Prematch
With three Matchdays remaining in the Youth Ligat Ha’Al season, Maccabi “Shachar” Tel Aviv returned to Ramle Stadium as they hosted Hapoel Ramat Hasharon. The young Yellow & Blue entered the match after falling last week by a 2:0 scoreline to Maccabi Netanya as they looked to get back onto the winning track. Guy Tzarfati made a few changes to his Starting XI as Or Dasa and Prince Thomas entered the fray while Eylon Almog and Dor Galili also provided the attack. The Under-19 squad came into the contest sporting 49 points in third place while their opponents ranked in 9th position.
First Half
The first chance of the match went to Ramat Hasharon as Omer Kats was forced to make a quality save early on in the 4th minute on a one on one situation as Amit Rosenboim then cleared the ball from the line. Three minutes later Maccabi already took the lead as Altman led a counter attack and found Dasa who crossed the ball from the right to Netanel Peretz as the latter found the back of the goal for the 1:0 advantage.
In the 12th minute Guy Setach gave Almog a deep pass that went over the visiting defense, but his 14 meter attempt was stopped by the keeper. The Yellow & Blue continued to control the pace of the game as Almog took a Dasa ball in the 36th minute but the former’s attempt went over the goal.
Second Half
Six minutes into the second half, the visitors found the equalizer from inside of the box. However, the Under-19’s didn’t hang their heads and retook the lead in the 57th minute as Altman unleashed a 20 meter scorched that didn’t allow the Ramat Hasharon keeper a chance to make the stop giving Maccabi “Shachar” a 2:1 advantage. Three minutes later the visitors went down to ten men as they were issued a red card giving Tzarfati the opportunity to make some wholesale changes on the pitch by introducing Neal Goldberg, Ron Zamir, Guni Naor, Amit Shapira and keeper Refael Vaknin.
The hosts didn’t take their foot off of the gas as they scored their third goal in the 72nd minute. Amit Shapira took the ball from the right and sent it to an open Galili as the striker elegantly headed it in the far corner for the 3:1 lead. Maccabi looked for yet another goal and almost found it in the 89th minute but Altman’s chance from 10-meters out was taken by the keeper as the contest ended 3:1 in favor of the young Yellow & Blue.
