Tal Ben Haim, Maccabi’s veteran central defender is geared up and ready to go after a two week break from league action. Saturday’s Matchday Eleven clash will feature a trip up to the Carmel to visit Hapoel Haifa at Sammy Ofer Stadium. This will be the first of two matches in four days at the state of the art facility with Chelsea visiting the Yellow-and-Blue on Tuesday in Champions League play. Number 26 also discussed his youth days and took a trip down memory lane with the recognition of International Children’s Day on November 20th:

“We’re coming back after a good break and a few days vacation. We returned fresh and ready to go. We had a good week and prepared well for the upcoming match.”

Other clubs always want to try and beat Maccabi:

“Of course. Even when I was a child in youth system the other teams knew they were playing Maccabi Tel Aviv and gave over 100% effort against us. Our current rivals have studied how we play and put in a lot of thought when preparing for us.”

Preparing for a team that isn’t near the top of the table:

 “Haifa is a good team with an excellent coach but we also have set goals for ourselves and we’ll be ready for this match and ready to go.”

International Children’s Day is November 20th. Do you recognize yourself in this youth team photo?

“Yes, that’s me on the bottom right. I think I was about 9 or 10 years old with a few friends Eli Bitton, Baruch Nimni, Eldar Betito, Ohad Buzaglo, Elisha Lev, Tomer, Shushan, Kobi Musa, and Tzachi from Rechovot. I was a striker until I was 14 years old and not even a central defender yet. The picture was taken right over there by one of the training pitches where we practiced.”

What  was it like to play in Maccabi’s youth squad?

“It was the best team. It wasn’t a question of if we would win but by how many goals we would win by. To grow up in Maccabi’s youth program gave me the fundamentals to play the game and it was every child’s dream to be part of Maccabi’s youth team. This picture takes me back about 24 years. It’s amazing to see it.”

Do you want to keep the picture?

“Yes please.”