Maccabi Shahar Tel Aviv, the club’s youth team, opened their league campaign on Saturday at their new home ground in Ness Ziona and came back from a goal down to register a 2-2 draw. It was an inaugural appearance for coach Eliezer Ben Aharon who picked Omri Ram, Shai Balahssen and Raveh Assayag as his frontline players.
Maccabi opened strongly and Balahssen got the hosts off to a great start with a shot from the edge of the area in the fifth minute that left Beersheba’s goalkeeper no chance.
A subsequent attack, as Maccabi showed their dominance was thwarted by the Beersheba defence and the visitors managed to equalise in the 12th minute when Ilai Ben-Shitrit equalised from close range. Rom Elyagon almost made it 2-1 to Beersheba when he lobbed Or Yitzhak in Maccabi’s goal, but his shot bounced off the crossbar.
Maccabi dominated the first part of the second half but Beersheba went ahead against the run of play on the hour when Roei Avitan latched on to a cross from the left and shot diagonally to the right to make it 2-1 to the visitors.
Omri Ram restored parity in the 62nd minute when Beersheba goalkeeper failed to clear a shot from left back Shahar Rosen and Omri Ram connected with the rebound and rolled the ball home to seal a draw.
Nir Berkovich almost gave Maccabi the three points but his shot at goal in the 73rd minute rebounded off both uprights before being cleared by the Beersheba defence. Further attempts at goal were fruitless.
Maccabi’s lineup: Or Yitzhak; Guy Mizrahi, Dan Lugasi, Omer Itzhaki, Shahar Rosen; Nir Berkovich, Shai Balahssen (Nadav Nidam, 46), Rotem Yatzker, Raveh Assayag (Tal Turgeman, 81), Shaked Navon (Yahli Lazar, 60); Omri Ram.
