After a two week break, the Israel football league resumes action including the youth leagues. Maccabi “Shachar” Tel Aviv will host Hapoel Beer Sheva on Saturday, 12:00 at the Ramle Stadium on Matchday Seven of the Toto Youth League. This match will be the first for the side in a very busy week ahead as they will also face Chelsea on Matchday Five of the Champions League Youth League at the Netanya Stadium on Tuesday at 14:00.
Prior to their final training session, the club’s central defender Bar Galili spoke about how he’s been handling a packed schedule, Chelsea and his thoughts about having a two week break:
“The break came at a very good time. We had been in the middle of a very busy time with many matches including the Champions League. Our muscles were “yelling” at
us to take a break as we needed the rest where we took some time off from playing but worked on other aspects of the game including tactics and practice. When you’re
playing three games a week you have less practice time, and the time away from the games allowed us to also clear our heads and I think you’ll see this already on Saturday.”
The Under-19 team enters this Saturday’s match winless in its last two games. Does that increase your desire to get back in the win column?
“We want to win every game, including this Saturday’s. It doesn’t matter if we won or lost last match and we come into every game looking to win. The time off and being able to clear our heads will help us achieve this goal, to win.”
Just three days after the match in Ramle the Yellow-and-Blue will play an even tougher opponent, perhaps the toughest of them all in Chelsea. Can you differentiate between the competitions?
“Of course it’s only normal that we’ll be thinking about that game. It’s Chelsea and they’re coming to Israel where we will want to show that we can play at these types of levels but it shouldn’t bother us. Saturday’s match is an even harder hurdle for us as we have to win and we have to be cognizant of that. If we only think about Chelsea we will miss our chance. We will come into the Beer Sheva game ready as ever and it’s shouldn’t have any effect on Tuesday’s match.”
Today, Friday, is International Children’s Day. As one who grew up in the Yellow-and-Blue youth system, how was it to go through Maccabi’s Youth Department?
“To grow up in Maccabi’s Youth Department is a real learning experience. There is always a sense of achievement and accomplishment from when I arrived at the club as an Under-13 player. Every year we challenged for the title, made it to the late stages of the Cup competitions and got to experience things that not every child does even with the other big teams in the country. There is pressure and games that we have to win be it a State Cup semi final, but again it’s not something that every kid has a chance to experience. I feel that every year since I’ve been part of the youth department I’ve been able to move up step by step and improve year to year.”
