Eyal Golasa, Maccabi’s new midfielder, made his way to Kiryat Shalom and spoke to the Official Website about signing with the Club, his new teammates and how the new jersey will look on him:

“It will look very good on me.”

On joining Maccabi:

“I’m happy to join Maccabi Tel Aviv and I’m looking forward to my first training session with my new teammates. Maccabi Tel Aviv is the best team in Israel and I’m thrilled to come on board and help the Club and I hope I’ll learn from the team as well.”

About Maccabi:

“Maccabi Tel Aviv is a club that always battles for the available titles and has some terrific players. I’m sure we’ll put up a good fight like the club always does and I hope that at the end of the season the championship will be back with us.”

His new teammates:

“I know many of the Maccabi players from the Under-21 Israel Team as well as the senior side. So it will be a bit easier for me and now the responsibility is mine. I can’t wait to get started.”

What’s important:

“I hope that I’ll take part in the upcoming match so I can help the Club and do well. That’s what’s important.”

Message to the fans:

“To all of the Maccabi fans I am looking forward to seeing you all at the Netanya Stadium. Yalla Maccabi!”

There are a number of Israeli footballers who go and play outside of the borders of Israel. Very few make it to a club in the top tier of Greek football and even fewer will stay in the reserve team and fight for a place in the first team.

Eyal Golasa is the perfect example of someone who battled his way to success. The gifted midfielder, just 24 years of age began his career at Beitar Tubruk and made his senior team debut for Maccabi Haifa in 2008.

Following a number of championships and playing in the Champions League group stages with Haifa, Golasa signed with PAOK Salonika, a team with a very rich history in Greece.

In his first season with the team, Golasa made 24 appearances for the Greek outfit while starting in 14 games during a difficult period of time where also suffered from injuries. However, despite his performance on the pitch, Golasa was unable to score a goal or pick up an assist leading Croatian Head Coach Igor Tudor to ask the Israeli to begin the season with the reserve side.

Even though Golasa was disappointed, he began training with the reserve team in all seriousness, commitment and investing of himself to prove to his Croatian coach that he belonged with the first team. A little over a month later, Golasa was called up and returned the coach’s faith in him by helping defeat Panthrakikos 2:0 earning Tudor’s confidence.

After two seasons and 50 appearances with Salonika, Eyal Golasa came back to Israel to wear the Yellow & Blue.

Eyal Golasa has joined Maccabi Tel Aviv after the 24-year-old midfielder who joined the club on a free transfer from PAOK Thessaloniki where he played for the last two seasons.

Maccabi’s Sports Director Jordi Cruyff told the club’s official website: “We are happy to add Golasa to our squad as we have been following his progress in recent years. We hope to be the right place for him to show his talent”.

Golasa, who will wear the number 23 at Maccabi, told the clubs’ official website: “I’m happy to join a top club like Maccabi Tel Aviv. I hope that I can contribute to the team and vice versa. I’m looking forward to meeting the fans at the upcoming matches.”

Following Maccabi Tel Aviv’s 1:0 victory over Gorica in the return leg of the two legged tie that was won 4:0 on aggregate, Dor Peretz talked about playing right back, next week’s opponent, Yossi Benayoun and the second half against Gorica:

“We advanced and we’ll celebrate that for one day and get ready for the next round”

The second half:

“There’s no question that the second half wasn’t good enough. The first half was better and we had more pace. We came into this match with a 3:0 advantage but it means nothing. We have to keep improving game to game and show our best in every match we play and the second half just wasn’t good enough. We’ll improve going into the next contest.”

On Yossi Benayoun:

“No question were happy for him and he deserves it as he’s working hard.”

About Kairat Almaty:

“They are a much more difficult opponent and we’ll prepare properly coming into that match.”

Playing right back:

“I can adjust to any position”

Maccabi Tel Aviv picked up their second victory in as many games and advanced to the second round of Europa League qualifying. The Yellow & Blue came into the second leg with Gorica holding a big lead from the first match and also enjoyed Yossi Benayoun’s first goal in his debut.

The veteran spoke to the Official Website following the contest and talked about his first appearance in Yellow & Blue: “It’s always great to score but what’s most important is that we advanced to the next round. I was happy to have the opportunity to play for the first time this evening.”

On the next round opponent:

“I think that this was the toughest team we could’ve have gotten at this stage. They have some good players like Arshavin and Tymoshchuk as well as other quality foreign players. It will be difficult but we have a good team and we believe in ourselves. This will not be an easy battle.”

His role in the Club:

“I’m used to playing on the wing. I played there all of the years I was in England, however, if it’s the middle or the wing, the most important thing is that I play. This was not an easy game, but now we’ll rest and make sure we come into the next math ready.”

Maccabi Tel Aviv advanced to the second round of Europa League qualifying after defeating Gorica 1:0 for a 4:0 aggregate score after the two encounters. Yossi Benayoun scored the game’s only goal in his Yellow & Blue debut on an assist by Dor Peretz.

Following the match, Head Coach Shota Arveladze spoke to the Club’s Official website about the victory and more.

The Yellow & Blue received fine play by Man of the Match Dor Micha while Yossi Benayoun scored to help Maccabi advance to round number two where Kazakstan outfit Kairat Almaty will be waiting.

Head Coach Shota Arveladze made a couple of changes to the Starting XI that featured in last week’s game as Yossi Benayoun made his Yellow & Blue debut in place of winger Tal Ben Chaim while central defender Tal Ben Haim replaced Carlos Garcia who left the Club this past week. Predrag Rajikovic started in goal as Eitan Tibi played beside Ben Haim with Omri Ben Harush and Dor Peretz playing left and right defensive backs respectively. Gal Alberman who was wearing the captain’s armband took his usual defensive midfielder’s position with Nosa Igiebor and Haris Medunjanin also managing the center of the pitch. Along with Benayoun, Dor Micha and Orlando Sa provided the attack.

First Half

After ten minutes of back and forth play, Maccabi opened the scoring in the 10th minute as Benyoun wearing Number 51 scored his first goal in the Yellow & Blue. In his debut the veteran took advantage of a terrific passing play by Peretz and Micha to give the visitors a one goal lead. Five minutes later, Sa took a fabulous Micha pass on the left side and his low shot just grazed the right side post as Maccabi looked to double their output.

In the 21st minute Micha again found himself in the middle of the action as his fantastic pass to Peretz down the right side gave number 42 a fine chance but his effort was stopped by the keeper. Two minutes later Gorica had their first chance of the match but Kotnik’s shot went over the goal as the balance of the half was status quo and ended with Maccabi sporting a 1:0 advantage.

Second Half

Coach Arveladze made one substitution to begin the second half as Eden Ben Basat came on in favor of Sa. Gorica then had the first chance of half number two in the 52nd minute but Kapic’s top of the box effort was saved by Maccabi’s Serbian keeper to keep the score as is. Ben Basat took a 60th minute free kick that Micha almost tapped past Sorcan the Gorica keeper but the shot stopper was able to send it out for a corner kick.

In the 64th minute the Yellow & Blue made their second substitute of the match as Egor Filipenko made his Maccabi Tel Aviv debut coming on for Eitan Tibi. Medunjanin’s 79th minute corner kick was headed by Ben Basat over the goal as Maccabi continued to look to double their score. A minute later Wilson’s screamer for Gorica went over Rajikovic’s goal while right after that effort Macacbi’s number 4 again found Ben Basat’s head but the striker put the ball over the bar.

Benayoun fed Ben Basat with a gorgeous ball on the right side but number 9’s weak effort was pushed aside for a corner by the Gorica keeper Sorcan in the 85th minute. After Rajikovic awkwardly came out of his goal, Benayoun came to the rescue as number 51 cleared the ball off of the line with his head to keep the Serbian’s clean sheet intact as Maccabi Tel Aviv advanced to the second round of Europa League qualifying where they’ll face Kairat Almaty of Kazakstan on July 14th & 21st.

This Thursday, Maccabi Tel Aviv will visit the Nova Gorica Sports Park for the second leg of the first round Europa League qualifying tournament against ND Gorica to decide who will advance to round two. You’ll recall that last week, the Yellow & Blue defeated the Slovenian side 3:0 at the Netanya Stadium as Nosa Igiebor scored a brace and Orlando Sa added an additional goal in the win.

Prior to kicking off against each other, you’re invited to check out the following analysis of three key points from the first leg that were found in the stats sheet after the game and may help prepare you for the second match between the two clubs this evening.

Point #1: Throw-ins

The first Yellow & Blue goal against the Slovenians was scored in the 14th minute by Nosa Igiebor on a gorgeous shot that went by Sorcan and into the Gorica goal. But there’s more to see than just the Nigerian’s nice shot. The play began with a Maccabi throw-in that was right by the Club’s bench as you can see in the picture.

In modern football there are plenty of throw-ins that lead to immediate steals and then to a fast break counter attack. However, the Yellow & Blue were accurate on every one of their 20 throw-ins and in this case, Omri Ben Harush’s long throw-in to Orlando Sa was extremely effective. As the ball went to Sa, many Gorica players converged on the area he was in, allowing him to send the ball to where the opposition wasn’t. Igiebor was able to get by his man Kolenc and made sure to take advantage of the open area in front of him to score a fantastic goal.

Point #2: The Doors
Since both Yuval Shpungin and Eli Dasa were both unavailable, Dor Peretz played as the right defensive back. The youngster was able to play the role to perfection, especially when he went on the attack with Dor Micha. On the defensive side, Peretz felt right at home completing 13 successful defensive actions in the match in addition to 6 successful tackles, the most by any Maccabi or Gorica player.

On the offensive side, Peretz took part in plenty of the action on the right wing and his average position on the pitch was 10-meters deep into the Gorica territory. One of the players that Peretz worked well with was Dor Micha as the two combined together for 24 passes, the most of any other Maccabi players.

If we take a look at the third Maccabi goal, you can see how the two, by working together helped make the goal happen. As they exchanged passes, Peretz was stopped by the Gorica defenders, but Igibeor continued to go and score the 3rd goal. Micha had three passes into the key area and each one was successful.

Point #3: The Bosnian Anchor
Haris Medunjanin received a central role for the Yellow & Blue as Head Coach Shota Arveladze named his first official Starting XI and allowed Number 4 to manage the match. Other than the two central defenders, the midfielder made the most passes of any other Maccabi player with a total of 70/80 passes finding the correct address. What is really amazing is that 61 of his passes were on the attack going towards the opponent’s goal. Dor Micha, Dor Peretz and Nosa Igiebor were the ones who enjoyed the Bosnian’s distribution the most with each one receiving 10 passes from the midfielder.

Medunjanin, who is the all-time scoring leader of the players in the current Maccabi squad also had 10 passes into the key area with 6 of them reaching their intended destination.

The small details:

• Winger Tal Ben Chaim had 6 successful dribbles in the match at the Netanya Stadium
• Whoever steps into Carlos Garcia’s shoes will have to make up for his 24 successful defensive actions in the first leg
• Predrag Rajikovic had a quiet night as Gorica only managed four attempts on goal with two going over the mark and the other pair being stopped by the Serbian keeper