The crowd shouted: "Disgrace", Bakhar: "We break too quickly"
Maccabi Haifa fans booed the players at the end of the 3-0 loss to Kiryat Shmona - the team's second consecutive loss in the Toto Cup. The coach: "We will look different, unequivocally." Glazer on the injury: "At that moment I feared the worst."
The cries of "disgrace" heard from the stands at the final whistle clearly illustrated the situation of Maccabi Haifa. Three days after the loss in the derby to Hapoel Haifa, the "Greens" suffered another blow this evening (Tuesday) with a 3-0 defeat to Ironi Kiryat Shmona in the Toto Cup, remaining without points in the competition and deepening the sense of crisis even before the start of the season. The team led by Shay Barda completely dominated the first half and decided the game within 33 minutes. Niv Gabay, on loan from Maccabi Haifa, took advantage of a mistake by Nigel Hasselbaink to score the first in the 7th minute. Amadou Sagna doubled the lead in the 22nd minute after a serious misunderstanding between Wanderson Tsunami and Omri Glazer, who collided with each other, and Ariel Shertzki sealed the result with a wonderful shot from outside the box in the 33rd minute.
At the end, Maccabi Haifa players were met with harsh whistles from the fans, who also followed them with chants of "disgrace, disgrace" when they approached to thank the crowd. Barak Bakhar admitted that his team has many problems.
"We are learning. I don't want to sound cliché, but there are many conclusions from this game. We have many problems that I will not start listing. We are very soft and break too quickly, but one must know how to react. It is impossible to wake up every time in the second half," said the coach.
When asked if this is already a phenomenon, after two tough losses in three days, he replied: "Of course not, and we will do everything to change it." Regarding Omri Glazer's injury: "On the face of it, it looks okay, more of a blow and a scare, I hope he will be fine. He is an important player for us. The second goalkeeper, Alvin, put on a show and saved several goals; he entered in a difficult situation." Despite the worrying start to the season, the coach tried to project optimism ahead of the league opener: "We will look different, unequivocally. I know what is missing and I know that this is a preparation period. When there is no confidence, it looks less good, but we are not running away from work."
At the end, Glazer also addressed his injury: "At that moment, I feared the worst. He went into my knee directly, but now it is a bit better. We will do tests and God willing, it will be fine. At that moment I felt like everyone felt, in football a knee is very serious, but in the initial examination the findings were good. We will do an MRI and see."
On the other side, Shay Barda was very satisfied with his team's performance: "I am proud of the players, because in the first half there was only one team on the pitch. We scored three goals, and all three were the result of things we work on, such as pressure and opening defensive lines. We played against Maccabi Haifa and one must not be blinded by this result."
