Amanda reminded me of something I forgot to say in my last post. At one point while driving aimlessly with the lost taxi driver, I called Amanda in the US and put her on the phone with the driver to speak to him. It took awhile for them to understand each other though - not b/c of Amanda's hebrew, but b/c the driver was nearly deaf. Once they finally understood each other, he gave the phone back to me. He was asking Amanda where to go in Haifa and she obviously had no idea what to tell him.
It is HOT here. The heat is going to play a big factor in the tournament. It should be 90-100 degrees for most of the time here. Consequently, our games are scheduled for 6 pm most of the time.
As we approached the field for training yesterday, we saw that the US "Grand Master" team (45+) was finishing up their training on one half. It was cool to see our US brothers. On the other half, the Mexican Open team was taking practice free kicks. The "open" age group is the most competitive, so these were youngsters in their 20's. They looked clearly younger and stronger than me. However, when they left the field they asked if we were the Open US team, which made our day. That validated all our individual efforts to get fit leading up to the tournement (we are the 35-45 age group).
In training, we played a variety of half field scrimmages, mostly restricted to 2 touches on the ball per person. Than we had games which incorporated crossing drills. We are practicing a lot of game situations that involve quick transition and crossing b/c our first opponent is Great Britain and that is their style of play. I think I trained OK, although the heat clearly was affecting me by the end (as it was for all of us). There were a few goal scoring opportunities that I would like to have back, so that is a reminder to be more clinical in my shots.
After training, we went back to the Dan hotel, showered, changed and met for lunch. Lunch was set up in a room that is almost impossible to adequately describe. It has a massive 180 degree panoramic open view of Haifa sloping down the mountain side beneath the viewer and spilling in to the Mediterranean. It was really breathtaking, as if I was stepping into a picture. All the guys were equally impressed.
We had our own free time after lunch until dinner later on, so some guys went to the beach and others went to the pool. I went to an internet cafe down the street to get a big ice coffee and do some work on my computer. I walked about a half mile and found the place inside a mini indoor mall. I had a lot of difficulty getting my adapter to work properly, but eventually I got settled and was able to get about 3 hours of work done (and have 2 ice coffees). Near the end, an american girl wearing a UPenn Soccer shirt asked if she could borrow access to the outlet. Noticing her shirt, we naturally started talking. Turns out she is from Huntington Valley, attended and played at UPenn and is here for the US Womens Open soccer team. Her brother is also here playing for the mens Open team (he is a senior at Duke and plays soccer for them). It was cool to meet someone from where I live, so that was nice.
After I wrapped up my work, I headed back to the hotel, where we were planning to meet to leave for a special Shabbat at the home of the parents of one of our players, Gil Oren. We loaded onto a bus and drove out to Herzliya.
The Oren house was beautiful, with the dinner set up outside in their garden. We enjoyed a great meal and good conversation. This is a really interesting and nice bunch of guys and everyone gets along well. Everyone is competitive and we like to joke and kid around a lot, but there is a quick bond that has formed - similar to the other teams I have played for. That is an excellent sign, since team chemistry is vital.
After dinner we drove back to Haifa, arriving around 11:30. We all just went to bed. No training until the afternoon today.
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