Exciting Week at Wingate

Well, no doubt it has been an eventful week and busy as well. Shabbat is over and I will try to catch our readers up on the news. First of all I want to invite anyone reading this to the shutterfly share site http://maccabiahusasoccer2009.shutterfly.com/ Which is where I am loading my full photo collection of the games and events. Yes, I am behind in that as well but hopefully by the time Shabbat is over in the USA, it will be improved.

Right now the USA junior team is 4 wins and 1 tie with only two goals scored against us by the German team. tomorrow (Sunday) at 11 AM begin the Semi finals. We will be playing Argentina with the other run off between Israel and Brazil. The boys ended the tournament on a very upbeat note with a strong game against S. Africa. So far only one significant injury I know of is (unofficially) some type of hand fracture for Jake Weiss (our first goal scorer) and he was still able to play yesterday. Benjamin has yet to score his first goal but had some strong shots in the last game including a one on one with the goally in the final minutes against S Africa that was blocked.

So here is the "back log": Following the Opening Ceremony break on Tuesday, we played Mexico. This game was on a new field at Neurim north of Netanya, a facility for troubled youth. Well, we came away with the win at 1:0 but I have to admit the Mexico team were definitely troubled. In a low point of the games for us these kids proceded to spit and curse at our boys, ultimately resulting in a Yellow and a red card.

The next day we played Germany(Deutschland) in what turned out to be a very competetive match and resulted in the first and only two goals scored against us. By Friday the heat had eased up a bit and we again suceeded against S. Africa.

For more detailed information about scores in soccer (football) and other sports see the Maccabiah website:

http://maccabiah.com/maintxt.asp?cid=342&parents=&psn=342&maincatid=342

My understanding is that USA is doing very well just behind Israel for Gold medals so far. We have had particular success in Basketball and track.

We were happy to pick Benjamin up and bring him to Netanyah for a little rest on Tuesday and again Friday afternoon. Tuesday, we make it to the beach at Netanya for some good wave jumping and body surfing. Mostly he wanted to hang out, read a book and get a felafel to eat. His sister Elizabeth doted over him serving him sandwiches and drinks, Barbara did a pile of laundry (Benjamin and his rooomates'). After a quick Shabbat Kiddush, we dropped him back at Shefayim before the 10 pm curfew.

Today Benjamin reports some competetive Ping Pong back at Shefayim and Pizza in the cafeteria. Hopefully the boys will have their full game going again tomorrow morning against what is reported to be a highly competetive Argentina team! Bye for now. Don't forget the Shutterfly site.