Hertsmere shoot their way to football school’s win

The community’s primary schools got into the full World Cup fever mode as twenty teams took part in the Maccabi Schools girls football tournament.

The event, at Mill Hill PowerLeague, welcomed 11 schools, who brought 21 teams to play between themm meaning in total more than 200 young people took part.

The tournament saw teams split into four groups and play each other in a league format with the top two teams in each group qualifying for the knock-out stages. Every match was exciting with a competitive edge, with the latter stages of the tournament producing some solid defensive displays from the footballers on show.

The semi-finals were both end-to-end games, with Naima beating North West on penalties to reach the final, while Hertsmere Jewish Primary School earned their place in the final by beating Sinai with a well worked goal.

The final was a close affair with both sides playing all-out-attack and looking to create a break-through. Naima had the better of the chances on the HJPS goal but did not manage to convert any of them, HJPS managed to take their chance with a strike in to the bottom corner to win the match and be crowned tournament champions.

The afternoon concluded with the medals presentation and the trophy was awarded to the winning HJPS team.

Maccabi GB’s School and Sports Coordinator, Alex Elf, spoke about the numbers engaged in the girl’s competition, “To see 200 young girls competing in a Maccabi GB tournament is a massive achievement. We are looking forward to future girl’s tournaments where we hope the number of participants will keep on rising. Maccabi GB has invested heavily in attracting more women and girls to playing football and we hope this will be the start of many a footballing career for these players. Finally, congratulations to HJPS on their win”.