Dear Yellow-and-Blue fans,

Over the past few years we have become very experienced in dealing with changes, though having to change in January isn’t something we’ve had to deal with, especially when we are fighting for the title. We all have to help the coach adjust as quickly as possible and the players will have to adapt to the coach’s ideas quickly. But most importantly is that we must give the new staff time to get to know the club, the Israeli League and us.

You, the fans have a vital role in helping the new staff adapt because the team needs to have the fans full support. I want the coach to see that he made the correct choice in coming to Maccabi and that we are a winning team. When the relationship between the fans and the players is good, then it’s a wonderful place for the coach to work.

We’re looking forward to an exciting match today but one that won’t be easy. Maccabi Haifa usually plays well at Bloomfield and the matches between the two sides are very close be it at Bloomfield or at Sammy Ofer. This is a very emotional match against a difficult opponent that will yield opportunities for both teams. I hope that we will continue our string of good results this week because this is a match we must win. I’m sure that you will continue to give us incredible support from the warmups all the way to the 90th minute. At every home match at Bloomfield you’re the team’s 12th player.

The last few days haven’t been so simple for us after the loss to Hapoel Beer Sheva.

It’s never pleasant to lose, but I was actually very encouraged following the match. I believe we performed well and it was unfortunate to give up an early goal that changed our whole game plan. However, there are some positive points that can be taken away from this match where the feeling afterwards was that we had the better team and we will prove this later on.

Just like we said before the Beer Sheva match and as we are now saying after it, that it’s fine that they wanted to turn this game into the match of the year. But for us it was just another game against a rival that we are currently fighting against for the title and nothing more than that. Again, I want to reiterate that of course everyone is disappointed after a loss, but it’s exactly the same disappointment we have after any other loss. We saw who we’re against and who will be our chief competition for the title this season. We respect Beer Sheva but we can also be encouraged with our abilities.

The loss is now behind us. When you are in this type of profession you need to know how to move on very quickly after a loss just like after a victory and also begin to think of the upcoming match and begin preparing for it. I think that whoever saw our last few practices or those who were part of them on the training pitch at Kiryat Shalom can assure you that the players are ready and prepared for the next match.

I’m sure you’re also wondering how we as players are handling the constant whispers around the club over the last few days. The truth is that we have never even dealt with these whispers and I think that over the last few years the club has done an excellent job of keeping these external noises to an absolute minimum and out of the training facility and off of the pitches.

But now as I already mentioned earlier we are concentrating on one goal only: to get back on the winning track and no less important is to do so at home in front of our loyal fans. Tonight’s opponent, Kiryat Shemona is a very difficult team to play against and who gave us a hard time in the first round. Though we played well in the first game against them with many opportunities to win, we just didn’t. The same is true about the Champions Cup match where we lost on penalties, so we’re coming into this match with a ton of motivation.

We feel that the supporters are behind us and we also feel that we have plenty to give and where we can strive to improve. We all urge you to be with us going forward. Yalla Maccabi!

Hello to the fans. We missed Bloomfield and we missed you.

We missed playing home games at Bloomfield over the past month as well as the atmosphere that we create together especially during big games. We finished the first round of matches with the same amount of points as Beer Sheva and the table says that we are the two best clubs in the country right now. We want to be the best team in the country at the end of the season.

Every time we play games against the big teams we know that it will be difficult. I hope that today we will be the better side and win the game. We will still have two more matches after this game against them both home and away, so the league is still wide open. We want to win the match as we want to win every game that we play. The fans love to make sure that there is plenty of color, emotions and feelings when there are big matches, but this is not a final and definitely not the last match of the year.

I hope that we continue out tradition against them at Bloomfield. The first time we played them this season we didn’t play our best, but we were still able to win. All week long we worked hard to make sure that we come prepared as best as possible for the match and to show the coach that we belong in the starting XI. We noticed that this week there is a bit of a different feeling in the air. Everyone wants to play the game already, get onto the pitch and show what we’ve all got.

You the fans are important to us. At this club we have something unique and special and that’s the communication that we have between us the players and you the fans. The fans know that if we play well or poorly, win or lose, that we will always give 110% of ourselves. We know that you’ve put money and time be it in Israel or abroad to give us your support and this is how we achieved all that we have so far. Players come and go but you the fans are the true Maccabi. You were born Yellow-and-Blue and you will be that way forever and ever. What’s important to us is to be with you all of the way.”