Everything is ready for the intriguing State Cup final between Hapoel Tel Aviv and Bnei Herzliya tonight (Thursday, 21:00) at Menora Mivtachim Hall. Prior to the match, the team coaches, Danny Franco and Oren Aharoni, spoke at a special press conference and shared their feelings before the fight. The journey Broadcast live here on the ONE website.
As you may recall, Hapoel Tel Aviv defeated Maccabi on the way to the finals, in which it completed 3 of 3 in the derby this season and also led to a shock at the opponent. Herzliya, for its part, has defeated Hapoel Holon and wants to continue the magical journey.
Danny Franco The Hapoel Tel Aviv coach said: “We have confidence in ourselves as a team, but this is a final game, it is a great privilege as Hapoel Tel Aviv to participate in this class. It’s a position that this club was very, very important to him to strive for, to play for a degree, I’m very happy that in our term we were able to get here, it’s already a great achievement in itself. This time we are not playing against names, but against a good team leading the league and not in vain. Oren and I are in the same class in the same class, so meeting here is already an exciting and historic thing for both of us. It will not be easy to recover from what was here in the semi-finals, but we will do it and it will be an experiential and enjoyable evening for everyone. “
On how to bring the players down to the ground: “Whether we succeeded or not managed to get the players down to the ground we will know after the game, but it is not easy. All season we see that we have big differences in ability between the big games and every other game in the league, unfortunately this is the situation but it is also human nature, alertness is not the same in all aspects and the difference is understandable. The wisdom is to know how to bring the best ability on any given evening, tomorrow for that matter it is a big game and if we knew how to get down from the hype of the semi-finals, beyond talking, sharpening, seeing, explaining, now we have to show that we have progressed and improved.
Does he feel that there has been pressure that has not existed since Hapoel Tel Aviv was established: Hard years. I know this a bit from my other periods at Hapoel Tel Aviv. “Of course now the feelings are stronger, but there is no place of pressure here but great pride in the team and confidence that she will do the best she can on the field, whatever the result, we have great pride in the team we built this year.”
Oren Aharoni, The Herzliya coach said: “Trying to maintain a normal routine and make normal preparations even though there is excitement and tension which is quite natural. Hapoel is a very experienced team, a coach who was in these positions, we will come to do our maximum and come after an ideal preparation. “
“Every team expects to connect as quickly as possible, does not think the location matters, but we feel we are in the right direction and doing things well. We have our falls as each group has at this point. It is one game, which needs to concentrate all the mental and physical effort to come to it as prepared as possible, to start it well. With the exception of Sean Dawson, we do not have players who have been in these positions, but we feel we are in a good direction. “
“It’s hard to say if experience is an advantage or a disadvantage, I think there is some particular advantage to experience, but it’s hard to say. We ourselves will do everything in terms of other things to reduce this gap called experience and we will come to do the maximum. “
How to lower the team to the ground after the big victory over Holon in the semifinals: “Obviously it has to be put behind. But these are things that are hard to predict, how we will really come as a team are things we can only see in the game. We tried to fax the team in the next game and not mess with what was and I hope we will succeed. “
Timur Bar, Hapoel Tel Aviv captain, said: “We are first of all very happy and excited to be in this class, it is a very important thing for the club, so of course this time it is even bigger and more significant. That was our goal, to play for a degree, this is the first time we are there so we are waiting for it. “
The feeling of not coming as an underdog: “I think we did not come inferior against either Jerusalem or Maccabi. Herzliya first place in the league so I do not think we have any reason to underestimate, the whole point of the cup is that it is one game and anything can happen. “The issue of favorites and underdogs is less important to us in these classes.”
On the desire to bring a trophy to Hapoel: “We talk a lot about dreams here and it’s quite a kind of dream from the first day I came here, but there is a long way to go. At the moment, all the thought should be about the game, which is going to be difficult against a very talented team. “
Yair Kravitz, Captain Herzliya, said: “This is a chill. Two years ago I came to see Jerusalem against Nahariya and I did not think that after two years I would be in this position, but I am happy that thanks to our results and effort from the beginning of the season we deserve to be in this position. We will play our game, play aggressively, click and see the rest of things. “
Does he think of the moment of the hoist: “It’s a dream, yes, but I’m only busy with one thing which is to win and the hoist comes after the victory, we will do everything to win.”
On the lack of experience in the team and Sean Dawson’s part in terms of leadership he said: “I think Sean is one of our experienced players so it is clear he will talk to the less experienced players but the advantage is that we are one team and we are one team, we will come prepared, if it is Sean who needs help “Or the team, we’re getting ready for it.”
