Friedland’s Maccabi Blog: Dec. 27, 2011

Stars player-coach Kevin Friedland and captain Kyle Altman are competing for the United States at the Pan American Maccabi Games in Brazil. The tournament has started, and Kevin is checking in with his second blog post from Sao Paulo to recap the first day of competition and opening ceremonies.

Maccabi USA Soccer Teams

There are 6 Maccabi USA Soccer teams participating in the games. We are the Men’s Open Team. There is also a Youth (U18), Juniors (U16), Women’s Open, Masters 35+, and Masters 45+. All of the teams except the Masters teams were in Dallas for Training Camp.

Leaving Dallas

Desperate times, desperate taping.

We left Dallas on Christmas Eve on a direct flight from DFW to Sao Paulo. One of our players, Darren Weber, forget to mention that the zipper on his duffel bag was broken. So when we were at the airport, Kyle and I helped him turn his luggage into a box, complete with tape and a handle (see photo).

Arrival in Sao Paulo

After a 10 hour flight and checking into our hotel, the USA delegation headed over to the Hebraica in Brazil. The USA delegation consists of over 300 athletes, coaches, doctors, trainers, security, and staff members. The athletes participate in soccer, basketball, water polo, swimming, tennis, gymnastics, volleyball, softball and many more. The Hebraica is like a YMCA or Sports Club in the US for Jewish people in Sao Paulo. The Hebraica has soccer fields, futsal courts, basketball courts, volleyball courts, a track, 5 pools, restaurants and meeting rooms. It’s a beautiful facility and the home to all of the sporting competitions except for soccer. After dinner at the Hebraica, we headed back to the hotel to get some sleep before our first game.

Game #1 – Canada

We opened the on the first day of competition against Canada. The game kicked off at noon at the University of Sao Paulo. Canada has traditionally been a weaker opponent in the Maccabi Games, however, this time they brought a much improved team. Kyle, Jarryd, and I are the only players on our team that have been through a Maccabi tournament before, so it was important for us to help prepare the guys for what was to come. We moved the ball around early but conceded a goal around the 30th minute and went into halftime down 1-0. We came out in the second half and Darren Weber, a forward from the University of San Diego, converted a nice header off of a corner kick. About ten minutes later I scored the game winner again off a set piece. It’s always good to open up a tournament with a win.

Old Faces

Stars captain Kyle Altman presents the US flag at opening ceremonies.

This is my fifth Maccabi trip and I always seem to run into old competitors from past games or people I’ve met through soccer. One of the forwards from the Canadian team was at the Minnesota Stars Combine in 2010 and their coach used to coach Minnesota defender, Gino Mauro. The assistant coach from the Mexico team, played for Mexico in the 2005 Maccabiah Games in Israel, and all he wanted to talk about was our semi-final game from that tournament (which the USA won). The Chilean coach is the same coach from the Pan Am Maccabi Games in Santiago, Chile in 2003.

Kyle’s Turn at Opening Ceremonies

After the game against Canada, the team got cleaned up back at the hotel and got ready to go to the Opening Ceremonies. Opening Ceremonies are quite a big deal at these events. It’s Olympic-like, with all of the teams walking in to an arena full of locals, cheering on their home countries. Kyle was selected to be the flag bearer for the entire USA delegation. This was a great honor for him as he lead the delegation into the arena and held the flag as the entire team entered (see photo). He was a little embarrassed when he was selected, but Jarryd and I knew he was going to get picked because this is his third trip and both Jarryd and I had been selected in previous games.

Opening Ceremonies

Military police accompanied Team USA into the opening ceremonies.

As you can imagine, there is a lot of security that goes into these events. We had a Military Police escort to the Credicad Hall, where the Opening Ceremonies took place (see photo). Opening Ceremonies consisted of a lot of speakers (in Portuguese), some videos of Jewish and Maccabi Games history, and a lot of songs and dancing by a Brazilian Folk Dance crew. I used the opportunity to try out some new camera settings on my phone to capture the night (see video). After the long night, we headed back to the hotel to get some sleep. Tuesday we have a day off of competition before three games in three days starting Wednesday. The plan is to take it easy and explore the city a bit.

Obrigado,
Kevin Friedland