Maccabi “Shachar” Tel Aviv added a new page to the youth team’s history book after drawing 1:1 against Dynamo Kyiv and collected its first point in the Champions League Youth League.
The coach, Ziv Arie summed up the match saying:
“I wanted to take a point against Chelsea, but it was just not realistic. But here we did take a point. All of the other teams in this competition are better than us, maybe not on a personal level or in training, but their speed and their physical play. In every match we play we want to take a least a point. We want to look good and be able to stand toe-to-
toe at the highest levels and make sure we perform on the pitch. It’s tough as there are really some great teams here, the top of the top. Usually I’m not thrilled with a draw, but I’m happy as to how we looked.”
On the players performance:
“We changed our system up a bit and we also wanted to do so on Saturday against Sakhnin but it just didn’t work. Gabriel Kanichowsky is a player born in 1997 and he has to do a bit more. He’s one of the older guys on the team and he’s taken that responsibility upon himself.”
On participating in the competition:
“It’s a rare opportunity, and each game here is equal to eight regular league matches. Especially in its intensity, I’m enjoying it. At the Chelsea match I told the players that instead of being with their families (on Rosh HaShana) they travelled to play a game, yesterday instead of sleeping in the Sukkah they trained and prepared for the match. There’s a lot of games and it’s a dream.”
The first ever goal scorer for Maccabi “Shachar” in the Champions League Youth
League was Gabriel Kanichowsky, and he said following the match:
“It’s an experience and a lot of fun for the team, we wanted to win and we gave our maximum and as we continue on we want to pick up more points in the other matches. Of course I’m happy I scored but it makes absolutely no difference if it was me or one of my teammates. The main thing is that the ball went into the goal. The heat affected both teams, and our opponent came from a country with a colder climate. There’s no question that this competition is the best thing that could have happened to us and also for football in Israel in general. What will be against Porto? It’ll be difficult, but I hope we will also collect points in Portugal.”
