Crowd at Ramat Gan Stadium (Photo: Flickr / send2moran)
It was pathetic, as usual. We lost 2-1. And as usual, I, like the rest of the country, had my hopes up high that change was gonna come with the new French coach, non-stop lollipop sucking Luis Fernandez. If anyone’s a sucker, it’s me. And the rest of Israel.
If anything, I should have known better. I should have known that Israeli soccer players, and the Israeli soccer federation itself, don’t believe that hard work and endless training brings results.
It’s all about HaKadosh Baruch Hu. He’ll take care of it. Maybe that’s why the federation decided that the following song would be the anthem to accompany this European campaign.
In any place, at any time,
we all have – from large to small
good days, and some less
and between them an answer for all questionsThere is one great G-d
In this world he gives us everything
Between darkness and a ray of light
The path is all we have to choseAnd it’s known that life is a gift
All is foreseen and permission grantedChorus:
Whoever believes isn’t scared
to lose his faith
and we have the king of the world
who guards us from everyoneThis people is a family
one and one more, that’s the secret to success
The people of Israel will not give up
we will always stay on the map
After this sad loss, how about something to cheer the blokes up? Maybe something more along the lines of…
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Ori Lewis
My thoughts precisely Ami, and I must point you to something now-retired Israeli soccer player Alon Mizrahi is alleged to have said when he played briefly in France. He’s not been credited with being the sharpest tool in the shed and has often been the subject of ridicule for some of his pronouncements but he is said once to have made a comment which I believe has more than a kernel of truth to it.
When asked why it is that European players are so fit and strong and why Israeli players are unable to stand up to them he replied along the following lines: The average European player gets up in the morning and eats bacon and eggs and sausages for breakfast and it makes him big and strong, we only have salad, a slice of bread and some cream cheese, so what do you expect?
So if we were all ever wondering why … perhaps therein lies the answer.
And btw, Fernandez, is French, even though he was indeed born in Spain.
Ami Kaufman
I knew it had something to do with food
And thanks for the correction, Ori – it’s been taken care of.