Maccabi Haifa returned to the winning track, when they defeated Bnei Yehuda 0: 2 last night (Sunday). Aside from confidence and three important points for the continuation of the championship fight, the Greens received the support of the crowd they so missed. Over 1,000 fans managed to purchase tickets for Bnei Yehuda fans. At the end of the game, Barak Bachar said that they felt like 30,000. For the coach, Noble Omar, Bogdan Planic, Jose Rodriguez and Goodsway Donio it was a first encounter with the crowd.
Even before the opening whistle, the excitement of the players who thanked the audience was evident, at the end for long minutes the players and the professional team sang and danced with the fans. Ofri Arad, Noble Omar and other actors presented their shirts to the audience. The captain, Neta Lavi, who scored his first goal of the season in the league, said: “There are no words that can describe the feeling that the crowd is back, chills in the body. We hope very much to make them happy, happy that I scored and from the result and face forward.” The connection a lot to join the front and came up with three opportunities.
On the grass, the one who stole the show was a noble Omar who got the band shirt because Charon Cherry has yet to fully recover from the groin injury. The first cooking was tremendous and also in the second gate he was involved. Azili recorded his best game since joining and threatened the goal seven times (about half of all Maccabi Haifa’s attempts) and added two accurate key passes. From the first moment the crowd pushed him and encouraged him and it seems that a connection was formed between the parties. In ten league appearances he has five touchdowns. Only four players in the league cooked more of it and more appearances.
Last night one could notice how noble a nobleman was determined to conquer and how much the club wanted him to get into things: “He has not yet shown all he has, he is on his way there.” At the same time, San Menachem may have scored the easy goal of his career, but he continues to break his season-high record of four conquests.
Tactically, Bachar surprised when he opened the scoring with Nikita Rokavica who was in doubt and absent from the pitches for over a month. The king of the league’s goals is still not fit and was replaced in the 55th minute. Rokavica felt fatigue and also reported tenderness in the back thigh muscle. The striker will be tested ahead of Maccabi Petah Tikva in the last 16 of the State Cup.
Jose Rodriguez (ankle) and Yuval Ashkenazi (hitting the knee) also finished the game earlier than expected. The Spaniard will check towards Wednesday, while the club have announced that Ashkenazi will be eligible. One could see the frustration of the midfielder coming in after half a long period without football.
Also, the Greens were happy to get back Dolev Haziza who has been absent from the last four games, he showed sparks from his tremendous ability before the dismissal. Charon Cherry got minutes ahead of the sequel and the goal is to get him back on track.
Taleb Twataha found himself last night out of Bachar’s squad, despite being fit. The reason: the professional team did not like his conduct and it has not yet been decided whether he will return to the squad for the cup game on Wednesday against Maccabi Petah Tikva.
Bachar concluded: “I’m glad we came back to win and win in a good way. The first half was a bit difficult, as befits a game against a closing team that slows the pace, we tried to control and get into situations. The second half was much better, we had more presence on the field, we joined more, we threatened a lot “Glad we won that way, now we have to look at Wednesday for the cup.”
Ahead of Maccabi Petah Tikva, Carmel will try to train Ernest Mabuka, who was out of the squad. The coach is expected to perform a rotation, in order not to create a load towards the crowded schedule and the desire to meet the goals.
