The World Cup is still underway, but tomorrow (Wednesday, 7:45 p.m.) Israeli football officially returns to activity after a short hiatus, and at Teddy Stadium, Beitar Jerusalem will host Kiryat Shmona for ninth place in the Toto Cup.
Beitar Jerusalem went into the World Cup break after a dramatic home win in the league over Bnei Sakhnin and before the game, coach Yossi Abouxis said: “We are returning to the official games, also in terms of training we worked very hard, we also had a rest. Of course, players worked on physical fitness, also on other things in preparation for the next games. Tomorrow’s game will be a good practice, and we want to return to the league and the cup in good condition. Even tomorrow, I expect that we will get back to business and that we will play in the same way as against Sakhnin.”
On Sunday, Beitar Jerusalem will compete against MS Kfar Kasem in the eighth round of the State Cup, and therefore Aboksis clarified: “We will keep players for Sunday as well. Because we haven’t played in a long time, this is a good preparation game for getting back into the fray. Normally there is a three week break, now it’s a month. It seems like a long time because of the World Cup, but we are in the middle of games. We worked hard, we had a formation night, we did things to keep everyone together. It’s unfortunate that he didn’t come, there’s a problem with the passport and it hurt our preparations a bit, but in terms of everything – rest, training and consolidation, we did a good job.”
Elie Medemon also spoke about the return from the break: “We missed a lot, we missed the madness, the crowd. I’m really happy that we’re coming back to Teddy tomorrow. During the break I was in the youth team, we had two games in Georgia, there was also some time off, training and also formation, tomorrow’s game is important for The preparation for the cup and the league. We are doing everything to do what is assigned to us in preparation for the next tasks.”
Estimated composition:
Itamar Israeli: Avishai Cohen, Uri Dahan, Or Zahavi, Max Grechkin: Oral Degani, Theresia Toma, Bar Cohen, Jordan Shua, Danilo Asperia: Yon Nikolaskau.