Carlos Garcia, who last night scored his first goal of the season, gave credit to Eran Zahavi. Now he's gearing up for the "Toto" Cup final
This morning the Maccabi Tel Aviv squad began preparations for the "Toto" (League) Cup final against Maccabi Haifa in two days' time at what has become Maccabi's "home away from home", the Netanya Municipal Stadium. It's a sell-out crowd and every indication is that the atmosphere inside the stadium will be extraordinary. Only yesterday, Maccabi Haifa announced a change of head coaches and after last night's 0-2 win at Hapoel Ra'anana, Maccabi Tel Aviv head coach Pako Ayesteran made reference to the fact in response to a question whether the team were making any special preparations for Wednesday night's encounter: "No, not really. We are not a team that have changed our way of playing. In this we are going to try to focus on the things we are doing well and if we keep going at it consistently for sure we will play a good game. And what Maccabi Haifa do is something at the moment we don't know, with a new coach I suppose everything will change".
Analysing last night's victory, the team's fifth in the last six outings, Pako remarked: "Maybe for twenty, twenty-five minutes one of the best games I think we've played. I think we really enjoyed with the ball in the first twenty, twenty-five minutes, we were with the lines close together and I think we were really dominant. After we started losing easy balls and maybe as I said before the distances between the midfielders were not the right ones and we lost a little bit of control". Asked if he agreed the team were not as good as last week against Maccabi Petach Tikva, the coach replied: "Yes, not as good. I think it was a more complete game against Maccabi Petach Tikva, a full game, I think it was a magnificent game. Today we had two different parts in the first half and two different parts in the second half".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yG_gHEZKOv0&feature=youtu.be
Pako also commented on the team's first goal, set up by midfielder Dor Micha and scored by striker Eden Ben Basat: "He scored with good movements, the movements I expect from the winger or the striker that is playing in the opposite wing. I've always said, I want them to step into the ball so when the ball is with the opposite winger I don't want them to be far from the opportunity of scoring. He was there, he did a good run between the centre backs and he scored, very good. And Dor Micha is one of those players with a lot of stats and is always involved in the last few passes before something happens in the opposition goal. In this case I think he's a great player for us and we have to try to get the best from the level he is showing at the moment". As for midfielder Eran Zahavi having his goalscoring run ended at seventeen consecutive matches, the head coach added: "It's a break, it's not something that's going to finish because he's clinical in the box and for sure he'll have another great run, I'm sure".
Someone who did score last night for the very first time this season was defender Carlos Garcia, converting an Eran Zahavi cross at the goalmouth. Asked if perhaps Eran expected to get the ball back to score himself, the Spaniard joked: "Yes now, in the dressing room, we asked the referee to change it but we can't, it was impossible. But for me, I don't care. I'll change with Eran, no problem". And would he like to get more opportunities to play the striker? "We try to help the team when we can and finally I could score, but that's less important. Okay, in the last minutes we could relax because of the second goal, but the first task is to try to defend well. It always makes us happy to win games. We know that today wasn't our best game, but the important thing is that when you play good you win but when you play bad you're not sure. We are happy for this but we have to change the things that today we didn't do right".
Finally Carlos was asked if he thought winning the "Toto" Cup on Wednesday was important: "Very important. A trophy is always very important, to us, for the club, for the fans. At this game against Maccabi Haifa there will be a good atmosphere, the first time this season we have the chance to win a trophy and we want to give our best to try to win".
