Maccabi Haifa Worried After Home Loss Ahead of Liga Start Against Hapoel Ramat Gan

Maccabi Haifa suffered a 1-0 home defeat to Hapoel Jerusalem on Monday in a Toto Cup ranking match, marking their final test before the league opener against Hapoel Ramat Gan on Saturday. The team, coached by Barak Bachar, showed a lackluster performance with midfielder Kenji Hura continuing his mediocre form. Defensive midfielder Yarin Levi was the most threatening player for Haifa. Brazilian Pedro received a rare start and played 80 minutes, his longest since returning from injury. Bachar faces decisions on whether Pedro and Nigel Lonwijk will start against Ramat Gan. New signing Andrea Novakovic was again absent from the squad as the club works to loan out Peter Agba before registering the American-Serbian forward for the league. After the match, club officials acknowledged the poor display, stating, "It was not a good game, but our real test is on Saturday against Hapoel Ramat Gan. Things are not going smoothly; we are taking one step forward and two steps back. We need to maximize the squad's potential." Injured players Guy Melamed and Ali Mohamed, who missed the match due to minor injuries, are expected to return to full training ahead of the weekend fixture.