Maccabi Tel Aviv's Under-17s and Under-16s both registered victories, the Under-16s narrowed the gap at the top of the table
Already crowned champions, Maccabi Tel Aviv's Under-17s added to their victories on Saturday by beating bottom-of-table Hapoel Machane Yehuda by a whopping 18-0. Midfielder Yonatan Cohen lead the ranks with five goals, fellow midfielder Matan Hozaz added a hat-trick, three other players scored braces and there were four more individual efforts. Cohen's five goals puts him at the top of the league's goal-scoring table with 22, with striker Sohil Armeli close behind at 18 and Hozaz at 17. Head coach Ziv Arie's lads have just two matches left till the end of the regulation season and the start of the "Champion of Champions" competition that pits the top three clubs of the Northern and Southern national Under-17 Leagues against one another to determine the national champion.
Maccabi Tel Aviv's Under-16s are also playing the final matches of their season and hope to finish off on a positive note. Maccabi Tel Aviv "Eli Fuchs" already have one piece of silverware in their cabinet, the National Youth Cup, but the championship of the national Under-16 Premier League South has already gone to Maccabi Petach Tikva. On Saturday MTA's Under-16s played their penultimate match of the season, a difficult away tie against Bnei Yehuda, and came back from 2-1 down to win 2-4. Eilon Yerushalmi, Etai Aloni, Roi Tsarom and Tom Zguri all found the net for Maccabi as they held on to third place with a chance of climbing to second on the last day of the season.
Excitement is building in the last matchweeks in the national Under-15 Premier League Central Division as Maccabi Tel Aviv "Eldad" narrowed the gap at the top of the table to a mere five points with a narrow but precious 0-1 away win on Saturday at Hapoel Kiryat Ono, Roy Ronen the goalscorer. With league leaders Hapoel Tel Aviv having lost, Maccabi's Under-15s now have the five remaining matches of the season to close the gap altogether. Maccabi's Under-15 Team 2, placed fourth in the table, registered their sixth consecutive victory with a 1-3 away victory at Hapoel Ramat Gan and closed the gap on their nearest rivals to just a point. Lenny Aharon, Tal Sandrovitch and Or Dessa were the goal scorers.
Results for Maccabi's younger teams on Saturday were mixed, with the Under-14 Team South involved in a goalless draw in the derby against big city rivals Hapoel Tel Aviv and North losing a "little" derby against Bnei Yehuda 0-2. Under-13 North beat Beitar Jerusalem 3-1 and stayed top of the table while Under 13 South played out a 1-1 draw against Section Nes Tsiona.
