They say lightning doesn't strike twice. So saying. The Israel national under-20 team has once again shown, for the umpteenth time, that clichés are separate from reality. Ofir Haim's big little men broke another glass ceiling and reached the quarterfinals of the World Cup, a sentence few believed would ever be said. Luckily, Ofir Haim, his crew and the actors are those few of them.
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This special team, 2003 years south, takes all the clichés surrounding the Israeli footballer, puts them in the shredder, shreds them for its enjoyment and gives us all hope for a better future.
The team came into the tournament without two of its best attacking players – Idan Tocalomati, who made meteoric progress this year, and of course Oscar Gloch, its most significant player by a margin up front (by the way, both belong to the younger yearbook, 2004), and yet, we did not once hear from Ofir Haim crying and crying or lowering expectations due to the absence of the two.
Anan Halailly celebrates the exciting goal of the Israeli national team. Who would have believed?, Photo: AP
They lost their first match against Colombia in the 90th minute, although they were superior, losing an advantage. She found herself in the 67th minute of the last match of the group stage, behind and at a numerical disadvantage against Japan. In fact, there were all the ingredients for a respectable loss and a sense of missed opportunity that we are so used to from Israel's national soccer teams throughout the ages.
But not with Ofir Haim's team, a team that insists on making the fans believe, giving the feeling that anything is possible no matter what the situation on the pitch, who is playing and how the game develops, and especially to show that our players have no physical fitness problem, they do not collapse under the pressure and that luck goes with those who believe in themselves, in their coach and know that their togetherness, of everyone - no matter if it starts or rises from the bench - brings them to heights that our football did not know.
The Israeli national team celebrates Anan Halaili's goal, Photo: Reuters
The game against Uzbekistan did not rise to a high level, but it was expected. Haim also said in the previous game that he thinks ahead, that he has a game plan and knows that the 11 who finish the game are more important than the ones who open.
So if the big hero of the game against Japan was Omar Senior who came on as a substitute, this time the substitute who made the difference was Anan Halayla (who replaced Senior in the 56th minute and he was also not in the Euros, how symbolic). Representative of the national youth champion, Maccabi Haifa. Halayla, scored the goal with his heart, as the excellent commentator Oshrat Eini described well. Halayla also represents all the beauty of this team and, to a certain extent, perhaps gives hope to Israeli society as well.
Because at a time when the rift in society is growing, when racism is raising its head even in places we never thought it would get there, including in the high corridors of government institutions, it is precisely football, the simple, that of the people, precisely there, a minority guy who causes high heartedness and immense happiness for an entire country.
Anan Halaili, who scores the goal that lifted Israel to the quarterfinals,
Now face the quarterfinals. There we will meet or not one of the two – Brazil, maybe the best team in the tournament (despite losing to Italy in the opening game) or Tunisia, the country from which my grandparents came, which brought us the best couscous in the world, but also a country that is not in relations with us and if it rises, there is a possibility that it will not show up for the game against us and in fact will give us the ticket to the semifinals and the Olympic Games in Paris.
Senior, yesterday in Argentina, photo: AP
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But until then, I want to say thank you to Ofir, the staff and the players, for the days of happiness and pride they provide to all football lovers, for their ability to make us believe that the impossible is possible and for reminding us that the beautiful Israel is still here and it is here to stay.
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