Moving away from the dream. After starting the top playoffs on the right foot with a victory over Hapoel Jerusalem, Hapoel Beer Sheva came into this season’s game knowing that a loss would almost end the championship fight and failed in its mission. Eliniv Barda’s team lost last night (Saturday) 1:0 to Maccabi Haifa in a particularly stormy and hot match, when this is the third loss of the season for the champions and it leaves them seven points away from the top.
The medical team hoped that Shay Elias’ injury was not as serious as they thought, but the club announced that the midfielder is suffering from a torn posterior cruciate ligament and meniscus and will begin the process of rehabilitation with the medical team. The player was severely relieved by Josh Cohen, he cried for long minutes and took the injury very hard. “Shay is a strong guy,” said the group.
Afterwards, the midfielder shared: “I was waiting for this game and I prepared for it in the best way. It is impossible to explain what it is for an athlete to reach this level and want to give everything, give 200% of yourself and make the crowd happy. In one moment you feel pain that you have never felt in your life. The adrenaline and the desire to play push you to the edge and you try to ignore it. As much as I tried to continue doing what I love most, I couldn’t anymore.”
“Today after the test, I found out that the fear came true, a tear in the posterior cruciate ligament and meniscus. Expect a difficult period of rehabilitation and especially missing what I love most in the world, but grow and come back stronger even from such trials. Thank you all for the love and support, it goes without saying. I love you, I will come back stronger.”
In the capital of the Negev, they also commented on the game: “There is nothing more frustrating than this. You plan so much and already at the beginning Elias’ injury disrupted the game plan. Despite this, we continued to try and try to score, but we did not succeed, all the credit goes to the players, but in the end the quality probably prevailed. You can’t take a championship and lose three times in the same season to a team that competes with you for the title, it’s impossible, but we won’t give up and we’ll fight as long as the chance exists.”
Team coach Eliniv Berda who was upset at the end threw all his offensive tools in the second half and it still didn’t help his team put the ball in the net. Breda was overall satisfied with the attitude and tactical ability of his trainees, but he also knows inside that the difference against Maccabi Haifa is the pressure and the ability to take advantage of situations or to win effectively such a season game. “A champion needs to know how to win games like this, we don’t have enough quality and strength from the beginning of the season,” said an official in the system.
The painful loss for the second time this season in Sami Ofer again caused a loss of control at the end of the game and many complaints mainly against Oral Greenfeld. Eliniv Barda and Maor Malikson were furious with the referee after the final whistle and listed the mistakes they claimed throughout the game, this was at the same time as a big riot that took place between their players and the Maccabi Haifa players and its staff members.
As before the game fans tried to warn on social networks against the placement of Oral Greenfeld, hard claims were made by the people of Beer Sheva as early as halftime. Eliniv Barda and his bench did not like Greenfeld’s leniency towards the Maccabi Haifa players, in many offenses that were defined in Beer Sheva as provocations.
“It can’t be that Sherry is slapping Vitor that not long ago a Beitar Jerusalem player received a straight red for less than that. Atzili drops Gordana without a ball and Vitor gets elbowed twice and there is not even one yellow card, for dessert in the last attack Gershon stopped Vitor with a foul that was expectedly not seen by the referee. It’s not just Greenfeld’s extremely negative statistics against us,” said a source in the group.
Be’er Sheva rejects the claims that the analyst Avihai Khalif created a commotion and confronted Guy Weisinger, on the other hand they claimed harsh curses in the technical area against players led by Ayad Abu Abid and harsh growls towards Eugene Ansa during the game and in the warm-up. One of the fans was caught on camera shouting at Ansa: “Ansa, come get a banana.” Maccabi Haifa responded to the allegations: “Regarding the fan who called Ansa, it is a disgrace that we will find and kick him permanently. He does not represent the Maccabi Haifa fans and will not be a part of us. It is appropriate that they also condemn the behavior of their bench man, who slapped the goalkeeping coach.”
Hapoel Be’er Sheva admits that probably the significant difference from Maccabi Haifa is the quality in the last action. The Reds got into quite a few situations throughout the game and didn’t know what to do with the ball, or made bad decisions. “Their finishing habit is better, no matter how we turn it around, instead of going into the half with a lead, we went behind,” said the club.
After a period in which the defensive ability was excellent with two goals in the last nine games, in Be’er Sheva they were disappointed with the softness of Maccabi Haifa’s advantage goal: “We gave all the emphasis and warned Piero who scored the penalty against us once, it is a goal that is not typical at the most important moment of the season,” said the team .
Eliniv Breda doesn’t have too much time to continue thinking about last night’s loss and in two days he has an equally difficult game against the black sheep, MS. Ashdod. Ramsey Spori, who returned to the squad after recovering from orthoscopic surgery, may get more significant minutes and possibly start, as well as Dor Micah. The defender Ayad Abu Abid will continue to be absent due to an abdominal muscle injury.