Maccabi Tel Aviv returns to league action after a two-week long international break with a match away to Hapoel Jerusalem at Teddy Stadium (18:30) on MD28. Shortly after Friday’s final practice, Aitor Karanka as well as members of the first team arrived at Bloomfield stadium to take part in the food packaging for families in need ahead of Passover. The bi-annual ‘Good deeds in Yellow project’ initiated by the Maccabi Tel Aviv Foundation and ‘Ahim Lasemel’ which generated donations of over NIS 400,000 and 2300 food packages for families in need.
Coach Aitor Karanka who knuckled down and assisted in the food packaging, and said: “It is always important to be in touch with our supporters because they are not just important but they are vital for the team and for the club as I said in our worst moments that: ‘we should be together’ and the message today is – keep going together and trust this club because good things will arrive for sure”.
Ahead of the return to action and the fact he has an almost full squad at his disposal, Karanka added: “I knew it as soon as I arrived here and it hasn’t been just the last two weeks. The main target is we have now 26 or 24 players and the keepers to select from and we have no injuries to worry about for the final two months of the season as everyone seems fit”.
With fixtures coming thick and fast, Hapoel Jerusalem away on Saturday followed by Maccabi Haifa at Bloomfield and Hapoel Be’ersheva away at Turner stadium, the Spanish coach said: “We need to think about the following game, and then about the following game on Tuesday, and then the following game on Monday because it is impossible to think for more than one week or 10 days ahead as every game will be important for us both for the league and for the future.”
Having welcomed back six players from international duty, Karanka had a full squad to work with for a couple of days before the match: “We were training today with all the squad and were just missing Idan Nachmias who is still recovering from his knee injury and goalkeeper Daniel Tenenbaum (back) but the rest of the players are all well. We had two weeks to work but were missing six players for international duty. On the one hand this is good news because when you have six national team players it is good but on the other hand you can’t work in the way you would like to work. The atmosphere is good as every knows they have a good chance to play and it is good time for both present and especially the future.”
On his team’s achievement so far, Karnaka said: ”When Maccabi is doing well, I didn’t find an opponent better than us, but at present we must maintain a perfect record and can’t afford to make any mistakes which could prove to be a problem. I remember in that game that everybody just exploded because the situation of the team and the club wasn’t how everyone wanted. Now however, we are working for the present and working for the future and we have to think about tomorrow’s game. We have nine very important matches ahead of us and one more Semi Final in the State Cup so we must focus on that.”
