Maccabi Tel Aviv will take on newly crowned champions Hapoel Be’ersheva for the State Cup Final.
Dor Peretz, who will try and lead Maccabi’s charge of winning and lifting the trophy for the first time in five years. At the Press Conference ahead of the final, Peretz, who is the only member of the side that won it previously in the 2020/21 season, spoke about the mental preparations, the lessons from the recent defeat to Be’ersheva last week, and the importance of maintaining focus throughout the match.
“To be part of a Cup Final like this is a privilege, you don’t reach this stage every year.” On how he feels about lifting the trophy, Peretz admitted: “It feels great, I missed it a lot, and we as a team and a club have really missed it. Our biggest goal is to finish with our hands on the cup.”
The 31-year-old analyzed the differences between league matches and a cup final, emphasizing the need for game intelligence: “In matches like these, small mistakes are unacceptable. These are things that can cost you dearly and are hard to recover from. We’ll need to play smart and use our heads, to be intelligent, not just hungry and aggressive.”
Peretz sees the cup as an opportunity: “A title always gives a wonderful feeling. In a challenging and difficult season, I think it would leave us with a sweet taste.” Having conceded one trophy to Be’ersheva losing the Super Cup to on the first match of the campaign, before seeing the league title change hands after two years in Yellow and Blue, Peretz added: “We’re aware of their style of play and their high pressing. In the last match we identified the exact moments where we needed to hurt them, we just didn’t execute strongly enough. If we make a few small improvements in our actions, it will be great.”
On Maccabi’s second half performances which was evident in the second part of the Playoff, Peretz tried explaining: “At times this season we collapsed, and on Tuesday we won’t be able to allow that to happen. A collapse on Tuesday can come from just a few wrong moments, and suddenly the momentum shifts.” He added: “We won’t have the luxury of taking our foot off the gas at any point in the game. All of our energy will need to rise because we understand how important this match is for us.”
The captain remained confident in his teammates as he concluded: “I think this team is excellent and very strong. We’ll need to be very intelligent and smart, maintain our spirit, and do our absolute best.”
