Well, I have some better news to report. I overcame by bug and my ankle is healing remarkably well. Considering my bad luck in recent months with this ankle, I am amazed at the quick recovery. Maybe it has something to do with being in Israel? I don't know, but divine intervention or not, I'll take it. As a result of my quick recovery, I anticipate getting plenty of minutes today in our second game against S. Africa, although I expect a substitutes' role.
Last I wrote, I was sitting in a coffee shop with a few of my teammates waiting for the Opening Ceremonies to begin. Although, since I was typing away at my blackberry posting to you, I wasn't really involved in the group dynamic. After about an hour, we headed back to the field in the shadow of the stadium where all the athletes were waiting for the procession to begin.
There are over 8,000 athletes in these games, so there were a lot of us. The US contingent is the largest. Just like the Olympics, each team has its own ceremonial outfit. For the US, the men wore an Adidas navy blue button-up polo jersey with a red "USA" on the back, Adidas khaki shorts and a sort of straw-like hat that had a red and blue trim. The shirt and khakis looked pretty good, the hat was awful. The women wore an Adidas red polo shirt with a blue "USA" on the back, Adidas women-style khakis and the same terrible hat. As a team, we looked pretty good. I thought the Holland team had the sharpest look with an orange polo with big white letters in the back that said "Holland". But, I am a minimalist.
Soon it became nightfall and the athletes were getting excited and rowdy. The Brits and the Argies were singing a lot of songs at each other. I milled around with Doug Homer, my teammate and a fantastic guy and we talked with a lot of folks from different teams (US, UK, Brazil, Argentina, Italy, Norway) just to get to know people. From where we stood, we caught glimpses into the upper tiers of the stadium, and it was PACKED all the way around. The stadium is in Ramat Gan and is the national stadium of Israel. Soon, the loudspeakers started telling the athletes to start marching in according to country alphabetical order. This meant we were near the end. Eventually, the US team started the march into the stadium.
I cannot even begin to adequately describe the following experience. The best I can do is to say it was identical to a modern Olympic opening ceremony. There were about 70,000 people in the stadium and it was bright and loud. There were TV cameras set up everywhere with boom mikes and cameras flying overheard, processional style music, a roaring crowd, dignitaries (including Netanyahu and Peres), fireworks, thousands of professional dancers and children doing all sorts of choreographed dances, flags everywhere. Exploding confetti raining down. It was pretty nuts. They marched us in on the track oval. We were all pretty overwhelmed, smiling and waiving at the crowds and cameras. Very exhilarating.
They walked us into our designated area on the field and then everyone sat down and the proceeded to have about an hour to hour and a half of shows and dance and singing numbers, speeches by Netanyahu and Peres. The center of the field had a massive stage with huge screens on all four sides that constantly had prearranged, choreographed shows on. That US olympic swimmer Lezak (forgot his first name) who swam with Phelps this past Olympics in Beijing ran the torch into the stadium for the last leg and lit up the Maccabi torch. He is competing for the US in Swimming. But the most touching part, I thought, was when everyone in the stadium sang the Hatikvah together. It was a chilling and moving experience. People from all over the world, speaking different languages -- but united together as Am Yisrael and in Israel all singing the Hatikvah as a nation. It was all an unbelievable experience that I will carry with me for a long time.
Another of the cooler experiences was trading stuff with other players. I had done this before as a youth player in other countries and never thought much of it. But, for some reason, it was really cool to have people come up to you and trade the shirt right off your back, your hat, whatever. I traded my hat for an Australia cyclist-style hat that is white, yellow and green and made out of meshy clima-lite material, so that was a great trade for me. Some of my teammates really got great stuff - Argentina and Brazil national jerseys, Chile sleeveless athletic vest, Swiss baseball cap, etc. We also stole about 5 of the Israeli flags that were in the stadium.
Finally it all wound down and the atheletes waited as the crowd left the stadium before filing out ourselves. We waded amongst a crowd of thousands until we got to the designated bus area, found our bus, and drove back to our base in Haifa. It was a special night.
Well, as mentioned before, today we play South Africa. We absolutely need a victory here. SA lost to Mexico 6-0, but we cannot be cocky. I'll let you know how it goes.
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