This coming Saturday the First Team will be getting ready for the Israeli Classico against Haifa on Sunday, but the fans can get their football fill on Saturday when the youth team, Maccabi “Shachar” Tel Aviv visits the Wolfson Training Facility to take on Hapoel Tel Aviv in a Derby matchup at 12:00.
Ziv Arie’s side has already experienced many types of games and his team knows exactly what the importance of this week’s Derby is: “Every coach including
myself likes to say the the Derby is just another game, but it isn’t just any other match. It may not be the First Team but nonetheless it’s still a Derby. There won’t be much difference in the preparations other than we will focus on Hapoel. Last year we took two big hits from the Derbies and it’s still on my mind. I’m positive the players will come into the match full force and whoever will concentrate on the small details will win.”
Arie’s team is still a way off from where he would like to see it: “I can’t deny that we may not be fighting for the title right now, which is something that the Maccabi Tel Aviv youth clubs always aim for. It sounds like a cliche but we are a young team and things take time, perhaps even longer than we thought. We had a nice winning streak that was broken by Raanana and this past Saturday we had a good win against Tobruk where we played much better, especially in the first half. We controlled the ball well and had a number of chances, but it still wasn’t an easy win. This may continue until our youngsters upfront improve game by game.”
