At the press conference ahead of Hapoel Haifa, Pako Ayestaran talked about events at the previous match, Gal Alberman about the match ahead: "We'll carry on doing it our way"
On Saturday Maccabi Tel Aviv will head north to the brand new "Sammy Ofer" Stadium to face Hapoel Haifa with one clear objective in mind – to return to winning ways. Ticket sales for the match, by the way, are still very much underway. Saturday's opponents have just replaced their head coach and at the traditional pre-match press conference, attended by head coach Pako Ayestaran and veteran midfielder Gal Alberman, the former was first asked how he felt about facing a team that have just undergone managerial change: "I don't think too much about it because I cannot choose. It's out of my control and in this case I have to be focused on what is in my control, and that's my team. The rest I don't think about too much. I think they have been a team that have treated the ball quite well but they didn't get the results".
After the coach's sanguine reaction to a question about his team's form following two consecutive draws, Pako was asked if he thought the expectations regarding Maccabi Tel Aviv were perhaps too high: "No. The expectations are the expectations that everybody expects. That is for Maccabi Tel Aviv to be a contender in any trophy they are playing for during the season and we accept that". In a similar vein, Gal Alberman later added: "In the last match against Kiryat Shmona we got out on the pitch with the same objective as we would have facing any quality side with potential to cause us problems – to win. We'll carry on doing it our way. In recent months we've had a run of good form and that's the way we intend to keep it. We've won nine of our last twelve games and that's a good pace of picking up points by any standard".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVYg3LzVpqM
Pako also reacted to reports that the match referee at the Kiryat Shmona draw at Bloomfield Stadium had later apologised for a supposed penalty that wasn't awarded to the visitors in the final moments of the match: "Someone told me after the game and I couldn't believe it when they told me the referee had apologised. Why does he have to apologise? I think we have lost the plot to be honest. Because referees make mistakes. Players make mistakes. Coaches make mistakes. And we shouldn't apologise for every mistake, because if we apologise for one mistake, why shouldn't we apologise for all the other ones we have made? Because I never heard about the possible penalty of the first half on Eran Zahavi. I didn't hear anything of an apology. He apologised, yes, for a possible penalty, not for a penalty, a possible penalty, because maybe he saw a penalty, maybe Kiryat Shmona saw a penalty. Maybe I didn't see a penalty, because if this was a penalty, imagine in the corner kicks. Sometimes I think it's better not to kick a corner kick because sometimes it is impossible to have any chance. I don't think there are different rules between the rules that apply in the corner kicks and the rules that apply in the open field".
The Spaniard continued: "Secondly, I never heard anything about the Beer Sheva goalkeeper on the penalty of Eran Zahavi, when he was two metres out of the line before he kicked the ball. I never heard anything about the goalkeeper of Hapoel Tel Aviv when he saved the ball out of the box and should be sent off, and more and more. And another one we probably have been rewarded, but this is football, and in football everything comes to balance. Sometimes you are punished, sometimes you are awarded but it's the referees that have to do this and we have to accept the rules. I don't think the referee should apologise for making a mistake, because if they do you will have long press conferences after the games. Because if every time one referee has to come out to apologise for every mistake you wouldn't have time for everything at the press conference".
"Thirdly, now it looks like Kiryat Shmona have been harmed and Maccabi Tel Aviv rewarded. Rewarded? Have you forgotten that we are playing with a technical fault points reduction for something that we didn't even have control over? Because we are playing with a handicap this year. I know in golf this is a handicap. Depending on your level you have a handicap. In football there is no handicap, but this year we are going to play with a handicap of one less game. In this case we have been rewarded? With what? I think we have been harmed, and heavily during this season, because we've got one game less and one point deduction for something that was out of our control. In this case I don't want to listen to anything about that we have been rewarded or poor Kiryat Shmona, that they have been harmed. We have been harmed, heavily this season".
