MACCABI TEL AVIV "ELDAD" HAVE WON THE TOURNAMENT "NIKE ISRAEL" AND WILL PARTICIPATE IN THE EUROPEAN TOURNAMENT IN AUSTRIA
Maccabi Tel Aviv's two Under-15 teams, "Eldad" and Team 2, yesterday participated in the traditional one-day "Nike Israel" tournament held in Ra'anana. The tournament was divided into a group stage, semi-finals and finals and matches were played in two halves of twenty minutes each. Maccabi Tel Aviv "Eldad" shared a group with Maccabi Netanya and Beitar Jerusalem while Team 2 played alongside Maccabi Haifa and Beitar Tubruk.
In their first match, "Eldad" defeated Maccabi Netanya 2-0 courtesy of goals from Eylon Almog and Neil Goldberg, younger brother of Maccabi Under-19 defender Shaun Goldberg. Neil also scored the winning, and only, goal in Eldad"'s second match, a 1-0 victory against Beitar Jerusalem. Maccabi's Team 2 also won both their group-stage matches, the first 1-0 against Maccabi Haifa courtesy of Prince Thomas and the second 2-0 against Beitar Tubruk, with Peleg Moshe and Guy Dahan the goalscorers.
In the semi-final stage, the two Maccabi Under-15 teams played one another, coincidentally for the second time in the space of two days. But in contrast to Saturday's quarter final Under-15 State Cup tie, which saw Team 2 advance to the semi-finals, this time it was Maccabi Tel Aviv "Eldad" that emerged victorious thanks to a lone goal by Dan Gross. The reward was a place in the tournament final, where their opponents were Hapoel Rishon Lezion. It was no walk in the park, but in the end here, too, it was Maccabi Tel Aviv "Eldad" on the winning end of a 2-1 victory. And here too it was Neil Goldberg whose brace handed Maccabi Tel Aviv "Eldad" the trophy and won him the title of the tournament's outstanding goalscorer with five goals in all.
The reward for Maccabi Tel Aviv "Eldad"s winning the tournament will be participation in the European "Nike" tournament that will be held this year in the Austrian capital Vienna starting on the first of May. "Eldad" head coach Shlomi Mitelka had this to say of his players' tournament success: "The youngsters went through a very taxing mental and physical experience. After losing on Saturday we managed to pull ourselves together and reach the top of a tournament like this, a really exceptional achievement so far we're concerned. The lads showed a lot of spirit, determination and character and in a tournament like this those are the things you need in order to win".
