Matchday 31 of the WINNER League is upon us as Maccabi Tel Aviv visits Maccabi Haifa at Sammy Ofer Stadium. Prior to the match Tal Ben Chaim discussed the club’s last game against Beitar Jerusalem that catapulted them into first place: “It was a very emotional victory but that was finished a half an hour after the game itself as we began to focus on Maccabi Haifa and the difficult week ahead of us. The State Cup is one of our goals as well and we will come prepared for that challenge.”
Getting lucky at Bloomfield:
“The good are lucky and the lucky are good. The match against Beitar could’ve ended in the 30th minute as we were playing very well. At the end of the day I’m happy we won but most importantly we played really well.”
The change in the playing style:
The new coach came in, slowly but surely our game became more offensive. All of the Maccabi fans and those who watch football in general prefer a more attacking style. It’s not something you can learn in a day. We work on this each and every week and it’s not easy, but the training sessions are good and his demands are helping us play better.”
The battle with Hapoel Beer Sheva:
“We aren’t concerning ourselves with Beer Sheva. They are an excellent team and have been playing like a champion. The fight has been good the whole season and now we are holding the upper hand. They’ll probably do what they need to do on Saturday and we will have to do what we need to on Sunday.”
On his personal goals:
“I’m trying to reach the goals that we’ve set for ourselves which is to win the championship and State Cup. We did some amazing things last year as a team and we want to keep it up. After we win the double you can ask me about my personal goals.”
