Wednesday, July 15, 2009


Hello everyone,





Let me first start with my daughter Aly's 400 meter race last night. Sean, Shachar and I went to the stadium (Hadar Joseph) and saw a great spectacle. The stands were almost full and very loud and supportive of all the athletes. This was the first time in over 2 years that Aly has run the 400 in a very competitive meet. She certainly hasn't been training exactly for the 400. Well, all that mess being said, she won the BRONZE MEDAL!!! We were all so very proud of her at that moment and seeing her on the victory stand was an incredible moment for us all! She has her tough night tonight with thw Pole Vault at 7:15 PM followed by the 800 Meter run at 8:15 PM and then the 4x400 relay at 9:20 PM. We can't wait to see her compete tonight. We are taking the team to see her compete tonight. Well, we a re now back from Aly's track events. She won the Bronze Medal in Pole Vault witha height of 11'8"and just missed at 12'4.5", then she had only had 10 minutes to get to the 800 meters. She was running quite well, then her sickness and congestion caught up to her and she finished 5th overall. Next came the 4x400 relay about 50minutes after the 800. She ran the 2nd leg and got the baton about 50 meters behind the Israeli girl in first and then really turned it on and passed her to get the baton to the 3rd leg about 50 meters in front, where the team coasted to a Gold Medal Win! We were so very proud of her with 2 Bronze Medals and 1 Gold! Not bad Aly Paige!

Now, on to the game with Mexico. It started off with a bang. They had us on a bus to depart for the field, only to be told to get off and get on another bus coming. It had the Mexican team on it. I have never witnessed anything like this in my entire career of coaching. Once we were on the bus, they started singing and taunting our players with expletives not worthy of mentioning here. Very typical of Mexican soccer players. We stayed extremely quiet, for which we were so proud of our biys for controlling themselves in a hostile environment. Once the game started, it was very clear all they wanted to do was punch, kick and spit on our players. Finally, after about 20 minutes, one of their strikers spit on my defender in the face, He was given a red card immediately. From then on it was a war with more punching and kicking and spitting. Our kids really kept their composure and let me do the yelling at the referees, which I do with so much grace!! They only had 1 shot on goal and we had plenty, but could not find the net. However, with 10 minutes remaining in the game, we scored a beautiful goal in the upper 90 of the far post to take a 1:0 lead. The goals was set up with a beautiful through ball from Ely Lewin to Drew Rosenberg, who lit the back of the net up with his shot! How sweet it was! We controlled the last 10 minutes playing keep away from the Mexicans for the 1:0 win!

Now we have 7 points and a record of 2 wins, 0 losses and 1 tie. We play Germany on Thursday and South Africa on Friday. We need 1 more win and a tie to seal first place in our group and play the 2nd place team from the other group in the Medal Round! Righat now we are tied on points with Canada, who still must play Mexico tomorrow and finish their play against Israel. Both Canada and Israel won today. Canada beat South Africa 3:0 and Israel beat Germany 5:0. With the tournament rules of tiebreakers if points are the same, we go to goal difference, then goals scored then head to head play. It shoul be reversed, but thinking things properly and the doing them here in Israel is never the norm! Oh well, I guess we just have to win the reamaining 2 games to make sure we win our division, so this system does not apply!

Please keep your fingers crossed for us as we make our march in our last 2 games to get to the medal round.

Good night to all and especially my love to my wife and "Gang of Five".

Best regards to all,
Preston and Sean from Israel