PYellow & Blue Proclamation
The following is for my brothers in the Yellow & Blue stands of Maccabi Tel Aviv:
It’s true that the race for the championship is not exactly the way we want to see it, but we won’t give up. A six point gap and a disadvantage in the goal differential is hard to make up with only 18 points left in the season, but we won’t raise our hands just yet and we can still certainly use our feet. With a bit of determination and luck we can still do it.

There are still 3 points that we can earn with our feet in two weeks against Beer Sheva, along with another 3.5 points coming from God’s good graces or from another club. Maybe they will come to their senses against Hapoel Beer Sheva, who knows?

So what is our job now? From this moment on until the end of the season we will make sure that at worst the gap will be 3 points; and that will give us a chance to win the championship up until the last moment. “The scout doesn’t lose his faith and in his sorrow he laughs”. That also includes the Maccabist.

So come to the stadium, let’s come and win and if we succeed – great, and if not – not one person will be able to say that we lost our faith even if we didn’t reach or goals, and if that unfortunately is the case, we will be good sportspeople and acknowledge Beer Sheva’s success.

Don’t give up, don’t stop trying. On to victory. Work hard until the last moment. This is the Maccabi spirit. After all,”You’ll never walk alone, Maccabi Tel Aviv.”

The Maccabi Tel Aviv professional staff along with Head Coach Lito Vidigal, Sport Director Jordi Cruyff and of course the players took a trip to the Club’s leading sponsor, HP Indigo and toured their factory in Kiryat Gat after Thursday’s training session.

Vidigal was extremely interested in the newest technology that HP Indigo uses for printing pictures and posters.

Following the extensive tour, the Head Coach discussed the upcoming away contest at Beitar Jerusalem on Saturday night at Teddy Stadium, 21:00:

“The intensive week that we have been getting used to over the past few months that I’ve been here so it’s not really something new. We are just concentrating on the next game and we are only preparing for the next match, not looking further ahead. The match against Beer Sheva is not even a thought at this point. As of now and looking at the gap to the top of the table, we can only look at the next match. We have to win and only after that can we can concentrate on the next contest.”

About the club’s injuries:
“It’s true that we have some injuries but like I say all the time, I believe in all of my players and I know that anyone I choose to play will be ready and prepared. What is most important is that we work hard together as a team and that is the only way we will succeed.”

On the opponent:
“We are preparing for a match against a very good club with high quality players and every match against them is difficult. We defeated them in the State Cup Semifinal but we also played superbly. Over the last three matches we have improved but we still have a ways to go. This will be a totally different game and there is absolutely no connection between the Semifinal and this contest.”

The club’s performance:
“Of course I want the team to play even better. I know that it’s possible but we still have a lot of work and we need time for that. First off, we want to win but we also want to play the best that we can and I think that over the last few games we have continued to improve and I hope that we will do the same this coming match as well.”

On Saturday, Maccabi Tel Aviv will take a trip to Jerusalem for a Matchday 31 Ligat Championship Playoff Match. Today, following their training session, the club visited their leading sponsor, HP Indigo at their Kiryat Gat factory. During the tour, the players and professional staff learnt about the latest technological tools that make HP the worldwide leader in the field of digital print.

The tour included a look at all of the various departments along with the different technologies that the company uses to that helps produce the highest quality pictures, posters and the gigantic player posters that can be seen at the stadium throughout the season. The players who were astounded by the operation, were given posters of themselves in various shapes and sizes.

Captain Sheran Yeini summed up the visit to the HP Indigo factory following the visit:
“In the name of all of the players, I want to offer HP a tremendous amount of thanks and gratitude for hosting us here today. We learnt a lot and it was fabulous. This is a world unto itself and all of the players can’t wait to take advantage of all of the sponsor’s great products that are of the highest quality.”

About the upcoming matches against Beitar Jerusalem, Bnei Sakhnin and Hapoel Beer Sheva:
“We have a difficult and important week coming up and we are ready for it.”

Beitar Jerusalem:
“Beitar is always a quality side and one that is not easy to play against for Beer Sheva and ourselves. We aren’t thinking that this will be an easy match. Just as we said before the State Cup game that they are an opponent that has taken many points from Maccabi Tel Aviv, we are aware of that and we know what we have to do to win.”

On the club’s performance over the past few matches:
“I’m happy as to how we have performed along with winning the games themselves. But right now collecting points is what is most important and no one can criticize us for not earning points. Perhaps after the State Cup Semifinal some of the pressure was off of us, but we are working hard to continue to improve ourselves and to do even more things right on the pitch that we need to improve.”

Mental preparation for the next three games:
“We are really not concentrating on the championship race and are only looking at the next game. I know it sounds like a cliche, but it’s the truth as to how we are preparing ourselves and this is how we have to do it. We are professionals. About having a bunch of matches over the next week, for us it’s a lot of fun and personally, I wish every week was like this. We aren’t thinking about losing any points or about the games that are further along, we are just concentrating on the next match.”

Facing Beitar:
“Beitar have some very dangerous players and we are very aware as to what they can do on the attack. They have some players that we have to focus on all of the time and we have to keep finding ways to stop them. This is a contest that we have to be very, very focused.”

Maccabi Tel Aviv will hit the road for an important Championship Playoff midweek contest on Matchday 32 of the Ligat Ha’Al against Bnei Sakhnin. The match will take place on Tuesday April 25th at 19:45 at Doha Stadium and tickets are now on sale.

Please note that tickets purchased for this match are subject to earning points in the new Points System for Away Matches. Season ticket holders earn 3 points while the general public will earn 1.5 points.

Important! When you purchase a ticket via the website, telephone or the Leaan Ticket Office, in order to accrue points, season ticket holders must complete the transaction with their season ticket number and non-season ticket holders via their User ID. When making the purchase please confirm your email and mobile phone number. Should the purchase not be done with your season ticket number or User ID, Points will not be accrued on your account.

Should you purchase a ticket and not attend the match, refunds are not available and Points will not be accrued to your account.

Tickets are on sale via the Leaan Ticket Agency and are available now. You may purchase tickets at the Leaan Ticket Office located at 101 Dizengoff Street Tel Aviv, telephone *8780 and the Leaan Website.

Ticket Prices

Leaan Ticket Office: 55 NIS
Telephone or Website: 60 NIS
At the Stadium on Matchday: 50 NIS

Ticket Sales are for Maccabi Fans ONLY

Match Stats
Maccabi have won 12 of their last 13 matches.

Lito Vidigal’s record as the Maccabi Tel Aviv Head Coach features 9 victories in ten total matches.

Maccabi also won their 10th home contest in a row.

Of the ten matches, the Yellow & Blue kept a clean sheet in 7 of them.

Of course, Predrag Rajikovic has played a big part in this streak by not allowing a goal in 647 minutes at the Netanya Stadium.

Yuval Shpungin started against Maccabi Petah Tikva for his second league start and appearance this season. The last time the defender featured as in the 2:1 away win at Hapoel Ashkelon on March 5th.

Tal Ben Chaim scored his 14th goal and leaves him only one goal behind the league’s scoring king Vidar Kjartansson who has 15.

When leads the league in assists? None other than Dor Micha with 11 helpers while recording 13 across all competitions.

What did they do?
Egor Filipenka won 12 of 15 battles over the course of the match which represented the most of any Maccabi player that included aerial and ground battles on offense and defense. Yuval Shpungin went 10/13, Ben Haim recorded 8/12, Sheran Yeini 11/18 and Eyal Golasa 9/14.

Tal Ben Haim stole 11 balls, more than any other player while Yeini had 8 and Filipenka finished the night with 6.

Dor Micha attempted 6 key passes with 3 hitting the intended target, the most on Maccabi. Yossi Benayoun made 5 key passes with 2 finding the address he was looking for.

Micha also sent 6 balls into the box on 9 tries while Ben Chaim went 5/9 and Benayoun 5/8.

Golasa and Micael made the most passes between two players with 31. Usually the most passes made over the course of a match is between a central defender and a midfielder to begin an attack, but when the most passes are between two midfielders that usually means that the ball control is much more effective.

Yuval Shpungin, the Yellow & Blue defender looked back at the team’s performance against Maccabi Petah Tikva and getting the opportunity to start for Coach Lito Vidigal:

“I think I played I good game and it’s not easy to come back after not playing for a while both from a physical and mental standpoint. I prepared myself the best that I could but most importantly is that we won the match.”

Getting a chance to play:

“I’m happy that the coach relies on me after not playing for a while. I knew coming to Maccabi wouldn’t be easy as there is a lot of competition for playing time as it’s the biggest team in the country. Of course I’d like to play more but I have to be prepared for anything. I have to work hard and be ready at a moment’s notice.”

Still a chance to win the league:

“If we didn’t believe that we could then we wouldn’t be in this type of profession. We will give everything that we have until the last moment and we won’t look at all of the possibilities. We will do what we need to and continue to win the matches that we have.”