This coming Saturday, Maccabi Tel Aviv's youth teams will look to triumph in the second matchweek of their respective leagues

After Maccabi Tel Aviv's Youth Team opened their 2013/14 season campaigns in the middle of last week, last Saturday it was the turn of other youth squads in their respective leagues. Head coach Eliezer Ben Aharon's Under-17s played their first match in the Under-17 Premier League, a new league created through the restructuring of the league for that age group. Matchweek one saw them play at home against Bnei Sakhnin and start the season with a 1-0 victory courtesy of a goal on the hour mark by striker Raz Yitzhak. This Saturday they will be hosted by Ashdod FC in a tricky away tie. Maccabi's Under-16s, lead by former assistant Youth Team coach of the past three years, Erez Belfer, comprehensively beat the Young Jaffa side 7-0 in their first outing of the season. Or Dasa, Roy Ronen and Ofri Mashata all scored braces and Salam Al Abed added the seventh for the Under-16s, who this Saturday will play away to Ironi Kiryat Gat.  Head coach Shlomi Mitelka's Under-15s team 1 opened their campaign last Saturday with a 2-2 away draw at Beitar Jerusalem and this Saturday will host Bnei Yehuda. Maccabi's Under-15s team 2, who have been moved from the Central District League to the Sharon District, beat Hapoel Haifa 2-5 in their opening match and will also return home this Saturday to the Kiryat Shalom training ground to host Hapoel Kfar Saba on the synthetic pitch. The remaining ten teams in the Maccabi Tel Aviv Youth Division will open their campaigns on the 12^th of October.

Maccabi Tel Aviv Youth Division fixtures this Saturday September 28^th:

Under-19s: Maccabi Tel Aviv "Shachar" – Hapoel Ramat Gan (Kiryat Shalom, centre pitch, 11am)

Under-17s: Ashdod FC – Maccabi Tel Aviv "Oded" (Ashdod College, 11am)

Under 16s: Maccabi Tel Aviv "Eli Fuchs" – Ironi Kiryat Gat (Kiryat Shalom, synthetic pitch, 12.30pm)

Under-15s team 1: Maccabi Tel Aviv "Eldad" – Bnei Yehuda (Kiryat Shalom, synthetic pitch, 8.30am)

 Under-15s team 2: Hapoel Kfar Saba (Kiryat Shalom, 10.30am)  

 

A high-paced and intriguing away tie between Tel Aviv "Shachar" and Maccabi Haifa's Under-19s ended in a 3-2 defeat for Maccabi Tel Aviv

The second matchweek of the Youth Premier League saw Maccabi Tel Aviv "Shachar" hosted by Maccabi Haifa in what is rightly called "the match of the season". Only ten days ago Maccabi Tel Aviv's Under-19's, who ran second last season, beat double winners Maccabi Haifa 3-1 in the Youth League "Super Cup", and in the league's first matchweek they won 3-1 at home against Hapoel Ra'anana. Today's match, played at Maccabi Haifa's "Ketsef" training ground, also saw a flurry of goals, with a first half that ended with the sides drawn at 1-1 courtesy of "Shachar" defender Saar Kalderon's equaliser after Haifa took the lead on a Shuval Gozlan strike. In the second half the Haifa striker completed a brace before teammate Mica Lauta put the hosts in front 3-1. Close to the final whistle defender Ofek Barzani pulled one back for "Shachar" but it fell short of preventing his side from suffering their first defeat of the season.

The guests began the match with their goal under pressure as Shuval Gozlan early on drew a good save from "Shachar" keeper Sahar Hason. On 24 minutes, though, Hason was unable to get a glove on Gozlan's header from a Maccabi Haifa corner, putting the northerners in front 1-0. The deficit only served to energise the visitors in their attack and "Shachar" forward Dor Jan, who scored a brace against Maccabi Haifa in the "Super Cup", drew a good save from Haifa keeper Tal Bumshtein. The equaliser arrived on the half hour mark from left back Saar Kalderon, who caught Bumshtein outside his area to score from distance.

The second half started much as the first, with the visitors under pressure, and unfortunately just six minutes after the restart Shuval Gozlan scored his second goal of the match. Haifa continued to dominate the proceedings and some smart team play just after the hour resulted in a goal by Micha Lauta and a 3-1 Haifa advantage. "Shachar" head coach Ziv Arie's side were unable to carve out any further chances until twelve minutes from time, when substitute Ofek Barzani pulled one back when he caught the Haifa keeper far off his line and shot from distance into the net. But even the sending off of Maccabi Haifa's captain Yuval Yosipovic was of no avail to the Tel Aviv youngsters, who failed to find an equaliser and finished the match with their first loss of the 2013/14 season.

In a week's time, Maccabi Tel Aviv "Shachar" will attempt to recover from this first season loss as they host Hapoel Ramat Gan in the third matchweek of the Youth Premier League.

 

For the second consecutive year, Maccabi Tel Aviv's Youth Division held their goalkeeping tournament in recognition of the achievements of former Maccabi goalkeeping great, Avraham Bendori

The synthetic pitch at Maccabi Tel Aviv's Kiryat Shalom training ground played host today to 32 young and aspiring goalkeepers from four of Israel's leading football youth divisions. All of them took part in a special goalkeeping tournament held in honour of the achievements of Maccabi Tel Aviv and Israel goalkeeper Avraham Bendori, whose career coincided with some of the club's most successful years in the 1950's. Participating in the tournament were eight goalkeepers from the Under-15s to the Under-19s from the youth divisions of the clubs Bnei Yehuda, Beitar Jerusalem, Beitar Tubruk and, of course, Maccabi Tel Aviv.

The goalkeepers competed, both as their team's division and individually, in a variety of short matches. Points were awarded on a division basis, and the goalkeepers of the division collecting the highest number of points were declared winners. At the end of the tournament, the now 85 year-old Avraham Bendori, once the Israeli national goalkeeper and member of the national team management, himself made an appearance together with his family to participate in the ceremony of awarding the winners' cups. 

Maccabi Tel Aviv Youth Team head coach Arie Ziv's lads opened their 2013/14 campaign with a 3-1 home victory over Hapoel Ra'anana, with Daniel Gretz scoring the opener. Ra'anana's Mahmud Sachar levelled for the visitors before Dor Jan and Omri Perl put the match out of reach

Less than a week after winning the Youth League "Super Cup" by a 3-1 margin, Maccabi Tel Aviv "Shachar" repeated the feat against Hapoel Ra'anana in the opening matchweek of the Youth Premier League. After an uninspiring first half display that saw the teams drawn 1-1 at half time, Maccabi Youth Team head coach Arie Ziv's lads defied the heat and returned to form after the break, with forward Dor Jan returning the advantage to his side just after the restart and midfielder Omri Perl sealing the win close to the final whistle.

Maccabi's Under-19s dominated the opening moments of the match and translated that field advantage to a numerical advantage just after the quarter hour mark. Omri Perl broke down the right flank and crossed a ball towards the Ra'anana goalkeeper, where fellow midfielder Daniel Gretz got a toe to it and bundled it into the net. But the 1-0 advantage lasted just seven minutes as Ra'anana's Neev Katz sent a long ball past the entire Maccabi defence to forward Mahmud Sachar, who struck low into Maccabi keeper Sahar Hason's corner to even the score. The equaliser breathed new life into the guests' industry and their domination in midfield made them a constant threat until the half-time whistle. That threat included a shot by ex-"Shachar" youngster Sagi Dror, who found himself alone in front of goal facing Hason, who somehow saved his effort.

The restart saw a very different "Shachar" take the field and within ten minutes striker Dor Jan returned the advantage to Maccabi. Midfielder Dor Peretz, who came off the bench at half-time, floated a ball towards striker Amit Farhi in the area. The Ra'anana keeper came off his line but his parry bounced off his own defence enabling Jan to bring the ball down and slam it into the net off the crossbar. From that point on Maccabi was in complete control and five minutes from time a third goal was added to their total. Recovering from a missed chance just five minutes earlier, Omri Perl lunged to meet a cross by defender Guy Aviv and banged home from close range. In injury time Dor Peretz hit the opposition woodwork with a hard shot, but the final result remained unaltered.

The 3-1 victory over Hapoel Ra'anana saw Maccabi Tel Aviv "Shachar"'s 2013/14 campaign get off to a good start and leaves them sharing second spot in the Youth Premier League table with Ashdod FC. Their next match will see them squaring off against last season's league and Cup double winners Maccabi Haifa, whom they just defeated in the Youth League "Super Cup" last Wednesday. No doubt they'll be hoping to get the same result once again.

The new head coach of Maccabi Tel Aviv's Under-19s, Ziv Arie, will inaugurate his term this evening with the Youth League "Super Cup" against Maccabi Haifa: "I'm looking to combine method with results"

With new head coach Ziv Arie standing on the touchline, Maccabi Tel Aviv "Shachar" will officially kick off the 2013/14 season tonight with a "Champion of Champions" (Super Cup) match against Maccabi Haifa at the National Stadium in Ramat Gan at 7.35pm (free entrance). Amir Turgeman, who held the Under-19s coaching position for the past four years, has become Maccabi Tel Aviv's chief scout and now it is the turn of last year's Under-17 coach, Ziv Arie, to take up the reins in the Youth Team dugout. For the 41 year-old Arie, this is the latest step in his advance up the Maccabi Youth Division coaching ladder. Prior to his year with the Under-17s, Arie spent three years coaching the Under-16s: "I've been a football coach for almost sixteen years and with the exception of two years as the Youth Division director of football I've spent all my time with here at Maccabi coaching youth teams at every level".

Maccabi Tel Aviv "Shachar"'s match tonight against Maccabi Haifa marks the beginning of a brand new challenge for coach Arie: "Coaching the Under-19's is a different story altogether, but from a professional point of view I'm fully prepared. I know the Youth Division here inside out and there were no great surprises for me at my first training session with the lads. I hope the team will play the way I like to see them play, with pace and speed and clever combinations, and at the same time with tactical maturity and the ability to get results. This is my first season as Youth Team coach and I hope there won't be any surprises, but if there are we have a whole staff of professionals to help us face up to them".

The Youth Team squad underwent an entire face lift this season as most of the new members joined Arie from his former Under-17 squad: "The Youth Division's philosophy is to choose somewhat younger players with well-developed potential over somewhat older players who may be of help in the short term. We could have gone with more of the permitted "Over-19s" but we prefer a mix that includes more 17 year-olds and just a few 18 year-olds. As Youth Team squads go, this one is a bit on the young side but that won't affect our expectations in the least".

And so far the new coach is concerned, those expectations are clear: "We want to look like a senior team and I'd be delighted if some of the lads get called up for senior squad duty this season, that would be brilliant. Apart from that, we're in it for all the titles, no compromises, this is Maccabi Tel Aviv we're talking about. Obviously part of the Youth Team preparation is focused on winning titles, but not at the expense of the method. If we need to give a player more experience, or get a younger player with potential out on the pitch, we'll do it. And if decisions like that mean losing a match or two we won't celebrate but we'll stick to our principles and do our best to combine them with good results. If the method is wrong you won't win matches in the long run anyway and with the kids and the talent we have in the squad there's no reason we shouldn't be at the top and that's what we're going for".

So far tactics are concerned, Arie is trying to learn from the best: "With all due modesty I can say that with the Under-16s and 17s I coached the last few years the model has been Barcelona, and our main efforts were in trying to apply elements of passing the ball and pressing the opponent back. We may not be on their level but that was the guiding principle with certain adjustments". Well, the level may not be Barcelona but so far facilities are concerned, Arie is confident his team will have everything they need during the course of the season: "At Maccabi Tel Aviv we treat the kids like we treat the seniors and our facilities here are at least as good as those at the senior clubs in the second division. The club have also come to our aid and financed the introduction of the "Team System" to our training which is improving the players' physical fitness and we're already seeing the effects. We have full co-operation with the senior team, we're in constant touch with (senior team head coach) Paulo (Sousa) and (first team manager) Benny Tabak concerning our players".

After tonight's "Champion of Champions" match, Maccabi Tel Aviv "Shachar" will kick off their season in the Youth Premier League with a home tie next Tuesday September 17^th against Hapoel Ra'anana. After seeing his lads play a number of friendlies against other teams in the youth league, Arie gives his assessment of the state of play for the upcoming league season: "Friendlies aren't really a measure of a team across a whole season, but likely as not we'll be seeing the same teams at the top of the table as in the last few years. Maccabi Haifa of course will be tough opponents, they have a group of 17 year-olds with great quality and the "Over-19's" in their squad are also very talented. Apart from them, Beitar Tubruk or Maccabi Netanya may be looking at a good season, and Ashdod FC, they have some very good players as well".

 

Maccabi Tel Aviv's Under-19's, who ran second last season in the Youth Premier League, beat double winners Maccabi Haifa 3-1 in the "Super Cup" at Ramat Gan Stadium and collected their first title of the new season

With one week still to go before the start of the Youth Premier League, Maccabi Tel Aviv's Under-19s have already given the club reason to be proud by winning the Youth Division's first trophy of the new season, the "Super Cup". Under the leadership of new head coach Ziv Arie, Maccabi Tel Aviv "Shachar" beat last season's Youth League double winners Maccabi Haifa 3-1. The Youth League "Super Cup" is played between the previous season's league and Cup winners, but having won both last season, Maccabi Haifa faced last season's second place league finishers, Maccabi Tel Aviv. The match was played at the National Stadium in Ramat Gan in front of some 200 spectators, most of them showing yellow-and-blue colours, who came to give their support to the next generation of Maccabi Tel Aviv stars. Midfielder Daniel Gretz added a penalty to team captain Dor Jan's brace, sending the striker to the victors' podium to hoist the Cup handed to him by the director of the Israeli Football Association, Rotem Kemmer.

After some early probing of the opposition defences, "Shachar" created their first chance of the match after 13 minutes, and it was Dor Jan who converted it for a 1-0 advantage. With his back to goal, Jan collected a pass on the turn past his defender and struck hard into the opposition goal. At the other end of the pitch it was Maccabi Haifa striker Shuval Gozlan who lead the attack virtually single-handed and was halted twice in his efforts to take advantage of an excellent scoring opportunity.

At the halftime whistle that slim margin remained but just four minutes after the restart, "Shachar" midfielder Omri Perl was brought down in the area after successfully collecting a long pass. The resultant penalty was taken with aplomb by fellow midfielder Daniel Gretz and Maccabi Tel Aviv's advantage was doubled to 2-0. "Shachar" had been dominant throughout most of the match but after 66 minutes found themselves down to 10 men after defender Fiban Shachar, coming off the bench just seven minutes earlier, drew a straight red card for a foul just outside his own area. But the numerical disadvantage did little to alter the balance of play and on the 77^th minute Dor Jan added his second, and "Shachar"'s third, goal after a long pass from midfielder Eliel Peretz found him uncovered in the area to hammer in the final nail in Maccabi Haifa's coffin. Deep into injury time Shuval Gozlan rounded "Shachar" keeper Sahar Hason to pull one back for Maccabi Haifa, but it was far too little, far too late. After the final whistle it was Maccabi Tel Aviv's young stars who lifted the 2013/14 season's first trophy after a convincing victory over last season's Youth League double winners.

The Youth Premier League will kick off next Tuesday when Maccabi Tel Aviv "Shachar" host Hapoel Ra'anana on the main pitch at the Kiryat Shalom training complex. Click here to see the Youth Team's entire 2013/14 season fixture schedule.

 

This season the new "Team System" will be introduced to training to provide ongoing monitoring of Youth Team players' performances

Maccabi Tel Aviv's Under-19's preparations for the upcoming 2013/14 Youth Premier League season are in full swing, this year with a completely new training system. The "Team System", that went into effect last year in the senior squad, is now being applied at Maccabi Tel Aviv "Shachar". This system will enable the Youth Team's training staff to monitor players' performances at suitable training sessions at least twice a week during the course of the season.

The "Team System" passes information from an electronic microchip attached to a belt on the player's body to a computer programme that translates that information into statistical graphs. Dr Yaron ("Boki") Barak, in charge of physical fitness at Maccabi Tel Aviv's Youth Division, explains the purpose of the "Team System": "The objective of the system is to track every player's activity in order to determine if we in the coaching staff are meeting our targets and whether the player has been making the physical effort we expect of him. Every player has his own physical data, such as maximal pulse rate, maximal oxygen consumption and application level at maximal pulse rate. With the help of the system we can take samples of the player's data and in real time during the practice we can determine whether to lower or increase the player's exertions and whether to lengthen or shorten his breaks between them".

Maccabi Tel Aviv "Shachar" are the first Youth Team in Israel to use this system and Dr Barak explained the significance of the system for the young players: "It's a scientific device designed to prepare in optimal fashion Youth Team players for senior squad responsibilities. We are increasing our demands, adjusting them to higher levels of harder work than Youth Team players were accustomed to in the past. So far we've seen that the level of training has risen, the players understand that their activity is being monitored and this motivates them to push their capacities to the limit and improve their performances". 

 

Maccabi Tel Aviv's Under-19's, who placed second last season in the Israeli Youth Premier League, are preparing for a new season. Introducing the 2013/14 squad

In a little less than a fortnight Maccabi Tel Aviv's Youth Team will complete their preparations and officially kick off their 2013/14 season in Israel's Youth Premier League with a home tie against Hapoel Ra'anana. This season's preparations included a training camp in Holland and friendly matches here in Israel, the last of which was played yesterday (Tuesday) and resulted in an impressive 7-1 victory over Bnei Yehuda, with striker Amit Farhi scoring four goals! (striker Dor Jan and midfielders Yossi Salelich and Omri Perl provided the other three). In addition to some holdovers from the Maccabi Under-19 squad from last season, the team now in training and preparing to face up to the challenges of the new season is largely composed of new faces, youngsters who spent last season with the club's Under-17 teams. Leading the new squad will be head coach Ziv Arie, who carries on for his predecessor Amir Turgeman, who has become Maccabi Tel Aviv's chief scout after stewarding the Youth Team for the past four years.

For Arie, this will be his fifth year in the Maccabi Tel Aviv Youth Division after three seasons with the Under-16's and, last year, with the Under-17's. Under his stewardship, Maccabi's under 17's won their national League South championship by a whopping margin of 19 points. No less than 16 members of that squad have now followed their last season's head coach into the Under-19 Youth Team for the 2013/14 season. One of those youngsters is defender Guy Aviv, who began the 2012/13 campaign with the Under-17's but finished with the Youth Team squad and even managed to score four goals in the Youth Premier League.

In addition to Aviv, who had already scored 14 goals for the Under-17's, the rest of last season's other outstanding goal scorers – striker Yonatan Cohen (28), striker Sohil Armeli and midfielder Matan Hozaz (23 apiece) – will continue to lead Maccabi's Under-19 attack in the 2013/14 season. At their side will be a small block of eight players from last season's Youth Team, including captain Dor Jan, goalkeeper Sahar Hason and midfielders Daniel Gretz and Dor Peretz. The complete 27-man strong squad list also boasts the 17 year-old Congolese striker Mavis Chibote, who arrived at Maccabi last season and trained with the Under-17's, as well as defender Saar Kalderon and midfielder Omri Perl, both of whom returned from loan spells at other clubs.

From last season's Under-19 squad: Sahar Hason (g), Oliver Spring (d), Shaun Goldberg (d), Shachar Fiben (d), Daniel Gretz (m), Dor Peretz (m), Dor Jan (s), Amit Farhi (s)

From last season's Under-17 squad: Omri Glazer (g), Lee Machlev (g), Effi Tal (d), Omer Priov (d), Idan Yugav (d), Sheked Azulai (m), Dan Glazer (m), Eliel Peretz (m), Maxim Gretchkin (m), Yossi Salelich (m), Israel Damaka (m), Matan Hazoz (m), Yonatan Cohen (s), Sohil Armeli (s), Guy Aviv (d)

Click here to see the entire season 2013/14 Maccabi Tel Aviv Youth Team squad

Click here to see the season 2013/14 Youth Team fixture schedule

 

Maccabi Tel Aviv's Under-19s ended their pre-season tournament in Holland at the losing end of a penalty shoot-out against Danish Under-19s Odense

Maccabi Tel Aviv "Shachar" finished their pre-season international tournament in Holland with three draws and two losses, the second of which in a penalty shoot-out. On Saturday the Under-19s, who are holding a training camp in the Dutch town of Heemskerk near Amsterdam, entered the two day Broersen International Youth Selection Tournament of Under-19 teams. The eight participating teams were divided into two groups of four and "Shachar" shared their group with PAOK Thessaloniki and two teams from Holland, ADO Den Haag and the local amateur side A.D.O.'20.

In their first match the Under-19s drew 2-2 against A.D.O.'20, with goals from midfielder Omri Perl, who has just returned to Maccabi from a two year loan deal, and Congolese striker Mavis Chibote. Their second match was against the reserve team of ADO Den Haag but despite dominating the tie and being presented with a number of choice scoring opportunities, "Shachar" failed to find the net and the match ended in a goalless draw. Head coach Ziv Arie's lads entered their third match against PAOK needing a victory to advance to the semi-finals and a chance to compete for one of the top four places in the tournament. But despite goals by striker Sohil Armeli and midfielder Eliel Peretz, a 2-2 draw was the best the team could make of it, leaving them to compete for a place in the bottom four.

Their next opponents were the English side Bolton Wanderers, who played in the group stage against the Under-19s of the Dutch side AZ Alkmaar, Danish side Odense and the Slovakian FK Senica. The tie resulted in their first loss of the competition, 2-1 (Eliel Peretz scoring again for "Shachar") and saw Maccabi's Under-19s competing for the higher of the bottom two places in the tournament against Odense. But again, Omri Perl's second effort of the competition sufficed only for a 1-1 draw after 50 minutes and the Danes proved more effective from the penalty spot.

Until their expected return to Israel sometime during the week-end, Maccabi's Under 19s will continue training at their Dutch training camp. During that time they will play one more pre-season friendly on Wednesday against the Under-19s of the Dutch outfit Excelsior from Rotterdam.

 

Maccabi Tel Aviv’s Under-19s will set off to their training camp in Holland in the run up to the start of the 2013/14 season

Maccabi Tel Aviv “Shachar”s preparations for the new season are in full swing and the team have already played a number of pre-season friendlies here in Israel before heading out for their training camp in Holland. Last night, head coach Ziv Arie’s charges played the Under-19s of Hapoel Rishon Lezion, beating them 4-2 coutesy of individual goals by forwards Dor Jan and Suheil Armelli and a brace by midfielder Maxim Grechkin. In their previous pre-season friendly, "Shachar" beat Hapoel Beer Sheva at the Kiryat Shalom training ground 2-0 with goals by Suheil Armelli and fellow striker Jonathan Cohen, who last season scored 47 league goals between them while playing for Maccabi’s Under-17s.

Tomorrow (Thursday), the Under-19s' preparations for the new season will gain momentum as the team embark upon an 8-day training camp in the Dutch town of Heemskerk, 20 kilometres north of Amsterdam. The highlight of this training camp will be their participation in the Broersen International Youth Selection Tournament of Under-19 teams from eight different European countries. The teams have been divided into two groups, with Maccabi Tel Aviv “Shachar” playing PAOK Thessaloniki and two teams from Holland, ADO Den Haag and the local amateur side A.D.O.'20. The second group will consist of the Under-19s of English side Bolton, Slovakian side FK Senica, Dutch side AZ Alkmaar and Danish side Odense. The tournament will take place over two days, with games of 50 minutes each and the teams finishing first and second in each group advancing to the semi-finals.

Toward the end of the training camp, Maccabi Tel Aviv “Shachar” will play another friendly against the Under-19s from the Dutch side Excelsior from Rotterdam.  They will then return to Israel and continue to prepare for the opening of the Youth Premier League season on September 7^th starting with a home game against HaPoel Ra’anana.

Click here to see Maccabi Tel Aviv "Shachar"'s full season 2013/14 fixture schedule.