Maccabi's U19s and U17s both come up trumps at international tournament in Holland
Maccabi Tel Aviv "Shachar" and Maccabi Tel Aviv "Oded" both registered impressive pre-season results by winning separate international tournaments in Holland. The two teams are spending the week at a joint training camp in the town of Heemskerk near Amsterdam, the first part of which saw them both compete in two-day competitions with seven other teams of their age group, mostly from Europe but also from India, Japan and Panana.
The Under-19s started the group stage of their tournament on the right foot, in this case striker Mavis Chibote's, as they defeated Slovakian side FK Senica 1-0. Yesterday they played the second of their three 50-minute group stage matches against Dutch side ADO Den Haag and won 2-0 courtesy of a brace by striker Yonatan Cohen, already guaranteeing their place in the semi-finals. The question remained who would finish first in the group, Maccabi or Danish side Brondby IF. The answer came in the form of goals by Yossi Soleleich and Mavis Chibote (his second in three matches) as the Danes settled for second best.
This morning (Sunday) on the tournament's second day, head coach Ziv Arie's "Shachar" faced local amateur football club ADO '20 and impressed once again with an easily earned 3-0 win, their fourth consecutive clean sheet of the tournament. Matan Hozez, Gabriel Kanikovsky and, again, Yonatan Cohen were "Shachar"'s goalscorers. The final set Maccabi's Under-19s up once again against Brondby and Ziv Arie's lads carried on where they left off in the two teams' group-stage encounter. Mavis Chibote was on target once again but this time round he was joined by midfielder Sohil Armeli in producing a second 2-0 result. Matan Hozez turned provider for both of Maccabi's goals. "Shachar"'s Haviv Ohayon received the gong as the tournament's outstanding goalkeeper but owed a great deal to an outstanding back four that helped him keep clean sheets throughout the competition. Mavis Chibote and Yonatan Cohen emerged as the tournament's leading goalscorers with three each, with Chibote grabbing honours as the competition's outstanding player.
Maccabi's Tel Aviv "Oded" copied their older club-mates' success, also finishing first in their pre-season tournament. The Under-17s won their first two group-stage matches by the identically impressive score of 7-0, the first against Japanese side Sanda. Roy Ronen scored a hat-trick with Omer Lakou, Or Dassa, Tomer Altman and Guy Shetach adding individual efforts. The second triumph came at the expense of a local Heemskerk team, with Roy Ronen adding a brace to Eylon Almog's hat-trick and individual efforts by Itamar Shaviro and Amit Shapira. "Oded"'s third group-stage encounter against AZ Alkmaar was for group bragging rights, and after a 1-1 draw (with Nadav Amran on target), it was Maccabi that emerged on top going into the semi-finals. There they squared off against India's Under-17 national team and Tomer Altman's spot-kick proved sufficient to send Maccabi's Under-17s into the final to face last year's winner FC Vollendam. There too "Oded" won by a single headed goal by Shay Golan and walked away with the tournament trophy.
