Maccabi “Shachar” Tel Aviv held a friendly on Friday morning ahead of the 2019/20 season. The Yellow & Blue defeated the Ashdod U19 side 1:0 thanks to a goal by Tal Turgeman. The match was held at the PenguinPickUp Training Facility at Kiryat Shalom in three 30 minute periods. Eliezer Ben Aharon’s team will play three friendlies over the course of their Bulgarian training camp.

Maccabi Tel Aviv FC exercised the option to buy Eduardo Antonio Guerrero Locano from Panama outfit UD Universitario of Panama. 

The 19 year-old forward who spent last season on loan at Maccabi joins on a permanent basis. Last season Guerrero scored 13 league goals in 29 League and Cup appearances for Maccabi U-19’s and added 5 more goals in 4 UEFA Youth League qualifiers including a hat-trick against Anzhi Makhachkala in the first qualifying round. 

Maccabi’s Performance Director, Patrick van Leeuwen, told the club’s website: “Eduardo Guerrero is a player who left a good impression from the moment he joined us on trial. He played with the U-19’s last season and managed to convince both the coaching staff and the management that he would be a good addition over several attacking positions. Eduardo made the progress Maccabi expected from him as he will continue with us for a longer period and continue his development in the forthcoming season on-loan in the second division. Good luck Eduardo”.

Guerrero joined Maccabi in the summer of last season after making his name on the international stage as he scored 4 goals for Panama U17’s in the CONCACAF qualifying campaign. At the age of 17 Guerrero made his full international debut for the Panama senior side in a friendly against Granada.

The Maccabi Tel Aviv Youth Academy began training camp as the Under-19 team, Maccabi “Shachar” Tel Aviv took to the pitch under new Head Coach Eliezer Ben Aharon who conducted his first session with the squad together with assistant Tzion Cohen and keeper coach Shura Uvarov. On July 27th the team will head to Bulgaria as they prepare for the 2019/20 season.

The squad is comprised of some veteran players from last year’s squad along with Under-17 players who won their league championship under the same Ben Aharon who moved up with them and spoke about the task ahead: “It’s very exciting. For 8 seasons I saw various coaches coming and going and now it’s my turn. My patience and hard work paid off and the fact that I persevered with a goal in mind, helped me become the coach of the Under-19 Maccabi Tel Aviv team. This was a long term goal that I had set for myself when I began coaching.”

Ben Aharon continued, “As the U19 coach my personal goal is to help develop and advance the clubs young generation of players; to bring them up to the level that they will be able to play for the first team during the upcoming seasons. My expectations are high and I believe in the team and the players, some of which I coached in the past. Their expectation is to win titles in style by dominating the league and cup.”

Maccabi Tel Aviv Youth Academy representatives began the season with the First Team. Daniel Peretz, Bar Cohen, Nadav Nidam all joined the first training session of the new campaign while Academy graduates, Noam Cohen and Eden Kartzev who were loaned out to Hapoel Hadera and Beitar Tel Aviv Ramle respectively also took part in Vladimir Ivic’s squad’s session.

The 2018/19 Maccabi Tel Aviv Youth Academy season officially came to a close on Saturday as the various age groups held their final training sessions along with a tournament that encompasses many of the young Yellow & Blue teams.

The Under-13 to Under-19 squads created teams with one player from each age group and played matches of 15 minutes. In addition, the Under-8 to Under-13 groups also held a competition similar to the older teams. It was a wonderful way to end another successful Youth Academy season.

Just before the youth teams end training for this season and go out to break, the coaches for the various teams from the Under-19 to Under-15 squads were named for the 2019/20 campaign under the direction of Performance Director Patrick van Leeuwen.

Under-19
Eliezer Ben Aharon will be the Under-19 Head Coach for the upcoming season. Ben Aharon has been with the Academy for 8 years with the last three guiding the Under-17 side and winning the league title in all of those seasons. Ben Aharon will move up a level along with the players he coached this past campaign at the U17 level.

Under-17
Ori David will take over as the Under-17 Head Coach after two campaigns with the Under-15 team. David has been with the club for 11 years and has coached the lower age groups until now. His U15 side won the league championship this past season.

Under-16
Eran Sassi will continue with the Under-16 squad in what will be his second season with the club. Sassi guided his team to the State Cup this past campaign.

Under-15
After seven years with Maccabi, Boaz Bracha will become the Under-15 Head Coach. In prior seasons Bracha coached younger teams in the Academy for the club.

The Under-19 Israel National Team will head to Macedonia for a pair of matches against the hosts along with seven representatives of Maccabi “Shachar” Tel Aviv. The two contests will help prepare the team for the upcoming European Championship qualifiers that will take place in Latvia in October. Israel will be in Group 12 along with Holland, Moldova and Latvia.

Yesterday, Israel defeated North Macedonia 2:1 with the Academy’s Bar Cohen scoring the winning goal. In addition to Cohen, other Maccabi representatives include Dan Lugassi, Ido Shahar, Omri Ram, Rave Assayag, David Dego and Guy Mizrahi are also on the Blue & White squad.

Over the past few years, the Maccabi Tel Aviv Avi Cohen Youth Academy has seen a dramatic change thanks to Performance Director Patrick van Leeuwen who introduced and imbued his football philosophy throughout the department. This season also saw the introduction of the Individual Elite Training program headed by Raymond Atteveld, van Leeuwen’s assistant, with the goal of developing the Academy’s players. The Individual Elite Training program runs in conjunction with the regular training program and is designed to suit the individual needs of the players who are part of the project. The program includes additional resources for better living, video, physical and tactical sessions for individual players.

Also: The Elite Training Program

Together with Atteveld, who heads the Elite Program, there are a number of Youth Academy who help develop the players according to the philosophy of the club. Boaz Bracha, Hamda Mari and Ori David along with the latest addition to the Academy, Michael Zandberg are all involved in the project.

Ori David explained the importance of the Elite Training Program at the Academy: “The project allows they youth players to reach their maximum in each of the areas of concentration whether it’s professional, physical mental. The coaches under the direction of Raymond Atteveld are bucking training programs with much thought in mind for each individual player in the project with the help of a full team of coaches and analysts.

Michael Zandberg also talked about the goals of the program: “I’m at the beginning of my career as a coach and I feel that this is a place I need to be to learn and improve. I’m sure with my experience I’ll be able to add to the program and help the young players. The Elite Training session are an enrichment for a specific player. Each player receives guidance in an area that they can’t get when they are training with the whole team and the attention given to the players by the coaches is unprecedented where they analyze each and every move. On a personal level it’s also an opportunity to learn and the players have the chance to do so from a number of coaches at one time on the pitch. I hope that I will also improve and develop as a coach so I can help the players much more.”

Hamda Mari discussed the importance of each and every bit of information the player receives: “The players learn many topics that will help them in an actual match. Techniques, offensive moves according to the philosophy of the club, proper defending and more. We work with every player on their weak points in order for them to improve and thereby also being more effective on the pitch with the team itself.”

The goal of the project is to develop the Academy players and help them improve but the coach also take many positives themselves from the project explain Boaz Bracha: “The Elite training sessions demand that the coaches understand each and every movement that the player makes and where they need to improve in the specific area. This will allow them to understand in the simplest form what they need to do so the instructions must be given over at the highest level. The goal is to make sure the player can make the proper adjustments and improve in the best way possible and in order to do that the training session must be player specific so they can then help their team.”