As the new season approaches, many hundreds of Maccabi Tel Aviv fans joined the players and the coaching staff at the Kiryat Shalom training grounds to show their enduring support for the team at the newly crowned champions' traditional opening practice
Close to a thousand Maccabi Tel Aviv fans turned up at the team's official opening training session to give a festive welcome to their beloved championship players. Prior to their arrival, Kiryat Shalom training grounds had been decorated with Maccabi Tel Aviv flags flying everywhere, yellow and blue balloons flying into the air and the visitors' terraces kitted out in the club's traditional yellow and blue colours. Some of the fans arriving at the training grounds dropped in at the official Maccabi Tel Aviv merchandise shop to avail themselves of the opportunity to purchase the official season 2013/14 MTA matchday jersey. As the players came out on the pitch, the many hundreds of fans were uniformly allowed out on to the pitch to spend time with their favourite stars just as the new season is about to get underway.
In best Maccabi Tel Aviv tradition, players and new head coach Paulo Sousa alike were lifted up on a number of supporters' shoulders, while others were busy collecting autographs or having their pictures taken with their favourite Maccabi Tel Aviv stars. The fans were in absolutely top spirits and those positive feelings were shared in equal measure with all the players, including striker Barak Yitschaki returning from a season in Cyprus and midfielder Dan Einbinder, who joined the club this summer from Ironi Kiryat Shmona. For over half an hour songs were sung for each player and fireworks were thrown into the air as the fans prepared to take their places in the visitors' terraces to watch the team train, where they continued to sing and spur the players on. With striker Moannes Dabbur and defender Yagil Biton holding a practice of their own near the touchline, the rest of the squad returned to the pitch after the fans had departed to conduct a full training session. Tomorrow the squad will continue to train and on Thursday (June 27th) they're off to their ten-day training camp in Austria.
More pictures of the festive opening training session can be viewed at the club's Facebook and Google+ pages.
