. I think that everybody on the squad deserves the opportunity to show the coach and the supporters that they are capable of adding to this team".
Team captain Sheran Yeini has already hoisted two league championship trophies and as a young player, the last "Toto" Cup Maccabi won in 2009. But raising the Cup as team captain was a special experience he's been waiting for since then: "It's really a great joy, each title adds to the club's esteem and that's always a good thing. It's also a great experience for me personally. It's brilliant. In 2009 I remember it being a good thing because it was a bad patch for the team and winning a trophy helped. How the rest of the season will go I can't say right now. But I do promise we'll be working very hard to win everything and it goes without saying that the State Cup is very important to us, especially in light of our lack of success in recent years".
"As for the team's performance in the final, Yeini added: "Neither side were particularly good on the night, we had our moments and so did they, half chances for both teams, but the game was a bit messy. Maybe it's because it was a final and both teams were worried about conceding, so I'm glad we came out on top. We knew they'd start out well because they had the added motivation of a new coach, but we also knew that would wear off after a while and that's exactly what happened. Little by little more space opened up and we took over the match".
For midfielder Nikola Mitrovic this was his second title here in Israel, and his first scoring the winning goal: "It's our first and there are two more which I hope we'll take. It's our target. It's not going to be easy but I think we have the quality to win all of these things. But we took the first and I'm really happy". Asked if he wasn't surprised by unusual team the coach fielded, the Serb replied: "I don't think it was a strange eleven. Everybody who is at Maccabi deserves to be here. Some of the players have less minutes and some of them play more but I think we are a good team in general and no matter who plays I think we are a good team". And what about his team's chances against Hapoel Beer Sheva on Monday night? "Look, I'll know better on Monday after the game but it depends on us. If we play well, if we do well as a team then we don't need to be afraid. We're going to win for sure".
