After the surprising loss to Hapoel Jerusalem in the previous round that took place before the national team break, Maccabi Haifa tonight (Saturday) hosted Maccabi Tel Aviv for the first game of the season and celebrated a 0:2 victory that showed once again how mature and full of character it is.
After 84 minutes of a fast-paced game, full of situations but without settling, Dean David, who came on as a substitute in the 71st minute, took advantage of a bad mistake by Saborit and scored the 0:1 in the 84th minute.
In extra time he added another goal, perhaps one of the biggest we've seen in recent years when he stunned Daniel Peretz with his heel.
"All the substitutions were good, Ali Muhammad also helped us a lot. I'm happy that the substitutions helped us win the game. I'm happy for Dean David, he went through a difficult time both on a personal and professional level. But as soon as we open up to him, he'll score in bunches, we know him ", Maccabi Haifa coach Barak Bacher concluded, "In the end we have a team and we need to adjust ourselves to what is there. Even in the positions on the wing he was in, he got into situations and just missed."
David celebrates with the crowd of Haifa, photo: Alan Shiver
Bacher added: "Justice has been done. We dominated in the first half as well. I'm glad we did it with great character. Every year we want to advance and it doesn't matter what happens in other teams. There is a very powerful process here and year after year this team gets stronger mentally and professionally. We tried to win the game against a team that was looking more for the result. We had to make adjustments because on the one hand the other team may not be purposeful, but very organized. We didn't prepare for a 5:4:1 diamond. You have to know how to press such a team with 3 brakes. In the second half we did the It's better and I'm happy that it worked out for us. Sometimes pressing a team with three brakes is not easy. To win a game like this you have to take risks and we did that and won."
Dean David himself said after the game with excitement: "It's an amazing feeling that we won today. Fortunately I came in well and scored after a not easy period. My friends help me every minute. Fortunately I came in and decided the game. I had difficult days. But I have friends who helped me luckily ".
Ivitch.
Disappointed but looking forward, photo: Maor Alxalsi
On the other side, Maccabi Tel Aviv obviously went down very disappointed. Their coach Vladimir Ivitch took responsibility for his team's loss and concluded: "Maccabi Haifa was better than us and deservedly won.
Sometimes you won't score from a safe position until after a mistake.
They created successful passing attacks, we'll see what went wrong today.
We wanted to win.
Sometimes things don't happen the way you plan, they were better and there are more games between us.
We need to understand what caused the loss."
Dor Peretz added about his coach: "Our game is not good enough. Maccabi Haifa dominated the game and showed superiority. Despite this, we reached several situations. The pain here is that it is in the last minutes and we have already seen that the game ended in a draw. We are moving forward, this season is still super long. For us, it is runs out".
The midfielder also added: "It happens that the team doesn't play well enough. This is a game against the national champion of the last two years. We have the tools to win, but we didn't do it well enough and unfortunately we came out losing. Zahavi? We are a complete team. A complete squad and 11 Players on the field. We need to help Eran, I'm sure he can lead us forward."
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