Sunday, July 12, 2009 Game Day:

I hope what I am about to say does not offend anyone, as it certainly is not my intention. So, I will apologize upfront for anything I say in this blog. Here we go.... Today was really not a good day in the life of our team of young boys. I will try to explain as politely as I can why that is so.

We played Canada this morning and I really had no expectations of whether they woul be really good or really bad. Our team was, I thought (there I go again thinking) ready as we could be. We had some really good sessions building up to this game, so why not think in the positive....wromg again. Canada was really not a very good team at all and the result should have been a win for us and 3 clear points. But, it ended 0:0 and we got 1 point for a tie. So, you might think 1 point is good and after the other results you will see why it wasn' t so good after all. In our group, Germany and South Africa also tied 0:0 and the surprise of the day was that Israel tied Mexico 0:0 as well. So, we all have 1 point and we play Israel in the morning and then play Mexico after that on Wednesday. Sean and I went to the game, courtesy of Shachar and both were really good teams with a lot of skill and movement off the ball. Both will be major tests for us for sure. Now the reason our tie was not so good, was because we could have had 3 points and been in first place at the moment and at the worst, still tied even if we lose tomorrow against Israel. That is why it was so bad for us, especially because we should have won the game going away. We had some really good chances, but no goals.

Now, the real issue comes in to play with this result today. We have had a more strict curfew than all the other teams that are staying here and we have not abided by it all until last night. It was way too late now for that. In the game they were very slow to the ball and always 3 steps slow. In addition, they did not win one 50-50 ball. And, I am telling you Canada was bad. We were clearly better and had 80-90% of the possession, but ultimately, our first touch was as soft as a brick and the ball always got away form us. I don't want to even dare mention the unforced errors we had in the game today. We needed our players to step up and it did not happen at all. I know it was our first game of international experience for almost all our players, so I understand the "butterflies" in the start of the game, but as the game progressed and we had more and more of the possession, we should have settled down and finished our chances. Sometimes the game of soccer can be really cruel and unlucky to the better team, but today we were not unlucky at all. I have told them that "they all want to win, but they have not had the will to prepare to win". That was the difference today for sure! To make matters worse, I asked them all to go to the pool to warmdown in the cool water for 20 minutes after returning to the hotel. That way, as I have told them from day one over here in pre-camp, it is very important to relax and cool down in a pool to get out all the Lactic Acid out of their muscles so they will not have cramps tonight and tomorrow. This is extremely important, especially since we will play 5 games in 6 days as I have mentioned before. Since they have not listened to us about curfew, at least I thought (once again the wrong thing to do) they would definitely do that. 3 guesses all all 3 don't count that they would go......of course they followed tradition and did not listen to us once again. I am not quite sure what it is about our 3 simple rules they do not understand, but they just do not get it at all.

Sean and I are extremely tired and very frustrated with them at the moment. We had a meeting and expressed everything to them again, as we have done so many times before. They all want the experience of Maccabiah and Israel, which we all understand, but the Israeli experience happened in our first 2 week here during pre-camp. Now the experience should turn to why they came to try-outs in the first place....to play the game of soccer at a high international level, which by the way, many will never get to do again. And, because in the first time in the 72 years of Maccabiah, this event has been sanctioned by the International Olympic Committee. I think enough said!

Tomorrow is another day and we will see how they handle a really good Israeli team. Will they back down and drop down to their level like we did aginst Canada, or will they play at the level they have been trained to play and let Israel rise to our level? Stay tuned!

Again, my apologies for the bluntness of this blog, but my level of frustration has peaked and I can only be honest with everyone. I think we will do much better tomorrow.

Best regards to all,
Preston and Sean from Israel