The Under-17 National Team will be playing the European Championship Elite Round with 7 Yellow-and-Blue representatives. The young striker talked about the upcoming tournament and Maccabi “Shachar’s” big matchThis coming Saturday, the Under-17 and Under-16 clubs will be off due to the International break. The Maccabi youth team will be sending a number of players to the UEFA U17 European Championship where Israel will be part of the Elite Round while the U16 side will be in Serbia participating in a friendly tournament.
The Under-17 club will attempt to continue its fine run of good form when they begin the Elite Round of the European Championships in Group 8 against Spain, Belgium and Slovenia. The team that finishes in first place along with the 7 best second place finishers will automatically advance to the tournament itself. This Friday, Israel will kick off against Spain, two days later they will face the tournament’s host Belgium and will end the competition against Slovenia. There are seven players from the Under-19 and Under-17 Yellow-and-Blue clubs who will be representing Maccabi for the Blue-and-White including: Eden Kartzev, Hen Ozeri, Yarin Sharabi, Noam Cohen, Netanel Peretz, Neil Goldberg and Eylon Alomog.
As the team prepares for the tournament, Eylon Almog spoke about the upcoming first match:
“At the start of the campaign, many people said that we were not good enough and buried us before the competition even began. But right from the get-go we proved to everyone that we were going to be a force to be reckoned with and earn a spot at the European Championships being held in Azerbaijan. We are feeling very good about ourselves and there’s a lot of positive energy. Our opening match will be against Spain on Friday and we will give it our all and then some. I believe that we can succeed.”
The youngster also discussed the fact that there are plenty of Yellow-and-Blue players with the National Team:
“We have 7 representatives here with us and it really shows how powerful a club Maccabi Tel Aviv is. It gives us a lot of confidence and security as many of us know each other already. If you take into account that there are five players who are in the starting lineup it will give us even more strength going forward.”
Almog will miss out on Maccabi’s important youth match on Saturday against Maccabi Haifa and didn’t hide his feelings about it:
“I’m going to tell you the truth that I’m really annoyed that I’ll be missing the match. I also missed out on the game against Maccabi Haifa last round because of the National Team and I was really looking forward to they match. It stinks, but I know that I can count on my teammates. We have been playing well of late and I’m sure that they will do the job. Of course I wish them the best of luck all the way from here.”
The Under-16 side also has plenty of Maccabi players including: Alon Strosberg, Tomer Mahlouf, Bar Levi, Adir Herdon, Sa’ar Berami and Gil Rahimi. The friendly tournament is taking place in Serbia where Coach Alon Hazan’s charges will face both Serbia and Moldova.
