Beitar Jerusalem and Head Coach Almog Cohen certainly got the proverbial monkey off of their backs with a 1-0 win over Bnei Sakhnin last week at Doha Stadium up in the Galilee. After an 0-2 start to the season, the yellow-and-black felt pressure like they hadn’t felt in quite some time as humiliating losses to Maccabi Netanya and Hapoel Tel Aviv left Cohen and his squad shell shocked.

In fact, they were so stunned that owner Barak Abramov had to come to the post-match presser conference at Bloomfield Stadium following the Reds’s dismantling of his team to calm the waters. Both Cohen and Omer Atzily said that the Sakhnin match was going to be a must win and that’s what they did when Eugene Ansah scored the lone goal of the contest in the second half to give Beitar the 3-points as a huge weight was lifted off of the entire team’s shoulders.

“To be honest, a lot of relief from that win for everybody, not necessarily just me,” Ansah said ahead of Tuesday night’s clash against Maccabi Petach Tikva back at their home away from home in Bloomfield Stadium. “For the club, for the fans, for the technical team, for the players. We are very, very happy for this win and looking forward to tomorrow,” the first year Beitar forward added.

With the relief of a win in his back pocket, Cohen can now begin to focus on collecting points and he has a pair of games coming up this week that have to be wins, he really has no choice if Beitar is to challenge for the league title after dropping their opening two matches. Maccabi Petach Tikva is a newly promoted side while Hapoel Haifa, their next opponent on Saturday night is also a team that Beitar should be able to walk away from with a victory.

After a lengthy international break of 3 weeks, they’ll face the other newcomer in Hapoel Ramat Gan, so the stage is set for Cohen to make sure to bag the points now and chalk up potentially four wins in a row.

Of course, that’s much, much easier said than done.

Man or in this case Beitar plans and God laughs.

However, the truth of the matter is, Beitar really, really needs to win these games if they want to make sure they are in the hunt because the competition this season at the top of the table is good, very good and the yellow-and-black will want to make sure they don’t get left behind.

The slow start is something that Beitar has unfortunately been used to Cohen explained, “We understood that we had done well in Europe and came into the league with this kind of vibe that everything was okay. But that’s part of football. In the two years that I’ve been here, we’ve had some kind of setback at the beginning of the season. The first season it was a tough loss at Tiberias and last year it was a brutal defeat at Hapoel Tel Aviv. So hopefully this year we’ll know how to come out of it.”

Last season, after the Hapoel Tel Aviv loss, Beitar brought in Luka Gadrani who was an absolute game changer for the club as the central defender raised the level of play of not only the likes of Brayan Carabali and the backline but the entire team as they ran off a slew of wins to eventually put them in first place.

This year, Beitar has brought in Alexis Serna from Colombia who Cohen is hoping will also be a real asset to the team and take the yellow-and-black to the next level.

“He’s a central defender who played last season at Independiente de Medellin. He’s a player who brings intensity, strength and a very big physical presence as he’s 1.85 meters tall, so he has good size. He gives us a lot of physicality in the middle, which is what we were looking for. We’ll integrate him into the lineup as much as possible.”

“What really made him the player we wanted was the combination of his physical power and his technique. His transition game is very strong and I hope our fans will get to see him and welcome him the way they know how to welcome foreign players. Hopefully, he’ll flourish here with us.”

Serna should be a real help to Boris Enow and the other midfielders and will also be comfortable as Carabali is also from Colombia. As for when he will make his debut, Cohen said he is already is game shape, “I don’t know if he’s at the level to start, but we also won’t risk him because we another game this week on Saturday night against Hapoel Haifa. There’s a good chance he’ll be a part of the squad and play in that game.”

One of the key players that Cohen would like to count on is captain Yarden Shua, but he has been trying to overcome an injury which has set him back some and for the time being Beitar would benefit more for him to come off of the bench and not be a part of the starting lineup.

“I think last time we pushed Yarden too quickly,” Cohen explained. “Then he kept coming back and getting injured, coming back and getting injured. I think now he’s training more regularly. He completed, I believe, his first full training session this week. We know how important Yarden is to the team. If, God willing, we want to be a strong and good team, then Yarden needs to be at the peak of his fitness. But he also needs to be healthy. So we want to protect him and gradually give him more and more minutes, so that he’ll be able to play as many minutes as possible. That’s the only answer.”

Adi Yona who has been out since last season will be part of the squad and should be available to play which is a very big plus for Cohen, “Yes, we’re also getting Yona back. Yona is a very, very important player for us. I personally really like his style, the player he is and his quiet personality, but he’s a leader through his actions. So I’m very happy to have Yona back in the squad.”

While Cohen and Beitar will be trying to put out the best team in order to take the win against Maccabi Petach Tikva, their head coach Ziv Arie has always been one who has caused issues for the yellow-and-black, especially when he was leading Hapoel Jerusalem.

“His teams are very stubborn and very difficult to play against, but we’re focusing on ourselves. We want to continue what we started against Sakhnin, our defensive transition needs to be stronger and our defense needs to be more precise. That’s the emphasis we’ve been working on.”

Ansah also shared his thoughts on Petach Tikva, “I know Ziv as I worked with him in Ramle. That was my first season in Israel and he’s a very tactical coach and a very, very competitive coach. Personally, I know him. I know him also in the league. Everybody is looking forward to the game and we want to work on the things that we are doing since the beginning of the season. I’m looking forward to just going out there to get some points.”

Points are no question the name of the game and with what should be winnable games coming up for Beitar, the points collected now will no question help them get back into the championship race. But Cohen doesn’t want to look any further than the game against Petach Tikva.

“Obviously, with our home crowd, we want to get them going and have them behind us in full force. So I’m sure that, God willing, we’ll put in a good performance and win this game. But I’m only looking at tomorrow’s game. The game on Saturday night isn’t on our minds right now. As I said before Sakhnin, that was the game that we had to win. God willing, we will win the game on Tuesday and I believe that we will do so.”