Despite a 0-3 victory over Maccabi Netanya, Maccabi Tel Aviv "Shachar" conceded the U19 Premier League title after two consecutive championship seasons
With the possibility of a third consecutive national Under-19 Premier League title still within reach, Maccabi Tel Aviv's Under-19s set out to play an away match at Maccabi Netanya in their penultimate match of the season. With four points separating them from league leaders Maccabi Haifa, Maccabi Tel Aviv "Shachar" were pinning their hopes on the latter's dropping points at their match against Ashdod FC this week in advance of a possible big showdown between the two top teams in the final match of the season next week. In the event, Maccabi Tel Aviv did their work – goals by defenders Guy Aviv and Shaun Goldberg in the first half and an own goal in the second sealed a 0-3 victory for second placed "Shachar". Unfortunately for the lads, Maccabi Haifa did their work too, beating Ashdod FC to maintain their four point advantage with just the one match remaining. After two consecutive championship seasons, Maccabi Tel Aviv's Under-19s will have to pass the championship trophy on to the new champions, Maccabi Haifa.
Head coach Amir Turgeman's charges came into the match on a run of six consecutive league victories that saw the gap at the top of the league table narrow to a mere four points, adding suspense to the last matches of the season. The game at Netanya was the last in a series of four away ties for "Shachar" and from the very start of the match they showed every intention of taking all three points from this match as well. With less than a quarter of an hour gone Guy Aviv had already put Maccabi Tel Aviv on the scoreboard with his fourth goal this season. Twenty minutes later it was defender Shaun Goldberg who uncharacteristically added Maccabi's second, also his personal second, giving his side a promising 0-2 lead at half time.
With just over five minutes gone after the restart, a Maccabi Netanya own goal put Maccabi Tel Aviv "Shachar" 0-3 up and ensured that the 2-2 draw in the last encounter between the two clubs would not be repeated. At that very moment, Ashdod FC equalised 2-2 against Maccabi Haifa, raising hopes that the title decider would indeed be played out next week between the two league giants at the Kiryat Shalom training grounds. But while "Shachar" held on to their lead at Netanya, Ashdod FC were not so determined and Maccabi Haifa struck again to go 3-2 up. And so it remained – despite Maccabi Tel Aviv's 0-3 win, Maccabi Haifa's victory earned them the championship and condemned next week's match to one of record only.
Line-up: Sahar Hason, Shachar Feban, Osher Abu, Shaun Goldberg, Dean Akafi, Yarden Pinto, Dor Peretz, Guy Cohen, Guy Aviv, Dor Jan, Lanre Kehinde
