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.
