Beitar Jerusalem will be backing action on Tuesday night (20:00) at Teddy Stadium when they welcome in Hapoel Petach Tikva for the 3rd round of Championship Playoff matches as the yellow-and-black will look to pick up points and keep pace with table leaders Hapoel Beer Sheva. Head Coach Barak Itzhaki\u2019s side played to a dramatic 2-2 draw over the weekend down south against the Southern Reds as Beitar came back from a 2-0 deficit at the break as Omer Atzily and Timothy Muzie scored to split the points with the latter\u2019s goal coming in the 96th minute of the contest.<\/p>\n
With that, the matches will now be coming fast and furious over the course of the next few weeks with games being played every three or four days while each may determine who will bring home the league title. With that, Itzhaki knows that he will need to rotate his squad in order to keep them fresh in order to get the best out of each and every one of his players. <\/p>\n
Sometimes it will be the bench boss who will need to sit a player or two or three and use dog into his squad to find the appropriate replacement so that he keeps everyone on their toes and ready to go as the season heads into the stretch run. Other times Itzhaki won\u2019t have a choice and will need to find substitutions due to injuries, red cards or yellow card accumulation.<\/p>\n
In the case of the upcoming game against Petach Tikva, there will be some wholesale changes to the usual starting lineup due to the exact reasons mentioned earlier. The captain, Yarden Shua has a calf muscle injury and didn\u2019t complete the final training session and is doubtful for the match, Brayan Carabali is out due to yellow card accumulation while Boris Enow was sent off last game after being handed a pair of yellow cards and will also miss the clash.<\/p>\n
With that, Itzhaki will need to insert three other players into their places, which on the face looks like a number of big shoes or cleats to fill, but in reality having to rotate the lineup isn\u2019t the end of the world because with some many games coming up, the head coach would have to rest players anyways. Humans aren\u2019t robots just yet and they need to rest with game after game after game on the way. <\/p>\n
After Tuesday\u2019s match, Beitar will host Maccabi Tel Aviv on Saturday night, then head for a contest against Hapoel Tel Aviv at Bloomfield Stadium, from there it\u2019s Maccabi Haifa by the Carmel Mountain the following weekend and to top it off the next midweek, or two weeks from now Hapoel Beer Sheva comes to town. That\u2019s not an easy schedule by any stretch of the imagination as the season heads towards its conclusion.<\/p>\n
Some will say that the Petach Tikva game is the easiest of the bunch, but Itzhaki wanted no part of that when asked at the prematch press conference. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s no such thing as an easy game,\u201d the bench boss said. \u201cPrevious matches against them were very tough and every game is difficult, especially in the playoffs. Their players want to prove themselves at a full Teddy Stadium will be full. We need to focus on ourselves, but also give a lot of respect to our opponent. They\u2019re a good team and almost every top team dropped points against them. That says everything. So we need to come fully prepared, fully focused, play our football and do everything to take the three points.\u201d<\/p>\n
There are certainly no easy games and Timoti Muzie, the hero from the game at Hapoel Beer Sheva went into further detail about Petach Tikva, a team that he scored a hat-trick against back at Teddy Stadium in October.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s no such thing as \u2018they have nothing to play for\u2019. They\u2019re a football team, they got where they are on merit. They play good football and we\u2019ll approach this match the same way regardless. Maybe they have something to play for, maybe not, but we definitely do. We want those 3-points and we want to show good, attacking football. No matter who they have or what they do, that\u2019s the message.\u201d<\/p>\n
Itzhaki continued, \u201cLook, I think the results against them, the matches developed twice against Petah Tikva, both at Teddy and away show that it\u2019s not going to be an easy game. In the first match we struggled, especially in the first half. Then, with ten players, we managed to come back well.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cThe game in Petah Tikva was also difficult and we scored two late goals to win. You can\u2019t underestimate any team and think that because you\u2019re at home it\u2019ll be easy. Petach Tikva is a very well-coached team maybe one of the most well-organized in the league. You can see it on the pitch: they play good football with confidence. Teams that come without pressure can cause problems. So we need to come at least as prepared, maybe even more than we were against Beer Sheva.\u201d<\/p>\n
Muzie has been somewhat of a super-sub this season, but he has also had some fine moments including the three goals against Petach Tikva and a number of other crucial game changing moments including the winning goal against Maccabi Bnei Reineh back in January. However, there\u2019s a very good chance that he will be part of the Starting XI taking Shua\u2019s place. Gil Cohen will probably take Carabali\u2019s place while Alison Tavares could play in Enow\u2019s spot. There could also be other moves as well but as Itzhaki said we\u2019ll have to wait and see tomorrow as to who will be in the XI.<\/p>\n
All in all, it doesn\u2019t really matter who will play, if it\u2019s a regular, player off of the bench or someone who was not even dressed last game Muzie explained, \u201cThe main thing is that we do the job as a group. Everyone who comes on, whoever starts, has to give their part, whether it\u2019s someone from the squad or even someone outside it. Everyone needs to contribute. That unity we\u2019ve been building for a long time is very important to us.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need the whole squad,\u201d Itzhaki harkened. \u201cThere\u2019s a series of games in a short time and that\u2019s going to be a heavy load: Saturday, Tuesday, Saturday, midweek again. So we\u2019ll need everyone fit. I\u2019m happy we have players who can start or come off the bench and make an impact. In the next eight matches, we\u2019ll need everyone ready. We need to keep players healthy, avoid suspensions and keep those who play less in good condition so they\u2019re ready when needed.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cRegarding players coming off the bench, I don\u2019t label anyone as a \u201cjoker\u201d to only use them from the bench. I choose the lineup after a lot of thought. It depends on many factors. It just happened that Timo often comes off the bench and makes an impact and that\u2019s great. But if he needs to start, he will start,\u201d the head coach concluded.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Beitar Jerusalem will be backing action on Tuesday night (20:00) at Teddy Stadium when they welcome in Hapoel Petach Tikva for the 3rd round of Championship Playoff matches as the yellow-and-black will look to pick up points and keep pace with table leaders Hapoel Beer Sheva. Head Coach Barak Itzhaki\u2019s side played to a dramatic […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":177278,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[55],"class_list":["post-177276","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-football-israel-2","tag-beitar-jerusalem","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"yoast_head":"\n