Training today, July 9, 2013

Good afternoon to everyone in the good old USA! Well today we had our early morning session of regeneration and it was a welcome relief to our players legs and bodies. They ten came back, had breakfast, stretching in the pool and then rest. This afternoon we played joker and 4 v 4 and it was good. Te joker session was supposed to be 10 minutes, but we never found a rhythm, so we ran it for 20 and that did the trick. We then worked on set pieces of free kicks and corners. Kind of a walk- through. We had a team meeting this evening to go over our game plan for our friendly game with Australia tomorrow morning at 7:00 am. We also play them again the next day as well. Now I am going to try and attach some photos as a test to see if I did this correctly. Take care and I will write again after our game tomorrow morning. Coach G

Training session number 2

Hello everyone! It is now 8:30 pm in Israel and I wanted to update you all on our 2nd training session. First of all, we did have a very nice field to train n at the Holon Country Club near Tel Aviv. It was sure a welcome relief to our players andvespecially their legs! I am most appreciative to Lou Moyerman, Harold Friedman, Dan Kurtz and our Israeli helper, Erez for making this happen on such a short notice. I have notified the Australia folks about our "friendlies" being moved. Both games on the 10th and 11th will be at the Holon field. Now for our training this afternoon. One word sums up our session...intense! I was very happy to see that type of intenity nd commitment to what we are trying to do in building this team's Rhythm in order to establish the type of Flow we want in all our games. We played 10 v 10 on a very small field with smaller goals, playing only 2 touch with movement and it was a big success! We worked extremely hard on and off the ball with a tremendous work rate and intensity. Everyone is buying into our philosophy and they are starting to believe! Both our goalkeepers are doing outstanding and we couldn't be happier with both of them. In closing for our first full day of training, I would be remiss if I didn't tell you how well everyone gets along and how they spend all their down time together as a team. There are no cliques, only ONE TEAM! We will train again tomorrow morning and afternoon. We plan on a regeneration session in the morning, with jogging, stretching and a little ball work like 5 v 2 and then warmdown and get to the pool for stretching. The pool is critical for our regeneration and I am so thankful that we can utilize it every day. In the afternoon we will put in our set pieces for corners and free kicks. We will also work on defending corners nd how we will defend in man-to-man with 2 players in a zone on the 6 yard box. We will also work on setting our defensive wall as well. So until tomorrow, take care and be well! From Israel, Coach G

Good morning to everyone in the States and especially, my family! I miss everyone very much already. Well we had our first training session this morning on an awfully small synthetic field that we had to share with the Open womens team. Needless to say, it was not conducive for a great session, not to mention the surface was horrible. It was all infill rubber pellets and very little synthetic grass. Kind of reminded me of the "hardplatz" fields in Germany, except worse! From now on we will be training on grass at a very nice field and alone! The balls and training bibs Maccabi shipped were lost in transit and only 11 balls made it, but no bibs. Somehow the Israeli person helping facilitate all our training was able to get us enough balls, so every team had at least 8 to use. He is extremely nice and most helpful to us. So, our first training went well, I thought. The players worked very hard and I think we will be pretty good, as long as we can come together as one team and leave all our egos on the side and put the team first. I know they will do that, as they all have that common goal of winning! We mainly played 6 v 6 after some warm-up drills and working on "vertical play" out of the back. This afternoon, we will continue our vertical style of possession play and play on a small field to simulate the pressure we want to execute in all our games. Then we will open the field up for 10 v 10, trying to find the right mix of players to run our system of play. With only 6 subs per game snd no re-entry once you are out, it is going to put a premium of developing ths mix quickly. I will write again this evening after our training and dinner. So until then, take good care and be well! From Israel, Coach G

Today, we found out our schedule has changed once again. This time I hope it is the last. It is much better than the previous revision, as we now have a 4 PM game time on all 3 of our pool play games. That allows us to be prepared to play at the same time each day, including our pre-game meals, thus allowing us to have the same preparation each game day. That first game on July 19th was moved from 11 AM to 4 PM, so at least we can get more rest after a potentially long evening on our feet at the Opening Ceremony on July 18th. This will be a very short update and I will have another post on our Departure day of July 6th! So until then, take care, Coach G

Today we found out our schedule has changed and actually for the better. We now open Pool Play on July 19th against Uruguay at 11:00 AM at Gvaat Ram Venue. We then play Denmark on July 21st at 4:00 PM at Kiryat Yovel Venue. Our last game in Pool Play is against Mexico on July 23rd at 4:00 PM back at Givaat Ram Venue. We now have at least 1 day off in between our Pool Play games for rest and regeneration. The Quater Finals will be on July 25th, so once again another day off in between games.That is far better than our previous schedule of playing 3 days in a row. The only down side to playing on the 19th at 11:00AM, is that the Opening Ceremony is on the 18th and it will be a long day on our feet and a late night return to our hotel. But, every team is in the same boat... We are getting really excited about our departure date drawing near on July 6th. I have told our teams we will discuss our Rules and our schedule once we arrive in Israel on July 7th ina team meeting. They are all on the same page as to why we are going to Israel, as we seek out our "Heritage" and the vehicle for that is "Soccer". We know what we must do to stay fit and on top of our game, so I am not the least bit worried about our team and it's priorities being in the right place! So, until we arrive in Israel, this should be my last blog before departure. But, like today, things may change and I will then get back on and update all of you. Best regards to all, Coach G

We now know our complete game schedule. We open Pool Play on July 21 against Uruguay at 4:00 PM Israel time (8 hours ahead)or 8:00 AM Cental Time zone. This game will be at the Mabat Venue. We continue Pool Play against Denmark on July 22, at Kiryat Yovel Venue Actually all our Pool Play games are at 4:00 PM Israel time. We conclude Pool Play against our "old friends" Mexico at the Kivaat Ram Venue! That game should be a war and hopefully, it will be for 1st place in our Group, whch is Group D. The Quarter-Finals begin on July 25th and the Semi-Finals are on July 28th, with he Gold Medal Final Game the following day, July 29th. Let's Continue to Dream the Impossible, to achieve the Possible! While dreaming, just believe weil be the ones "drinking from the cup"! Again, you can see the complete schedule attached above. Feel the Passion! Coach G

The Draw for the 19th Maccabiah was made today. We were drawn into Group D with Mexico, Denmark and Uruguay. This is a very good draw for us. The top 2 teams from our Group will advance to the Quarter Finals. The entire draw can be found at the following site on Page 3: http://library.constantcontact.com/download/get/file/1111215209858-49/Public+Draws+2013.pdf. The excitement within our team is building now that we know who all we will be playing. The actual schedule of all our games within our group should be known by the endof June, before we leave for Israel. I will post our actual pool play schedule, once it is available. Take care and thanks for reading along, Coach G