Osher Davida’s winning goal against Hapoel Jerusalem at Teddy stadium was his debut goal for Maccabi Tel Aviv. At the end of the match, the winger who made a second half substitute appearance and played a key role in the team’s comeback, said at the end of the match: “At halftime we were told we simply need to raise our heads, keep going, and continue with plenty of energies which were lacking a bit in the first half. We had a different second half better than the first one and I am delighted we won.”
Davida, who joined Maccabi in the summer from Standard Liege, added: “I arrived after the second or third league round when the team already had a run so obviously the coach had his players which is totally understandable. Just like you arrive at a new job, want to prove yourself and find your place, one must wait patiently. At first, I played for half an hour, started a match in Europe and even though I played less recently the team had a good run as the coach shows faith in his players which is good. Today I received my chance and did what I wanted to do so I hope we can just climb from here.”
On the league’s return while matches are played behind closed doors, Davida added: “The feelings are complex because on the one hand are heads are not totally there but on the other hand, we do what we love doing. I think that many people at home also prefer to watch the matches. Playing behind closed doors doesn’t feel the same without the fans and I just hope they will return soon. We are back playing competitive football, so let us hope the IDF completes the task and then we can move on to allow fans back in.”
Following the 64-day-long imposed break from domestic football, Maccabi now face a tough tight schedule of 16 matches until the end of January, Davida said: “We have plenty of overload as we experienced trips, flights and only returned to Israel on Friday. One must use the players properly and I think we did just that. I hope we continue to do what we are aiming for. We have a week to prepare for the next match and after that we have a game every three days – so we need all our players to be at a maximum of readiness.”
