A festive evening of youth football at Bloomfield Stadium opened with an easy derby win for Maccabi's U17s
A special evening at Bloomfield Stadium devoted to Tel Aviv youth derby matches kicked off with a handsome win for Maccabi Tel Aviv "Oded" over their counterparts from municipal rivals Hapoel Tel Aviv. This was "Oded"'s third game of the 2014/15 national U17 Premier League season, after having first drawn with Maccabi Petach Tikva and beaten Bnei Yehuda in their first two matches. But head coach Eliezer Ben Aharon's squad looked very much at home on the stage of the senior squad and opened the match in positive fashion. With just six minutes on the clock a wayward back-pass by the Hapoel defence at the edge of their own area was picked off by Maccabi striker Omer Lakao and sliced past the keeper to hand "Oded" an early 0-1 advantage. Maccabi continued to press to widen the margin, but the first half ended without any further goals being scored.
The second half saw "Oded" open brightly and three minutes after the restart striker Roy Ronen came close, followed by a long-range effort by midfielder Shay Golan that sailed past the post. On the hour mark Golan made amends after taking a short pass from fellow midfielder Amit Shapira outside the area and letting fly with a perfectly aimed shot into the upper right-hand corner of the Hapoel net to double Maccabi's advantage. Moments later at the other end Hapoel's Itay Moreno tried to get his side back into the contest but shot over onrushing Maccabi keeper Haviv Ohayon. Towards the end of the match "Oded" striker Itamar Shaviro nearly added to Maccabi's lead but in the end it was substitute defender Nadav Amran who in injury time signed off on the 0-3 win. A poor Hapoel clearance of a Guy Shetach corner kick handed the ball back to the midfielder and his subsequent cross into the five-yard box found Amran unmarked at the far post to head in for Maccabi's third just as the referee's whistle signalled the end of the match, to the delight of the team and the Maccabi fans who came to see them.
Matchday 4 will take place this Saturday when Maccabi Tel Aviv "Oded" head south to face Hapoel Beer Sheva.
