Jay Meydad's Life Mashup

I took my 8 & 5.5 year old sons and their 10 year old cousin who is visiting from Israel to watch the friendly game between LA Galaxy vs Barcelona at the Rose Bowl on Saterdauy. It was a fantastic night and a great memory for all of us, especially for Evyatar, my oldest son, who celebrated his 8th birthday that day.

Notes:

• A packed Rose Bowl with all the pre-game activities outside the stadium provides an amazing atmosphere for a soccer game
• There is such a huge potential to make soccer really big in the US as there is such a hunger by so many people to see the top players play locally. I am certain that if more European players will join the MLS, this league could be really successful. And if the MLS champion will start participating in the Champions league (similar to some discussions related to European basketball team(s) joining the NBA) that could be a real booster for success.
• Barcelona is coming to this season well trained and prepared.It was amazing the see how 2-3 players of Barcelona put pressure on a Galaxy player the second he had the ball
• I have a feeling Zlatan Ibrahimovic will score over 30 goals this season with Messi, Henry and Xavi feeding him with assists
• Galaxy fans are still not over their David Beckham booing. But when he scored a fantastic goal from a free kick, he was god to them. Go figure…

I uploaded plenty of pictures and videos (including Barcelona’s first goal) to this Flickr set but here is a taste.

We are in the midst of amazing two weeks for football (a.k.a soccer) fans:

• Los Angeles Galaxy played AC Milan last Sunday at the Home Depot Center (what a great stadium, no matter where you sit you get to see all the action). That was David Beckham’s first game with the Galaxy after coming back from a load to…AC Milan. He was booed by the fans the entire first half but gave a great game. Regardless of what many fans think, without Becks, the Galaxy are two levels weaker. Here are some photos I took and a video clip of Galaxy’s first goal, an example of how a fast break should be executed. It ended 2:2 and everyone were happy.
• Inter Milan played Chelsea on Sunday at the Rose bowl in front of 82K fans (who said football isn’t popular in the US?). Inter was weak (even with Zlatan), Chelsea was very strong and won rightly 2:0. Pictures here.
• Next Sunday I will see the world’s best team, FC Barcelona, in a game against the Galaxy. Since Zlatan Ibrahimovic just signed for Barca I will have a chance to see him again. I hope he will play much better than his performance with Inter. I hear there are still some tickets on StubHub if you are interested.

I am big football (a.k.a soccer) fan. I love to play, I had a season ticket for many years for Maccabi Tel Aviv’s home game (I’ve been their fan for more than 30 years), and recently also coach my oldest son at AYSO which is something I highly recommend doing. It is very fun, rewarding and bonding.

Shortly after we moved to the US more than 6 years ago, we got our house connected to the Israeli Network. It is a pretty expensive premium TV channel ($20/month) and the programs are not that interesting (mainly news, politics, Israeli soap operas and reality tv) but the channel has the broadcasting rights for the Israeli Premier League games, and that was the main motivation for me to get connected.

In the first 3 years for our live in the US, I used to wake up early on Saturday morning and sit for 2 hours to watch the game of my beloved team. Using the DVR was not even an option back then since my mentality said that a game had to be watched live. There were a few games that were not broadcasted on the Israeli Network due to rights issues and I found myself watching games on a laptop in terrible quality on sites like Tapuz and others (imagine a guy who points a webcam at a TV and provides his own commentary using the microphone).

The last 3 years have been a disaster. My team sucks. And it is getting worse and worse every year. This led me to completly change the way I watch Israeli football. First, I started DVRing the games and watched them late at night once I am done with family activities during the day. This did not last much. I quickly switch from normal speed to a x4 speed which basically has 2 advantages:

• The game suddenly looks like it is an English Premier League / Spanish La Liga game. You can see players that are actually running!

• You don’t hear the terrible commentary.

That did not last as well. Even at the x4 speed I quickly got bored since no goals were scored, and the ball was not even getting close to the 16 meters box. Nothing was really happening at these games.

So, I increased the speed to x15, and then to x60 and later on to x300. Yes, you can not really see much when watching at this speed, but honestly, there was nothing to see. I simply kept my eyes focused on the upper left corner where the score/time label is and waited for the label to change. Once it changed, I would switch back to normal speed, rewind 30 seconds, watch the goal re-run and speed again to x300.

This year, since my team looks really pathetic, I have completely stopped doing that. I switched from wathing the full 90 minute games to watching only the Weekends Highlights show. But the truth is that the other teams in this league do not play much better compared to Maccabi, and all the games looks boring when watching at normal speed. So, the latest for me is that now I am watching the highlights show at x60 speed.

This is in a nutshall the state of Israeli football in 2009 from my point of view. And If you are one of those who look at FIFA ranking and thinks it tells a true story, you might want to think twice.

I would like to thanks my friend Roy Klieger who used to sit next to me at Maccabi’s home games for many years for the inspiration. A note he sent me regarding our team’s pathetic situation led me to turn a reply email into a post.

Don’t get me wrong. I cheer for the Israeli football national team and wish them only success. I long for the day I will be able to take my boys to watch the Israeli team at a World Cup or the Euro.

But, at the same time, I can not understand how the hell the team is ranked #16 on the latest FIFA Word Ranking, before teams who have participated in major tournaments (World Cup, Euro, etc.), like Greece, Ukraine, Mexico, United States, Paraguay or Ghana.

The ranking algorithm FIFA uses simply does not do what it is says it is supposed to do: “Under the existing system, rankings are based on a team’s performance over the last four years, with more recent results and more significant matches being more heavily weighted to help reflect the current competitive state of a team.” (source: wikipedia).

FIFA should hire some search experts to tune up the algorithm and its relevance. Otherwise, it is just a matter of time before Israel passes England.

FIFA world ranking - oct 2008 (source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FIFA_World_Rankings)

Sorry I can not be in person at Blumfield tomorrow and cheer you in your last game.

I read today that Eyal Berkovitz, one of Isreal’s legendary football players, cursed the coach of his 10 years old son and threatened to “end the career” of the poor guy, because his son played only 25 minutes in a 60 minutes game.

I read this piece of news after I returned with my 6 years old son from his AYSO game where I volunteer as an assistant coach. The game was fun. It was full of action but no one cursed, shouted or got mad on the coaches. Parents hanged around the field and cheered for their kids (who played equal time slots).

I have a suggestion – perhaps the Israeli Football Association should take a look at AYSO, a wonderful program that teaches kids the game of soccer, and adopt the program’s principals. They are very easy to find since they appear on signs that are located on every field, to remind parents that Kids are #1, and that Fun – not winning – is everything.

Technorati Tags: AYSO, Eyal Bertovitz, Football, Soccer, Israel Football Association

It happened just as I thought, and as of Saturday night Eli Cohen is no longer our head coach.

Roni, Loni and Avi have a great part in the latest crises in our team. It is easy to blame the coach for the poor performance of the players, but when you tie his hands (cut players’s budget in half) and constantly criticize his work in the press (how can a coach motivate his players after they read he is not going to be the coach soon?) you create an environment where no one can succeed. Unless our multi-headed management will change her leadership & communication style, the future of the next coach is not going to be bright.

Speaking about the next coach…well, during the pre-Klinger era , in the years 2000-2002, the team played happy football and won two cups. Nir Levine was responsible for that and therefore he deserves the job. My 2 cents.

Technorati Tags: Maccabi Tel Aviv, Eli Cohen, Football, Soccer, Layoff

“Like So Many Rabbit Heads” picture by: JeffCam