Bnei Yehuda's fourth win in a row increases the odds against relegation but also the pressure
Four consecutive victories for the bottom feeders of the Premier League has created a new dilemma for Bnei Yehuda. Whereas four weeks ago relegation was taken as a given, now the club is just three points away from salvation.
Saturday's match was a turning point for the new-look Bnei Yehuda. Interim coach Hezi Shirazi let the team know ahead of Saturday's win against Ashdod SC that his players held their fate in their own hands, and they responded in kind.
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It's almost as if once the team came to terms with and accepted its likely future of relegation, then all the performance anxiety dissipated and the level of play improved several notches.
"I told the players at first., 'play loosely, you've got nothing to lose,'" co-coach Ya'akov Asayeg said after the game. "The victories really have come so far because there hasn't been pressure."
But Saturday night was different. "This time it was impossible to deny the pressure was there," conceded Asayeg. "So I think the players deserve all the credit because even under pressure they managed to play very well and win."
Now Shirazi and co-coach Ya'akov Asayeg face a real dilemma. The surprising streak has revived Bnei Yehuda, but the more points the club amasses, the more that old familiar pressure is liable to return to its Tikva quarter home base in Tel Aviv.
"We're still not feeling the pressure," captain Assi Baldout said last week. "There's no doubt if we beat Ashdod, it'll come back, and that's natural. In that case we'll have to prove we can compete."
Success also breeds confidence
If, indeed, Bnei Yehuda is already feeling the pressure, there's also a new confidence not present earlier in the season. The team's French midfielder, Cedric Bardon, asserted, "We have players that can raise their game at the right moments. We believe now we can take care of business in the league."
Bardon added: "We can see ourselves definitely in the picture with the other clubs."
At the beginning of the season owners Hezi Magen and Moshe Damaio (along with then coach Nitzan Shirazi) built their expectations on the club's young players, but they couldn't take the pressure. The team kept failing to bring home points. Yet those same youngsters are playing a key role in the revival of the past month." Saturday was a case in point with 20-year-old Tamir Kahlon - on loan from Maccabi Tel Aviv - and Moshe Biton with only three full seasons behind him scoring for the Orangemen.
Magen, trying to hold down expectations, pointed out last week that victory would still leave the team in last place. He insists the change in fortunes involves the new coaching tandem. Maybe so, but now there's no denying it - survival in the Premier League is a definite possibility, and Bnei Yehuda has all week to let that new reality sink in. How the team responds will indicate just how far Magen and Asayeg have taken this club.
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