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

Tuesday, July 14, 2009:

Good morning to all! Today is a well needed rest day for our team. We had planned a short warmdown session this morning, but due to the very late return from the Opening Ceremony (1:15 AM) we decided to let our players rest today and spend some time with their parents that are here. Tonight the team is having a team dinner with their parents at a restaurant nearby. Sean and I will not be attending, as we are going to watch Aly start her competition with the open 400 meter race! Shachar, Sean and I will go to dinner and then to the meet in Tel Aviv at Hadar Joseph Stadium.

Last night...oh what a night it was indeed. Just like we imagined, after watching all these years the Opening Ceremonies to the Olympics! Nothing could have been more exhilerating or special than what we participated in. It was just like being in the Olympics. The lighting of the Torch by our own Jason Lezak (Gold Medalist from the Bejing Olympics) topped it off. The program was so very special and unique, that it made standing on your feet for over 6 hours, well worth the pain and fatigue. We heard Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Shimon Peres address the athletes. That in itself, made it more meaningful to me and showed how truly inportant this Maccabiah is to the Jewish people and State of Israel. There were over 50,000 people in the stands when we marched in as the Delegation from the United States of America! Both Sean and I along with Aly, were in total awe of this magnificent ceremony and achievement. But to truly feel a part of all this, was something in our wildest imagination that we never dreamed of doing, let alone participating.

As we marched into the Ramat Gan Stadium, the applause was so loud we could hardly hear each other speak. This was something that Dreams are made of and something that will live inside all of us for the rest of our lives! Sharing this incredible moment with my son and daughter made everything more special. While Sean and I did not walk in beside Aly ( she was a little in front of us), being side by side with Sean, walking ito the stadium in front of such a large crowd, is not worthy of words, as it would do so little to capture the feeling we all shared last evening.

It was an incredible experience, to be in a ceremony, surrounded by all this history that Israel affords us all and to be with fellow Jews from all over the world, including the tiny island of Palau! I shall remember this tfor the rest of my life. The image in my head, being with my son and daughter, will be forever in my memory. As we marched in, my thought immediately went to my wonderful wife and just how much I miss her and love her. I wish she could have been here with us to witness this. I also wish my brother could have been here as well to be a part of this incredible moment in time. As I my thoughts began to wander, I was led back to my parents and just how proud they would have been of us. I know they are watching us all from above, with a great big proud smile. I miss them more and more, as I experience these life altering events.

The most amazing thing would unfold as the evening progressed. I have never seen people actually taking shirts off and swapping with people form other countries. It was a sight to behold!
Sean changed his shirt with a guy from Great Britain, along with his hat being swapped as well, The only thing I swapped , was hat for hat exchange with a Canadian. They had the coolest "bush" type hat. But, Sean really wanted it, so I gave it to him!

With the evening over, we returned to our hotels and went immediately to bed!

Tomorrow, we play Mexico, which is a critical game for us. We need atleat a tie at the worst, but a win would almost assure us of a place in the medal round. So, please keep your fingers crossed for us.

Hopefully, Sean will upload some photos in a little while. I know you will enjoy them.

Take care and stay well. We miss everyone very much.

Best regards from Israel,
Preston and Sean

Monday, July 13, 2009:

Today was a very rewarding day for our young team. After a dismal day on Sunday, the old sage advise was in full force today. Yes, the sun still came up and we survived to play another day!

USA 1:Israel 0!! We executed our small adjustment to our tactical system with precision, determination and passion. After the poor result on Sunday, we had a very long meeting about our team philosophy and how we could best get back to our simple style of playing and understanding what it means to truly be a part of a team. What I wrote yesterday, was a duplication of what I told the team in person. Finally, they understood what Sean and I have been trying to teach them for the past 15 days in Israel. It has been a learning process, both on and off the field. I believe now they completely understand what we expect and demand from them.

Now, to the game itself. As I said earlier, we tinkered with our system and instead of playing with a defensive, center and attacking midfielder, we chose to play with 2 defensive midfielders playing behind the center midfielder, with our 2 strikers in advance of them. When we attacked, we did so with better passes and quicker decisions than yesterday. On defense, we kept our defensive line 35 yards from our 2 strikers, so that everything Israel tried to do down the middle was not available to them, thus forcing them very wide where they had no support and we could isolate them. If they treid the middle, it would be picked off by us or they played it very long over the top, where our goalkeeper or sweeper could get it without any pressure. It was really frustrating Israel, as they really only had 1 clear good chance to score and that was off a free kick from the edge of the 18 yard box. Our wall held and the ball hit off it and they had a second chance, but not in a good position and the ball went way over the goal. That was in the first half and our kids knew we had to get out of the game with no less than a tie. We had a few really good counter attacks that resulted in a couple of good shots on goal. So the half ended 0:0!

The second half started and we pretty much had good control, but made some silly unforced errors which allowed Israel to counter attack wide and get some crosses off, but we were able to clear them all out of danger. They really had no good chances at all on goal in the second half. Withy 7 minutes remaining, we attacked down our left side and Jake Weiss took a nice pass from Evan Goldman and had a hard shot on frame that went in the far post for our GOAL! The entire team went crazy and we had to calm them down to finish the game and not give up a late silly goal. We accomplished that feat, although the referee extended the game an extra 5 minutes. We held the ball deep in our attacking third until the final whistle was blown. Pandemonium erupted from our bench onto the field embarcing each other in hugs and high fives all around. It was quite a sight to see, not to mention the euphoria we all felt!

I must commend my son Sean for his excellent game report on Israel from our scouting report. He had our team totally prepared for anything Israel could possibly throw at us. He was so happy for the boys. Shachar, did a wonderful job in preparing our keepers for this very moment.

We came back to the hotel and Sean took them to the pool for a cool down session and then lunch. We now must get ready for the opening ceremony tonight and walking into the stadium, which will be an incredible moment for us all I am sure. We will leave the hotel at 3:30 PM and go to the stadium for staging and organization ( I can't wait to see that). After the ceremony tonight, we will return back to the hotel and start getting some sleep and preparing for Mexico on Wednesday. We must keep our emotions in check and not get so high fater this great victory and I am sure we will re-focus with passion to beat Mexico.

Tomorrow evening my daughter Aly will start her competition at the track stadium and run the open 400 meters. Then on Wednesday, she will do the 800 meters, Pole Vault and 4x400 meter relay. I can't wait to watch her compete and hopefully win gold!

So, with one of my favorite sayings I will sign off until tomorrow and a report on the opening ceremonies. " It is not hard hard you fall, but how high you bounce back up after hitting bottom"! Today we showed what we are made of...character!

Take care and stay well.

Best regards,
Preston and Sean from Israel

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

I thought I would share with everyone what a good friend of mine wrote to me via an email and I hope he does not mind me sharing this with everyone, but it meant so much to me and touched my heart. He is one of my dearest friends and I wanted to shre something that was meaningful to him as well as me. Again, I hope he does not mind! Armin, this meant so very much to me what your thoughts were and how it touched you and me as well, as I said above.

Preston

"Preston, thank you very much for your „tourbook“ of Israel. It was very interesting for me, how you described every day from the beginning at the airport until your final trip to the Druze Village. It was almost like I was there bymyself.Whenever you will finish your coaching career (hopefully not to soon…), you should start writing guide books about your travelling. Preston – I’m not Jewish (as you know, I don’t belong to any church), I am German. It was deeply impressing to read your thoughts about freedom and how hard it is to fight for it. You know, my generation was born in an very peaceful and comfortable environment and we don’t know how it is, to live like that and I am very grateful for this. As you said, it is always the Heart that should lead you. In countries like Israel every single day can be the last in peace and we all can not imagine how that is. Our people in former East Germany fought peaceful to tear down the wall after 40 years of communism and they won their fight. Hopefully the people of Israel and their neighbours will find a way, to live in peace as well. So, thank you very much again and I hope for you, Sean and the team, that they will win a medal at the Maccabiah Games. That leads me to my greatest experience I’ve ever had in my soccer career (incl. Bundesliga and games for the German Under 21). I took part in the German Soccer Team of the University Games 1993 in Buffalo and that was really not to top. You and 7.000 other athletes live and compete at one time and you make so many experiences, new friendships and you will capture emotions for the rest of your life. Good luck at the games (we won the Bronce medal at that time, please do it better!) ! By the way: Who is the “Gang of Five”?" Give my love to Sean and Aly, Armin
mit freundlichen Grüßen Armin Kraaz Eintracht Frankfurt e.V.

Saturday, July 11th:

We let our kids sleep in this morning and had a really light training session at a field really close to our hotel. So, we had no problems today with the buses as we walked. That is the best way. We jogged and had a small stretching session, then we worked on all our set pieces. It went really well and I think we are really close to being ready for our game tomorrow with Canada.

We will leave the hotel at 7:20 AM, so we can travel by bus to the Wingate field to start our warm-up at 8 AM and kick-off at 9 AM. I believe we are going to playe really well and surprise a lot of people. The guys seem to be itching to play, as training is training, but playing an actual game is what we came for.


Tonight we are going to walk to a mall that is about 15 minutes from our hotel and eat at Sbarro Pasta place. We need to get away for here for a short time and be by our selves and have a pre-game meal the night before.

Sorry, this is so short, but I will give full details after our game and hopefully, with some photos and a victory!

Oh, last night, Sean and I beat the youth coach (Adam Cooper) and Barry Kaplan (the jr. girls coach) in Spades 2 straight games!

Have a great day and stay well,

Preston and Sean from Israel

Friday, July 10th:

Well, here we go with a very unique day in the life of our team. The day started off with a bang. Last night our Israeli Manager, who is a complete boob, told us at the meeting we would be training at 9 AM. So, I asked him what time the bus would take us to the fields and his answer was I will tell you at 10:30 PM. So, I thought (that was the wrong thing to do), that when he scheduled training times, he would have known the time. Wrong again! We waited in the lobby until he told us.....12:10 AM! This was to be the least of our problems for the day. We met at 8:20 AM (our prescribed time) to leave for the fields at Wingate. Little did we know, that the adventure was just beginning. We were told no one could ever leave without our guide/counselor being on the bus. Well, they decided not to go with us and we left anyway! Now the fun begins...we leave our hotel for a 10 minute bus ride to the field, only to have it turn into a 45 minute change of direction, Our driver did not even know which direction Wingate was and went the wrong way. The funny thing, was he was following the other bus that went the wrong way and he did a circle turn and changed his direction. Once we righted ourselves, he was lost going to Wingate, which is where Israel's National teams train. So, instead of 1 1/2 hour session (not training the last 2 days), we had a 1 hour and 10 minute session, as other teams were coming to train. We finished and returned with a new driver to our hotel for lunch.

At 3 PM the soccer coaches all went back to Wingate for a coaches technical meeting. Needless to say, no provision for return transportation was provide or thought about. The meeting, as I was told would be a fiasco with screaming and yelling at each other. There was little of that, but finally, the Israeli in charge (a very nice person) was quite dogmatic and allowed no discussion of rule changes. However, they handed all the coaches their rosters for each game, except, they only gave me 4 and we have 5 games in pool play. I asked them about it and they shrugged their shoulders and said make a copy! I guess I should have known that as well! We left the meeting and went to where the buses were parked to see about maybe getting on a bus. But, we waited 45 minutes while 3 buses and their drivers discussed it in great and intelligent detail. After waiting for 45 minutes, we finally got on a bus and thought we were finally going back to the hotel...wrong again! We were going out and stopped the bus and were told to get off and get on the original bus we were talking to in the beginning and those on that bus got off and got on ours....this is not organized chaos, but a disorganized nightmare in logistics and implementation of a plan or lack of a plan.

Well, we are finally back and getting ready for dinner and bedtime. I can't wait for tomorrow to come to see more of this planned chaos.

So, have a great week-end and laugh along with us, as the games are about to begin in our quest for Gold. Come along with the team as we try to make history for the USA.

Best regards to all,
Preston and Sean from Israel