Maccabi “Shachar” Tel Aviv faced FC Porto at Bloomfield Stadium on Matchday Four of the Champions League Youth League as Head Coach Ziv Arie’s side came up on the short end of a 2:1 score. Tomer Altman scored the lone Maccabi goal late in the first half as the young Yellow-and-Blue put on an admirable performance standing toe-to-toe with the Portuguese club throughout the match.

In the 11th minute the Yellow-and-Blue had a marvelous chance to get onto the scoresheet when Gavriel Kanichowsky went in all alone from the right side on the Porto ‘keeper Diogo Costa. However, his scintillating short-side shot was smartly pushed aside by Costa to keep the match scoreless.

Porto went on to take the lead in the 17th minute as Michael Morais sent a shot past a sprawling Ohayon who couldn’t get his fingertips on the ball to give the visitors a 1:0 lead. The visitors would double their lead in the 40th minute when Rui Pedro’s hard shot beat Ohayon but Maccabi would pull one back just minutes later. Tomer Altman cut the lead to 2:1 on an opportunity from the left side of the box as his shot bounced into the goal and past a diving Costa to the delight of the home crowd.

The Yellow-and-Blue would have a number of attempts in the second half to even up the score including a brilliant effort by Or Dasa but they couldn’t find the equalizer leaving the Under-19 side still in search of their first victory.

Maccabi “Shachar” Tel Aviv Starting Lineup: Ohayon, Zelikovic, B. Galili, Glazer, Altman, Almog (Durovic ’81), Haramati (Al-Awesat ’70), Vaturi, Grechkin, Kanichowsky, Shapira (Dasa ’60)

It’s been two years since I’ve been away from you. Two years I’ve been waking up at hours that are not normal and living in two time zones with my heart aching from missing you. Two years of Yellow-and-Blue through the TV screen with me getting more and more excited as each week passes by.

Suddenly, my living room replaces Bloomfield and on Matchday I’m frantic as people don’t understand why. Suddenly, I live in a country that plays “Soccer”, where people are still falling in love with the sport, but it’s still not “Football”.

And then the biggest prize of them all, the Champions League falls into my lap. Finally after 11 long years we’re back to where we began and where I started from. 11 years ago I made sure to see the likes of Bayern, Juventus and Ajax and then it hit me – I’m a 16 hour flight from Israel – Can I do it? Will I be able to find a way to meet up with Jose Mourinho and Iker Casillas?

The first match was Chelsea and thankfully that was easy enough. From coming home to Israel for a festive family meal on Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year to the flight to London to experience one of the greatest evenings in the history of the franchise at Stamford Bridge, it certainly isn’t any better than that. I didn’t make it to the home match against Kiev as I had a much bigger challenge ahead of me, the biggest since I left my home land; how to get to Porto for Matchday Three.

I started in Hong Kong where I needed to figure out an easy enough way to get to the city of wine and vineyards. First, there was a 13 hour flight to London, but that was only the appetizer. After an hour long layover, I took a two-and-a-half hour flight to Lisbon from London. Unfortunately my bag didn’t make it to Lisbon and I nearly missed my 3-hour train ride to Porto.

On Tuesday, October 20th at 16:00, 21 hours and 11 thousand kilometers later I arrived at my destination, wiped out. However, my exhaustion quickly disappeared when I got to the main square and I met up with thousands of Yellow-and-Blue diehards who summoned me to my calling as we began on our way to the Dragao Stadium for another Maccabi Champions League evening.

We didn’t score or collect a point and here we are yet again. In Israel on our way to Sammy Ofer Stadium. The final address in my GPS before I can go home. This journey has been a cross-world adventure following the club I love. When they step onto the pitch that familiar feeling comes back to life, because it doesn’t matter where I live and how far I am; “I’ll be wherever you go and right behind you Maccabi”. Even a half a world away.

Without a goal but with a lot of faith, the Maccabi players and their captain, Eran Zahavi will take to the pitch against Porto at Sammy Ofer Stadium, 21:45 just two weeks after falling to the Dragons in Portugal 2:0. Zahavi feels that the team is on the rise and that he and his teammates are in position to come away with a good result:

“The challenge that I have is that our opponent is better than us. When we were winning games no one asked if my position on the field was a problem. At the end of the day the coach will decide where I’ll play and I’ll do whatever I have to do in order to help my team.”

On the first three matches:

“I didn’t think that the Champions League would be difficult, I was sure that it would be. Just like the last time when I played in the competition it was hard to pick up points in the first round of matches. But just like the last time, the more we’ll play the better we will do and the results will come. I’m looking forward to it.”

His desire to score:

“Of course it’s bothering me and bothering every other player on the team. We all want to score and win on the grandest stage in the world. If we play well it will be easier for the players to show their qualities, pick up some points and give the fans a show because they deserve it.”

The mental side of the game after three defeats:

“It’s not fun to begin with three losses but we knew that this was a possibility since we are playing teams that are better than us. We’re not coming into the game with a defeatist approach but with an extremely positive one in order to give the best we can and to pick up some points.”

The second round of Champions League group stage matches will begin tomorrow night, Wednesday at Sammy Ofer Stadium in Haifa. Just prior to the final training session the Head Coach Slavisa Jokanovic summed up his club’s preparations:

“It’s true our goal is to always win the game that we are playing and we have another chance to do so tomorrow. We’ve improved in each game in this competition and I expect that we will show our best performance of far in the Champions League tomorrow night. Our target is always to try to win the game.”

Maccabi has gained experience over the first three matches:

“For many of our players it’s a new experience and they are beginning to learn how it is to play against top level European teams and for every small mistake you’ll pay a very high price. We will try to improve and compete at this level. Zahavi and Vermouth have played some games in the past but this year is totally different than what was then. We understand where we are and there are plenty of areas where we can all improve, myself and the players included.”

About tomorrow’s opponent:

“Porto comes into the game without a couple of players including Yacine Brahimi but they have some excellent players and I’m sure we will see a similar side to what we saw in Portugal. Now at home we have a chance to put on a good performance for our fans and to continue to improve ourselves.”

Nosa Igiebor has been injured for some time:

“It’s part of football and Nosa is an important player for us. We haven’t been able to use him for over a month. He’s close to being ready but it’s more than just one player. This is a team sport and I’m counting on the whole team.”

Eran Zahavi, the club’s striker:

“I have my striker right here in Eran Zahavi but we need to have more players in the box. This is the situation we are in and we will have to work with the squad that we have. I will keep working on finding the best solution for my team. Just like the great teams Manchester United and City all need more players so do we. Right now Eran is our striker and that’s the current situation.”

The Champions League is back. Following a two week break the tournament returns to Israel as Maccabi Tel Aviv will host Porto in the second round of matches beginning on Wednesday at 21:45 at Sammy Ofer Stadium in Haifa.

Maccabi fell to Porto 2:0 at the Estadio do Dragao on goals by Vincent Aboubakar and Yacine Brahimi with Miguel Layun assisting on the first goal of the match by Cameroonian Aboubakar. The terrific Mexican left back landed this evening in Israel and spoke exclusively to the Maccabi Tel Aviv Official Website prior to the return match at Sammy Ofer Stadium:

“Two weeks ago we had a good match at the Dragao. We knew that Maccabi has some good players and that they would come and play football and that’s exactly what they did. We were able to find a way to score and we knew that we’d need to get another goal to make sure we finished the game off. We played very well against Maccabi and that’s one of our goals in this competition.”

About the upcoming match in Israel:

“We know it’ll be hard in Maccabi’s home. We will have to continue to work hard just like we did in the first match. If we think that we are coming into an easy game then we won’t come away with the result that we want. It’s important that we’ll be focused for the match against Maccabi and that we take the three points.”