Well, it's been a few days since I last wrote and a lot has happened. I knew that I wouldn't be able to write every day.
When we came back to Haifa from Jerusalem, I immediately hitched a ride with Nir and his family down to Herzeliya, where Amanda's aunt and uncle (Tessa and Errol) own a beautiful beach house (they normally live in London). They dropped me off in Herzeliya and Errol picked me up. Because it was Friday night, we went to shabbat at Errol's step-brother's apartment. Various family members were there and we had a very nice shabbat dinner. Afterwards, I drove with Errol and Tessa and their son, Sam (Amanda's first cousin) to the beach house.
The beach house is really spectacular, with a pool in the back. I crashed in the guest room while Errol and his brother Alan played snooker (Alan and his family are also visiting for the Maccabiah games). For the next 24 hours, I took advantage of the generous hospitality that Tessa and Errol showed me, working on the computer, lounging around the pool and generally recharging for our match against Canada the next day. That late afternoon I took a run with Errol - who happens to be representing Great Britain in the half-marathon. Another one of his teammates also joined us. It was nice to get a run in on my off day, except that these guys run at about a 100X faster rate than I do. I kept up for the first mile, but by the second, third and fourth, they were becoming dots on the horizon. I huffed my way to the end though. The next morning Errol dropped me off at the train station and I took a train up to Haifa. It was extremely crowded, mostly with young soldiers making their way across the country to various stations or camps. It was pretty straightforward though, and I made it back to the hotel in Haifa.
It was also an exciting day because Amanda was due to arrive that afternoon.
That afternoon we headed out to the Avi Ran stadium where we last played South Africa. I started again as a right defensive back. We scored an early goal to go up 1-0, but Canada equalized later in the first half. They were probably a more technical team than, say, South Africa, but they were certainly not as physical. As the second half wore on, we finally started gelling as a team and applied a lot of pressure to Canada. After a few misses, we got our second goal. Unfortunately, about 15 minutes from full time I collided with another player going for a 50-50 ball, flipped over and landed with all my weight on the top of my shoulder. I felt a jolt of pain and I knew that I had done some damage. Thankfully, I did not hear a "pop" which usually happens with a dislocation. I had to take a knee and the game stopped, but I was able to get up and played out the rest of the game. My shoulder was in bad shape though.
We won that game 2-1. After the game the trainer analyzed my shoulder. It is not dislocated, and there is not visible bruise, but there is a bad sprain and almost certainly some tearing in there. A big golf-ball style bump popped up on my shoulder almost immediately. There was some good news though: about 10 minutes before the end of the game, Amanda showed up at the game! She had arrived and drove up to Haifa. It was wonderful to see Amanda. She didn't seem to care that I was sopping wet from the game since she hugged me. She followed the bus in the rental car back to the hotel. I showered and changed, put an ice pack on my shoulder and we went with the rest of the team to a restaurant on the beach in Haifa where Amanda met the rest of the team.
The next day Amanda and I went back down to Herzeliya so Amanda could visit her aunt and uncle. We stayed with them, relaxed at the beach and generally caught up on lost time. Amanda and I ate dinner at a fish restaurant in Herzeliya and then drove back to Haifa. Just not much to write about for that day.
The next day we had an 11:00 game against Brazil, our last opponent. My shoulder was definitely in healing mode, but it was just not good enough to play. The physical rigors of the game would be too much. I spoke to coach and he understood. I was to be used only in case of emergency. I was definitely disappointed on many levels. Disappointed to let my teammates down, disappointed not to be on the field and contribute. But, there was nothing much I could do. I had some measure of satisfaction knowing that I gave everything I had when I was on the field and that, when healthy, I was in the first eleven every minute.
Brazil is typically a very difficult opponent, but we weren't intimidated. We had far better of the play, but Brazil scored 2 fluky goals early on. To our credit, we came back and scored 2 goals to even the score before half time. I sat on the bench cheering on the team and trying to be helpful. In the second half, Brazil scored after about 10 minutes on a free kick, which is their specialty. But, we came back and tied the game again at 3-3. We were definitely the better team. The Brazil squad had 2-3 good players, but the rest were pretty underwhelming. I guess there aren't that many good over-35 Jewish soccer players in Brazil anymore. Then, at about 10 minutes before the end of the game, Brazil scored on a bad defensive mix up with the goalie coming off his line. The Brazilian player slipped in between the defensive back and the goalie and headed it over the goalie. Just a bad play on our part. This time there was no comeback, and we lost our final game to Brazil, 4-3.
The last result left a bitter taste in everyone's mouth. No one wanted to end the tournament on a loss. Also, none of us felt that we had fully played to our potential during the tournament. The second half of the Canada game was probably the closest since we finally started to gel properly on the field and move together as a team, rather than as 11 individuals. On the other hand, I felt privileged to play and live with these guys. They were all extremely nice people, good guys and fantastic players.
After the game, we went back to hotel, got some lunch and then Amanda and I headed out to Ceasarea, which was pretty amazing. We visited the old ruins, including the aqueduct and hippodrome. It is an awesome, massive ancient city right on the shores of the Mediterranean. We watched a multimedia presentation that was very good and showed the history of the city, how it was ruled by the Jews, Byzantines, Christian Crusaders, Ottomans, etc.
That night, the Maccabiah organization held a special street concert for all the soccer players. That was pretty cool. There was some Israeli rock band playing dance music and all the soccer players from every country and age group were there. They were also selling beer in YARD glasses, so that brought the affair to an even better level. The next day Amanda and I and some other guys went to the shopping mall in Haifa to get some Maccabi Haifa jerseys and just mill around, before Amanda and I headed back down to Herzeliya to stay permanently with Amanda's aunt and uncle. We stopped off there before heading out to downtown Tel Aviv. We had arranged a dinner in Ramat Gan, right outside TA that night with Amanda's cousin, Simon and his fiance, Ahuvi. We spent a few hours walking around Dizengoff center and shopping or browsing before meeting Simon and Ahuvi for dinner at a very pretty high-end restaurant.
The next day, we picked up my teammate Drew Misher at the train station (he came down from Haifa) and drove with him to Jerusalem. In Jerusalem, we parted with Drew who was meeting with someone else, and Amanda and I spent the next several hours walking around the old city and getting items in the the shuks. We visited some of the same spots I visited when I came to Jerusalem, and saw some new spots. It was wonderful to be in Jerusalem again, but it gets very, very hot there. Eventually in the late afternoon, we drove over to a suburb of Jerusalem to visit and have dinner with our friend Karen and her husband Robert. We met them at their apartment, hung out with their two young daughters and then left for the restaurant, along with their 11 month old son (which was fine because he is a cute baby). We ate at a fish restaurant - which was OK by me. The fish in Israel is fantastic. After dinner we headed back to Herzeliya and collapsed to sleep.
Today is our last day.
As I reflect back on this trip, I realize what an amazing privilege it has been to be here. The opportunity to play high-level competitive soccer where results matter, playing for my country and being in Israel has all been overwhelming, crazy, unbelievable, fantastic experience. It has also been my first trip as a mature adult, a father and a professional, so it has been a unique feeling, even though I've been here before. I think I understand and appreciate being in Israel, playing for the US, meeting friends and family, etc. more so now than before. I am so fortunate to have been able to be here and share this experience with you, so I hope you have been able to take some of my experience with you.
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