Category: News

Youth teams secure big wins, including Derby thrashing

Posted on

All three youth teams won on Saturday, with U17 registering a 4-0 home win over Hapoel Tel Aviv in their Derby. The youth team was still on a break while the national side competed in the winter tournament named for Gavri Levy.

Maccabi Tel Aviv “Oded” 4, Hapoel Tel Aviv 0: The U17 team bounced back from a midweek goalless draw against Kiryat Shmona and put on a free flowing display against their city rivals at Kiryat Shalom and move above them in the standings into second place in their division. Aner Oshmandi scored a hat trick and Dor Turjeman added the fourth in the emphatic win.

Hapoel Beersheba 0, Maccabi Tel Aviv “Eli Fuchs” 1: U16 team came back from Beersheba with the points and an eighth consecutive victory that keeps them at the top of the standings. Bar Lin scored the only goal as coach Assi Haber watched on.

Ness Ziona 0, Maccabi Tel Aviv “Eldad” 8: U15 were far more successful than the full team, who also played the same opponents, and look to continue their positive momentum.

Maccabi Hadera – MTA Girls 1:1

MTA U14S – Hapoel Katamon 6:2

MTA U13S – Hapoel Ramat Gan 3:1

Beitar Tubrok – MTA U13N 1:2

MTA U12S – Hapoel Tel Aviv 7:2

Maccabi Petah Tikva – MTA U12N 3:3

MTA U11N – MTA U11S 1:7

 

Tibi: We will have to learn from our mistakes

Posted on

Maccabi Tel Aviv central defender Eitan Tibi was part of the side that drew with Ness Ziona on Saturday. They are the first club to score against Maccabi this season in the league.

“We weren’t good enough today. There are games when you don’t play so well and you get the points but today we didn’t manage to do this.”

“Ness Ziona scored a first goal against us this season and we were unable to find any holes in their defence. We didn’t control the game and I’m sure that there are aspects that the coach will want to discuss with us,” Tibi said.

“The season is still long and we are nowhere near winning the title yet, we will have to learn from our mistakes and be sharper in upcoming games. It’s disappointing to concede a goal finally but clearly, it’s part of the game and we must look ahead now and forget what has happened.”

Ivic: Improvements are needed

Posted on

Maccabi Tel Aviv coach Vladimir Ivic spoke after the disappointing 1-1 draw with bottom side Ness Ziona on Saturday and said the side would need to improve in upcoming games.

“For sure, this is not a good result for us, we wanted to take all three points but we lost confidence in the second half.

“For sure, it’s not good for us. We wanted to take all three points but we lost confidence in the second half.”

He spoke about opponents who throw all their players behind the ball and make it difficult for Maccabi to develop attacks.

“We have had this kind of opponent in the past and it’s never easy against sides who like to close down their defence.”

He said he was not disappointed at conceding a goal was only natural and it had to happen at some point.

“It has happened now, and if it were not to be this game it would have happened at some point in the future. It is impossible to play for months without conceding a goal.”

Ness Ziona hold Maccabi to 1-1 draw

Posted on

Ness Ziona stunned Daniel Tenenbaum and Maccabi Tel Aviv at Bloomfield on Saturday and forced a 1-1 draw with their hosts and scored a first league goal against Maccabi net this season.

A match between the TASE Premier League leaders and the bottom team in the standings was far closer than the differences between the sides might have been on paper and indeed, Ness Ziona took the initiative and attacked from the outset and looked far from the underdogs. 

Indeed, they took the lead in the ninth minute of the match when Elad Shahaf struck a powerful shot in front of the posts from just outside the area and Tenenbaum’s goal was breached after 1,272 minutes of keeping a clean sheet.

The lead didn’t last long and two minutes later, Aron Schoenfeld equalised by slotting home from close in after Eylon Almog ran down the left byline and crossed a ball in along the goalmouth and the American-born player had the easiest of tap-ins.

Tenenbaum was tested once more in the 13th minute and had to make a diving save to prevent Maccabi conceding once more after another powerful shot in front of goal by Ofek Biton.

Omer Atzili almost gave Maccabi the lead in added time in the first half with a powerful shot that forced Ness Ziona goalkeeper Omri Glazer to dive to his left to keep the ball out.

Maccabi had several more chances in the second half, although a generally untidy game eventually ended in a result that was far more satisfactory for Ness Ziona than for Maccabi, who have now ended their last two games at Bloomfield in draws.

Historic stats ahead of Ness Ziona

Posted on

Maccabi Tel Aviv have played all 68 seasons in the Israeli top flight but for Ness Ziona, this is only the third season with the big boys.

The two clubs met in the starting fixture of this season’s TASE Premier League and Maccabi kicked off their campaign with a comfortable 2-0 away win at the Moshava Stadium in Petah Tikva.

Maccabi Tel Aviv have never dropped a point or lost a match to Ness Ziona over the years. In the distant past, as Maccabi Ness Ziona, the top club in the town in the early days of the league, Tel Aviv won 7-1 in December 1949. Maccabi Ness Ziona folded in March 1950 and all their subsequent games were determined as 3-0 defeats, including the one against Maccabi. Football Section Ness Ziona, an amalgamation of the town’s outfits and Maccabi Ness Ziona’s successors, were formed in 1955 and are the club currently in existence.

Maccabi have also played Ness Zion in the State Cup four times and have won all four ties.

Past and present players:

Two players have turned out for both outfits, Avraham Stemberg and the legendary Shiye Glazer.

Stemberg played for Ness Ziona in the 1960s, including the famed 1966-68 double season when they were in the top flight, and he moved to Maccabi in 1969-70 where he played for six seasons and won two league championship medals.

Glazer, one of Maccabi’s all-time greats where he played between 1945-1963, moved down to the second division towards the end of his career and played for Hapoel Kfar Sava, Beitar Netanya and Beitar Jerusalem. He finally retired after playing with Ness Ziona when they were in the top flight.

Of the current crop, Dor Galili and Osher Abu, who are Ness Ziona players, grew up in Maccabi’s youth setup and each has played once for the full team in the Toto Cup.

Starting the second phase:

For the 54th time, the second phase of the league is starting with a corresponding round to the opening of the season and on the 53 previous occasions that this has happened, Maccabi have notched 27 wins and 15 draws and have suffered 11 defeats.

Maccabi have met 21 different opponents at the start of the second phase and the most common opponents have been Maccabi Petah Tikva (seven times).

The biggest wins at the start of the second phase have been 5-0 wins over Hapoel Rishon Lezion in 1978-79 and Hapoel Acre in 2013-14. Both those seasons ended with Maccabi winning the league title.

This will be the third of five planned consecutive league games at Bloomfield. The longest number of consecutive games at Bloomfield was seven, in 1972-73. Four of those were home games and three were away fixtures. They were against Tel Aviv rivals, Beitar, Shimshon and Hapoel.

World Cup winner Dahlkemper visits girls’ academy

Posted on

Abby Dahlkemper, a member of the U.S. women’s World Cup winning squad, recently visited Maccabi Tel Aviv’s girls’ academy team at Kiryat Shalom where she had a chance to interact with the fledgling and enthusiastic players.

Dahlkemper was in Israel visiting her partner, first team player Aron Schoenfeld, and took time out to tell the girls about her own experiences and her career path since she started out in the game. The girls listened attentively and with excitement and then had the opportunity to grill one of the world’s leading players.

Youth academy head Guy Zuckerman presented Dahlkemper with a Maccabi team shirt as a memento of her visit.

Dahlkemper, 26, is a defender and plays for North Carolina Courage in the National Women’s Soccer League. She has made 53 appearances for the United States national team and played in the last World Cup final in France in which the United States beat the Netherlands 2-0 to lift the trophy for a fourth time.

Atzili: I’m happy to be back to full fitness

Posted on

Maccabi Tel Aviv forward Omer Atzili said at Thursday’s pre-match news conference ahead of Ness Ziona that he was pleased to be back.

“I feel good, particularly recently. There was a tentative period as I was recovering but I’m pleased it’s all behind me now and I relish every moment I’m on the pitch and that’ I am able to help my teammates.”

“It’s always hard to watch from the sidelines but I’m pleased the team was delivering wins and it has made it much easier to return. I was going to sleep dreaming of when I was going to be back.”

Atzili suffered a groin strain in August and has been out of action ever since. Earlier, he underwent a hernia operation in Germany and after the injury he feared the possibility of another operation, but said he was thankful this does not not appear to be necessary.

“I’m very pleased I didn’t need to have an operation. I feel good, also in terms of fitness and I hope to play my part.”

Every player who gets his chance must give 100 percent because if he won’t play well, he’ll be out for the next game, so we all try our hardest.”

In answer to a question about Maccabi’s goalless record so far, he said:

“We feel great with the record but we aren’t concentrating on that. We would like to hold on to it, although what is most important is that we are delivering results.”

“I hope we don’t have goals ruled out this week and that we will be able to win,” Atili said after last weekend Maccabi had four goals disallowed because of various infringements.