Summary: Maccabi Tel Aviv - Hapoel Hadera 0:5 (Sport1)
Considerable progress has been made in the talks between Maccabi Tel Aviv and the coach who will replace Vladan Ivitch, and there is a reasonable chance that Barak Itzhaki will not have to go down to the grass and guide the team against MS.
Ashdod in the next round of the league.
The Yellows have reached the end of their search with two coaches, one of them Spanish, and for several days negotiations have been going on with the coach and his team, in order for them to land in Israel during the coming week.
Ivitch, who has been with Maccabi Tel Aviv in a hotel in the north since last night ahead of tonight's game (Saturday, 19:30 on Sport2) at Iruni Kiryat Shmona, is supposed to leave after the cup game against Bnei Sakhnin on Tuesday evening, unless the club lands the new coach first.
This will leave Maccabi Tel Aviv a total of four days until the match against Ashdod next Saturday, and in the meantime a coach should already be appointed for the team.
Barak Itzhaki will not be opposed to standing on the lines if he has to, but his and the club's ambition is not to use him as a coach as happened between the terms of Patrik van Leeuwen and Mladen Krastaich.
Since Maccabi Tel Aviv could not find a coach it wanted at the time and it took about a week to close the negotiations after it had already been decided on Karstaich, Itzhaki served as the team's coach for over a month.
The same happened between the firing of Shota Arvaldze and the appointment of Lito Vidigal, when Jordi Cruyff served as Maccabi Tel Aviv coach for 37 days.
This time they believe in Maccabi Tel Aviv that they will not need this time, and in the coming week the club will have a new training team, when Ivić and his men will move to Krasnodar at the same time.
Apparently this time, Barak Itzhaki will not have to stand on the lines (Photo: Barney Ardov)
Also yesterday and this morning at the hotel in the north, Maccabi Tel Aviv chose not to involve the players in everything that happens behind the scenes.
Yesterday the whole team with the coaching staff and the management arrived at the Rishon Lezion cemetery for the funeral of the father of the club member Shlomi Abramov.
Because of this, the training was postponed until the afternoon, and immediately after it the team left for a hotel in the north.
The feeling among the players is that this is Ivic's last league game, even though they know nothing officially, and even that the coach has been completely normal throughout the eight days since the first news of his expected departure to Krasnodar was published.
Maccabi Tel Aviv believes that even tonight, like against Hapoel Hadera last Saturday, the Ivitch storm will not have a negative effect: "We have experienced players who have been through a lot in football and they know that in the end, they are the ones who have to pull the club forward in any situation," the team said this morning.
"Even if this situation is not the most comfortable, when you go up to play on the grass, nothing goes through your mind except the desire to win. Besides, the preparation for the game was excellent as usual."
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continue as usual.
Maccabi Tel Aviv players (Photo: Ariel Shalom)
Enrique Saborit and Shahar Piven will be absent tonight due to suspensions.
Avi Ricken will miss the game due to injury.
Those who are supposed to start in the center of the defense are Nir Biton and Sharan Yeni, with Derrick Lucassen playing next to them.
As for Ricken's replacement, there are several options.
sport
Israeli soccer
Super League
Tags
Maccabi Tel Aviv in football
Vladan Ivic
