"Barda and Altman shared ahead of the start of the second round: "We will have to come at peak alertness and readiness"
Hapoel will face Kiryat Shmona this Saturday (13.12, 17:00) at the Netanya Stadium, for a match that will open the second round of the Winner League. The team’s head coach, Elyaniv Barda, and Omri Altman spoke ahead of the match.
"I don’t want to summarize the round, because it is only one step in the journey that Hapoel Tel Aviv is going through," the coach began. "Even though we were promoted, we are a team with many ambitions and a desire to be competitive. We are on the right track”.
Regarding the away record compared to home matches, he said: "We will need to put emphasis on the away matches and approach them with the same attitude we bring to home matches. From the first second the match begins, we must be focused, especially against an opponent like Kiryat Shmona”.
Barda referred to the opponent: "The first match of the season was tight. We followed them; there is a good team there with a strong attacking unit and players who can threaten us at any given moment. Especially since it’s an away match, we will want to improve our record, and we will have to come in the best possible way”.
"January? We played a good match last week, and we want to create continuity on Saturday," the coach said when asked about the upcoming transfer window. "I want to improve what we have, and of course if we can make certain adjustments along the way — we will. There is a team lifecycle that we work by, and at any moment we know what it needs”.
"It was sad and strange to go out to Bloomfield and see Gate 4–5 empty, without the cheering display. Football belongs to the fans; people want to come and enjoy the match and push the team they love. It’s a shame that sometimes the marketing of the product gets hurt by things around it”.
Omri Altman: "I am very happy with my situation and quite happy with the team’s situation. It’s clear to us that the rate of collecting points in away matches is not sufficient, but overall we, as a club and as a team, are on a positive upward progression - and want to aim higher. I hope the second round will be better than the first”.
"Kiryat Shmona is a very strong and stable team with an excellent coach”, he added. "We have a challenge, and that is to improve the away record. I am sure we will arrive in peak readiness and alertness and do what is required of us”.
"The situation pains me. As a child I used to go to stadiums and it was the best experience of my week. The attitude toward fans needs to change”.
