Maccabi “Shachar” wanted to head home with 3-points following their Matchday 16 encounter against Beitar Tubruk along with getting back onto the winning track. However, Guy Tzarfati’s club came back disappointed after splitting the points.

“I don’t think we concentrated enough,” summed up Tzarfati. “I don’t want to come up with excuses but it was tough to play technical football on this pitch. When the opportunity presented itself, we had to score. When that didn’t happen, we also didn’t have a simple time dealing with deep passes. Our preparation was fine, but we weren’t sharp enough in the offensive zone and we had to score a goal.”

What needs to be improved:

“Everything we did in the Beitar Tubruk match was fine except for our finishing. We have to improve in this area and it has to be a point that we really work on. We will have to work more on finishing with the young players. Our job is to take the youngsters and teach them how to play under pressure. We’re working on exactly that.”

Prematch
The Under-19 squad came into Matchday 16 after falling to Kiryat Shemona 2:1 last week up north. Following that match, central defender Raani Hamza moved to Maccabi Shearayim of the Leumit League. Tomer Altman, Amit Rosenboim and Omer Kats were injured and unavailable for the contest, while Guy Shetach, Mahmoud Awesat and Netanel Peretz were included in Guy Tzarfati’s Starting XI.

First Half
Maccabi “Shachar” controlled the tempo of the match playing primarily in the midfield while looking for a way past the Tubruk defense. Netanel Peretz had a great chance in the 34th minute when he took the from ball 6 meters out, but his effort went over bar. Ron Zamir also took a stab at the Tubruk goal but missed the target. Near the end of the first half, Tubruk had a magnificent chance to take the lead as Sosa went in all alone on Hen Ozeri. However, the young Yellow & Blue keeper made a huge save as the ball went out for a corner.

Second Half
Tubruk had a number of counters at the start of the second half as Ozeri came up big again stoning Sosa from in close. In the 60th minute, Fadi Najar picked up a yellow card and four minutes later Guy Tzarfati made his first substitution as Eylon Almog replaced Or Dasa.

The insertion of Almog gave the Under-19’s new life as just two minutes after the striker came onto the pitch, he almost gave his side the lead, but the Tubruk keeper Ohayon made the stop sending the ball out for a corner. Almog again had a wonderful chance in the box but Ohayon made the save to keep the match goalless.

Amit Shapira was introduced in the 77th minute in favor of Awesat and Prince Thomas came on a bit later to try and find a winner which he almost did from 16-meters, but his chance went off of the left post as the match ended in a 0:0 draw. Next Saturday Maccabi “Shachar” will host Ironi Rishon Le’Zion Yehuda at the Ramle Stadium.

Beitar Turuk – Maccabi “Shachar” Tel Aviv, Tubruk, 12:00
Maccabi came up short last week in Kiryat Shemona falling 2:1 to the northern team and will now look to get back onto the winning track. Guy Tzarfati’s side will attempt to move out of 4th place on Matchday 16 of the Youth Ligat Ha’Al.

Beitar Tel Aviv/Ramle – Maccabi “Eli Fuchs” Tel Aviv, Ramle, 10:45
Alon Brumer’s squad has been playing extremely well and will look to continue their fine form after scoring 7 goals last Matchday. The young Yellow & Blue find themselves just just one point off of the top of the table where Maccabi “Moshe Dayan” Petach Tikva currently sit.

Bnei Yehuda “Grundman” Tel Aviv – Maccabi “Eldad” Tel Aviv, Shechuna HaTikva, 10:30
After losing their first match of the season last Matchday, the Under-15’s will be playing their “Match of the Season” against Bnei Yehuda in the Little Derby. The hosts are in first place with 34 points while Ori David’s side find themselves in second place with 32.

Maccabi “Ilan” Tel Aviv – Maccabi “Yehuda Partush” Petach Tikva, Kiryat Shalom 9:00
Amir Sofer’s crew come back from the break raring to go with a top of the table clash against their Petach Tikva counterparts who are just 2 points ahead of Maccabi “Ilan” as they sit in third place.

Prematch
Maccabi “Shachar” Tel Aviv visited Kiryat Shemona as they took on their northern counterpart on Matchday 15 of the Youth Ligat Ha’Al. The young Yellow & Blue came into the contest with a 2 match win streak and looked to take home another three points.

Guy Tzarfati had to make do without the injured Amit Rosenboim and Daniel Peretz who was with the National Team as Hen Ozeri and Noam Cohen both got the start.

First Half
Both sides played tentative football over the first quarter hour, but it would be the hosts who would take a 1:0 lead thanks to Rotem Hatuel in the 18th minute. Or Dasa attempted to send a number of deep balls to his teammates over the Kiryat Shemona defense that didn’t find their marks while counterattacks by Eylon Almog and Dor Galili missed the target as Maccabi “Shachar” went into the break down by a goal.

Second Half
Just four minutes into the second half, Dasa was able to get a deep ball into the box right to Almog who took a terrific shot that Kiryat Shemona keeper Daniel Banish was able to kick save right onto the feet of Dor Galili who scored the equalizer from in close.

However, in the 77th minute, Kiryat Shemona regained the lead on a counter thanks to Itzhak Lugassi. Tzarfati’s players tried to draw the Yellow & Blue even but to no avail coming up short 2:1 versus Kiryat Shemona as they will now get ready for next week’s encounter against Beitar Tubruk.

Over the last few years, sports science has become essential in providing information to plan, implement and monitor training programs in the field of football. This coming March, a brand new course will be launched in conjunction with the Maccabi Tel Aviv Sports Science Department and the Wingate Institute for Physical Education and Sports that will deal with training methodologies in modern football. The course which will be a total of 60 academic hours and will meet 12 times at Kiryat Shalom. Lecturers will include Dr. Antonio Dello Iacono, Course Coordinator, the Youth Department’s Performance Director Patrick van Leeuwen, Raymond Atteveld and other coaches from the department.

Registration for the course which begins on March 10th and will be held on Fridays between 09:30-14:30 is already open. In an interview with the Official Website, Dello Iacono discussed what awaits those who take part in the course.

What was the idea behind the course?
“This is something that I’ve wanted to do for a long time and it’s thanks to Patrick and the new work methods that have been implemented in the Youth Department which sped up the process of starting the course. We decided to not only touch on the theoretical side but also on the methodology of training along with the aspects of the professional, philosophical and tactical parts of the game.

Each class will be five academic hours and the course will be split up into three parts. The first will be in the classroom and will deal with the scientific and professional background which will include many practical examples. We will then move onto the pitch for part two where the Youth Department coaches will put what was learnt in the classroom into practice while the third part will be an open discussion, analysis of what was put into practice and a wrap up of both the theory and practical parts of the course.”

What requirements are necessary to enroll in the course?
“The criteria is that registrants must be football coaches and not a football counselor or group leader. They must have a professional background. A third year student who is a candidate for a physical education degree and has passed a test in scientific basics of physical fitness may register. A person without a background or experience may not register for the course because it will be taught at a very high professional level and we want the participants to be able to understand the course matter. Another goal further down the line is to expand the course to a year, but right now there will be 60 hours over 12 classes.”

What are the advantages of this course?
“The practical experience of the lecturers. Whether it’s a coach who was once a player, or a performance director who has managed both youth departments and first teams over the course of 15 years or one who has an academic background based on a tremendous amount of scientific research.”