After drawing level in both regulation and extra time, Maccabi Tel Aviv "Oded" won a penalty shoot-out with Bnei Yehuda to reach the prestigious Under-17 State Cup finals
Maccabi Tel Aviv's Under-17s today (Wednesday) secured their place in the prestigious State Cup finals after a dramatic win against Bnei Yehuda at the National Stadium in Ramat Gan. Head coach Eliezer Ben Aharon's squad earned that victory the hard way, coming from behind to equalise twice, once 1-1 in the regulation 80 minutes and a second time 2-2 after twenty minutes of time added on, and subsequently winning the resultant penalty shoot-out 4-3.
The match started with Maccabi's municipal neighbours Bnei Yehuda in the ascendancy, scoring after only seven minutes. Despite the efforts by Itay Aloni and Ben Shugal to get "Oded" back into the match, the halftime whistle went with Maccabi's Under-17s still trailing 0-1. After the restart, Maccabi Tel Aviv "Oded" redoubled their efforts and in the opening moments it was once again Itay Aloni with a strong curling shot that this time found its target to bring the tie level at 1-1. Ten minutes into the second half Maccabi had two back-to-back golden opportunities to complete the turnaround, but neither Tomer Altman nor Omri Haramati succeeded in converting the excellent chances presented to them. In the dying moments of regulation time it fell to Dor Galili to settle the tie in Maccabi's favour, but his close range effort sailed over the net sending the match into twenty minutes of extra time.
"Oded" dominated the first ten minutes but at the start of the second period it was Bnei Yehuda's Yoav Nimni who put his side ahead 1-2 with a powerful strike that found the net, leaving Maccabi less than ten minutes to avoid exiting the competition altogether. But much like in their league tie played earlier in the season, where Bnei Yehuda also lead 1-2 until a Maccabi equaliser in the final moments, yesterday too "Oded" rose to the challenge, specifically Raz Itzhak, who rose to a high ball to release a powerful header that sent the tie into a penalty shoot-out. For Maccabi Itay Aloni, Raz Itzhak and Omri Haramati all found the target with their penalties, with only Rany Hamzey missing his. "Oded" keeper Haviv Ohayon for his part saved one of Bnei Yehuda's penalties and saw a second effort sail over his crossbar before stepping up himself to settle the score at 4-3, sparking off a wave of celebrations among his Under-17 teammates.
"Oded"'s rivals in the State Cup final, to be played at the end of this month, will be Maccabi Haifa, who won their semi-final encounter with Hapoel Beer Sheva.
