The Youth Division once again had an excellent week-end with wins in the league and in the advanced stages of the national Youth Cup Competition
The national Youth Cup Competitions are reaching their decisive stages and at the week-end teams of Maccabi Tel Aviv's Youth Division registered victories that carried them into more advanced stages. All of the matches at this stage of the competition are played at "Beit Hanivcharot" sport complex in Shfai'im, just outside Tel Aviv. On Saturday morning Maccabi Under-13 Team North, in the capable hands of head coach Adi Somech, beat Maccabi Netanya in the quarter finals by an impressive 4-0. Today they will face Hapoel Beer Sheva in the semis. Other Maccabi Youth Division teams already played their semi-final matches on Saturday and Sunday. The first of them to reach the finals were the Under-15s, Maccabi Tel Aviv "Eldad", who defeated Hapoel Petach Tikva by the convincing margin of 5-0. Roi Ronen scored a brace while Omer Lakau, Shai Golan and Ofer Mishta supplied the other three.
Yesterday head coach Leon Asraf's Under-14 Team South reached the finals in a tough match against Beitar Tubruk that finished 1-0 thanks to a goal from Eilon Almog. Under-12 Team North, coached ably by Asaf Propeta, beat Hapoel Ra'anana in a goalfest 9-5 that included a hat-trick by Ofir Sachayak and individual efforts by Rava Asayag, Yonatan Izan, Tomer Ya'acobi, Yoni Stuyanov, Guy Lehrer and Asaf Hershko. They'll face Hapoel Rishon Lezion in the finals. Under-11 Team North also guaranteed themselves a place in their Youth Cup finals by winning the derby against Hapoel Tel Aviv 6-4, twice coming from behind 3-0 and 4-2 from a brace by Tom Libov and goals from Yan Benbenishti, Yonatan Imberg, Omer Senior and Itai Freidman.
Maccabi Tel Aviv's teams in the Youth Division succeeded not only in cup competitions but in league matches as well. Saturday saw the Under-17s continue to lengthen their distance from the rest of the league pack with their 19th victory in 20 league matches, a whopping 6-0 against Hapoel Ramat Gan at home at the Kiryat Shalom training grounds. Striker Sohil Armeli continued his excellent run of form with a hat-trick with Maxim Gerchkin, Aliel Peretz and Matan Hozez adding on. Under-15 Team 2 also won impressively, 5-0 against Hapoel Kiryat Ono. Amit Cohen scored a brace while Tal Sandervich, Itai Fibnik and Omer Partuk finished off the scoring.
Finally, as is the custom before every senior team home match, three outstanding players from the Youth Division had the honour of handing the match ball to the referees at Saturday night's match against Hapoel Ramat Hasharon. On Saturday they were Tom Zgury from the Under-16s, Ofri Mashta from the Under-15s (Maccabi Tel Aviv "Eldad") and Yahali Ben Ari from the Under-11 Team North.
