Friday, July 17, 2009:

Finally, our group games are completed! We closed out the group play with a good win against South Africa. The score was 3:0! Our first goal came 2 minutes into the game on a corner kick from the right side. Evan Goldman sent the ball in and Colby Abrahamoff went up for a great header and the keeper could not even move. Our next goal came about 10 minutes after that when Evan Goldman sent a terrific through ball to our striker Leon Aboudi, who slotted the ball beautifully in the right hand corner of the goal. After the second goal, we became quite complacent and stopped playing our style of soccer. Halftime score was 2:0. At half, I told them how dangerous the 2:0 lead was in soccer and that they should come out with more intensity and passion. Except for a few unforced errors in the back, we did what we should have done for the entire game....keep possession of the ball. With 25 minutes remaining we played all our players off the bench. David Goldberg scored our third goal on a great cross from Colby Abrahamoff to David for a terrific header. Score now was 3:0 and that was how it ended! Team USA went undefeated in group play with a record of 4 wins, 0 losses and 1 tie for a total of 13 points, We scored 10 goals and gave up 2 goals!

The other results from our group today were Israel 6, Canada 1. So Israel winds up second in our group with 10 points and Canada finished third with 8 points. In the other group, Brazil beat Belgium to secure first in their group and Argentina and Great Britain played to a 1:1 tie. Based on my calculation, Argentina will go through as the second place team. They had the same number of points(7) as Great Britain, but the first tiebreaker is goal difference and Argentina has a +5 goal difference, while Great Britain has a +3 goal difference. So it appears we will play Argentina and Brazil will play Israel. Both games are on Sunday at 11 AM. If I find out this is different, I will post it immediately.

Finally, our kids have started to really grasp what we have been teaching for the past 3 weeks. They are playing possession soccer and their speed of play has improved significantly, for which I am most proud. They are now thinking on and off the ball with quickness of mind and not of feet, as they were doing when we all started training back on June 29th. I am quite proud of this group of young men and regardless of what happend in the final four, they have done everything Sean and I have every asked from them. Sean has been a tremendous help and influence on each of our players. He has such a great rapport with everyone. He also has a wonderfully keen eye for the game itself and has been invaluable to me and this team. Shachar has done a great job with our two goalkeepers as well and I am most appreciative of his tireless work of coming and going everyday from his home in Haifa.

So, tomorrow is an off day and it is greatly needed. We will relax and get ready for Argentina and hopefully, a chance of beating them and getting to the Gold Medal Game on Tuesday! Please keep your fingers crossed for our young guys!

As each day comes and goes, it becomes more apparent to me how special this time here has been. It has been a wonderful experience for us all and to make it to the Final Four or Semi Finals, is unbelievable to me, especially since this is our first time here and our being able to bring this group along with only 3 weeks of training and playing. I am quite thankful!

I miss my wonderful wife and love her very much, as well as my brother and his family and especially our family tradition of Sunday dinner. I also miss my "Gang of Five" Satch, Cassie, Max, Kol and Kippi!

Take care and stay well!

Best regards,
Preston and Sean from Israel