Hapoel Haifa’s disappointing season received a final stamp this evening (Monday), when the team was defeated 4:1 by Maccabi Haifa, lost for the seventh time in a row in the derby and lost a chance to qualify for the top playoffs. The team that invested a lot in the squad and started the season with a rather impressive squad, was a huge disappointment and will have to settle for shuffling in the lower playoffs this year as well.
Roni Levy: “The goal was to reach the top playoffs at the beginning of the year, but during the season the goals change. We saw today that we are a team that is not worthy of the top playoffs. The first round was very bad. The construction of the squad, they said alone, was not good enough.
“Expectations? As a coach who came to the team in a certain situation, with one win in ten games – whoever dreamed of a top playoff is too big. Unfortunately, it is not good enough.
“We stabilized our defensive game, and you want to reduce the gaps from a talented team like Maccabi Haifa, and you want to enter well, but we entered as badly as we could. In a 2:0 situation so early we could have collapsed. Later in the game we started to stabilize a bit, but even then we were too exposed.
“I feel good in the club, I see that Yoav (Katz) has a desire to fix and improve, and if he fits with me, I will be happy. He is a good owner, he knows what to expect. Things unfolded step by step. I personally thought after a few games here that the team would struggle Against relegation. We were close to the red line. Being close to the top playoffs is the most we could get from this situation.”