Dego on Juta's sending off: "It's frustrating, we need him against Maccabi Haifa"
The Hapoel Ramat Gan coach addressed the sending off of the defender who will miss the opening round, and spoke about a summer in which he added 20 new players. Watch: Was the team deprived twice?
Hapoel Ramat Gan ended their Monday evening with a 5:4 loss on penalties to Beitar Jerusalem after a dramatic 3:3 draw in regulation time. However, Messay Dego was left primarily frustrated by the sending off of Juta deep into stoppage time, which will rule him out of the match against Maccabi Haifa this Saturday at the start of the league campaign.
"Very disappointed, very frustrated," said Dego. "Even if we had won, in the end, it's the Toto Cup. This red card for Juta, wow. He is such an important player and we have Maccabi Haifa on Saturday. We needed him there, but what happened, happened."
In fact, it seems that Ramat Gan can feel aggrieved by two significant refereeing decisions. Eugene Ansah made it 1:2 for Beitar from an offside position that appeared quite clear, and in the absence of VAR, the goal was allowed. Deep in stoppage time, Juta committed a foul on Johnbosco Kalu and was sent off; while the contact itself was not in doubt, it is not certain that it occurred inside the box. Naal Odeh pointed to the penalty spot, and although Ziv Ben Shimol was stopped by Amit Reif, Nadav Markovitch scored from the rebound to make it 3:3 in the final seconds.
Regarding the major squad overhaul this summer, which saw no fewer than 20 new players join, the coach said:
"Our process started immediately after promotion, because we knew we had a lot of work. We replaced almost the entire squad, except for Asanka, Twito, and goalkeeper Amit Reif. Avi Yehiel gave us all the tools, and we were very patient. We played very good games in the Toto Cup and I hope that in the league it will look the same. I believe we will be a good team, but it will take some time. The choice of players was based on intensity, so that we could press when necessary. I want a brave team, but time will tell."
Finally, he spoke ahead of the meeting with Maccabi Haifa: "Three years have passed, and I have been through several clubs since I was there. Of course, there are good memories and I really love the club and the people there. But this is sports and I want to do the best I can and bring back points. The fact that they don't look good in the Toto Cup shouldn't confuse us."
