Soccer in Isreal

Being in Israel essentially for the winter afforded us time to do a number of things. Jessie’s friend Gaya plays on a girls’ soccer team in Kafar Sava … she’s on a new team. There aren’t many girls soccer teams in Israel … so they have an age range of 11 to 15 years old.

Jessie and her friend Gaya

When Jessie joined the team they had played a number of games losing them all. They had expected to lose most of the games, being a new team this year. Jessie arrived, they gave her a couple of uniforms (to keep!), and some other kit and welcomed her onto the team. Many months aboard has caused us all to lose some of our fitness, and Jess worked hard to regain her soccer form. She was an asset to the team right away being one of the stronger players – but her coach said that the best thing she brought – other than her professional attitude – was her loving nature. She took to all the team members – hugging them (what a surprise) and getting to know everyone.

Digging it out of the corner.

Her attitude was infectious and they went from being a group that didn’t know each other well and jelled into a team – and they started winning. Since Jessie got here they’ve won more than half their games and have gained a ton of confidence and have improved every game. In two recent games they played a team with a really strong player that had scored 23 of the team’s 27 goals so far this year. Jessie and another player ‘shadowed’ this player and their team went onto win 3:1. In the last game she played in, they were playing the best team in the league – that haven’t lost a game all season. The girls held them to a 0-0 draw in the first half and then went on to lose 4-0. That doesn’t sound all that great but when you consider they lost to this team 12-1 earlier in the season, and the first team to play them to a draw at half it was quite an achievement.

With her awsome coach, Daniel

Jessie’s coach Daniel is a delight … and probably the biggest reason why they’re improving so much. Unfortunately some of the other coaches are more interested in winning (and piling on the goals) than player development. This was apparent in the first game I watched when the other team was ahead 7-0 and continued to play their best player – leaving several on the bench that didn’t play during the game at all. When the coach ripped the goalie for an own-goal to make it 8-1 (she left the field in tears) you just gotta shake your head a bit. In that last game Daniel asked should I keep my best players in and keep it 3-0 or play my weaker players and give them experience, but probably lose by a bigger margin (the game outcome was not in doubt by this time). To his credit, he put in some of the weaker players and they played well – though did surrender another goal. The key thing is that everyone participated and got experience – that will help them get better down the road.

Oranges at half time

We’re so thankful to the team and league here for letting Jessie participate (and Marina by the way, who was asked to help out with practices and of course, leaped at the opportunity). It kept her interest in Soccer up and also let her get a feel for more of the local people and culture. We should encourage participation from anyone that wants to play ….. it’s a great thing.