One of the Maccabi players who has experienced many season openers in Yellow & Blue is Dor Micha. Just ahead of the Matchday 1 encounter versus Beitar Jerusalem, the midfielder spoke at the prematch press conference at Kiryat Shalom:
Record against Beitar:
“The statistics don’t favor us, but those are just statistics. We have had trouble with them but we are opening the season with this match and I hope that a win will give us a boost to begin the campaign.”
His health:
“I’m coming back from an injury, so we are moving ahead cautiously. I feel good and I’m in good shape. I’m ready to play.”
Beitar’s situation:
“They are a club that lives for these types of matches. They are always motivated against us and they have a quality squad, so it will be a difficult contest.”
Maccabi’s character so far this season:
“I believe that at this point of the season you have seen that we have very strong character. We want to play better football and we have to do that but in Europe the most important thing are the results. To play a difficult match in Austria and to come back with a good result is something that had been missing. So far we’ve been successful in recording good results in difficult matches. Our winning character has returned and that is something positive that we can take with us the rest of the way.”
About the defensive game:
“I don’t know of a player that was here and didn’t help out on the defensive side. You can say that maybe we weren’t as good but there was always plenty of motivation. It’s also the coach’s influence and where he wants us to be on the pitch.”
