A pair of Youth Department teams both featured in their respective State Cup Finals at Ramat Gan Stadium on Monday evening. The Under-11 North side lost in a penalty shootout to Maccabi while the U12 squad fell to Maccabi Petah Tikva as the two Yellow & Blue clubs finished their respective tournaments in second place. Prior to the games, a special ceremony was held where former players were honored including Ron Nachman, Menashe Shamonov, Moshe Schweitzer and Vicki Peretz as they accompanied the teams onto the pitch.
The pitch was divided into two halves for the competition at this age as both sides featured 7 players plus a keeper for two 35 minute halves.
Maccabi Haifa – Maccabi Tel Aviv North
The Under-11 team came up short against Maccabi Haifa in a penalty shootout after falling behind in the match but came back to draw even at 2:2. The Greens took the lead in the overtime period but the Yellow & Blue were able to tie the contest up as the game went into spot kicks from 11 meters. Maccabi missed twice as the Yellow & Blue ended the tournament in 2nd place.
Maccabi Petah Tikva – Maccabi Tel Aviv
The Under-12 side lost to Maccabi Petah Tikva 4:3. The Yellow & Blue took a 1:0 lead but Petah Tikva came back to take a 3:1 advantage. However, Maccabi showed a lot of character and came back to draw even at 3:3 before giving up the winning goal via a set piece to Petah Tikva.
