Monday July 13th

So today we had our first game of the tournament. I have posted a game report a bit earlier so everyone knew about it as soon as we could. Today was a very nice day. We got the first win in the history of Maccabi Futsal. Not a bad feeling. So when the game was over some of the guys stayed to watch Brazil play Finland. The rest of us went back to the hotel. The Brazil game ended 11-2 in favor of Brazil so we have to watch out for them because they are a very good team.

We changed and hung out a bit back at the hotel. The day was pretty much just us hanging out. The players who's family came to watch hung out with them and everyone else just did whatever. Aaron, our trainer Allen and myself went for a walk to see some of the things around the hotel.

At 4:15pm we had to be back at the hotel and dressed for Opening Ceremonies. We wore white shoes, our Adidas Kacki shorts, our dark blue button down USA top and a really bad straw woven hat. (we really didn't like it, it didn't really fit my head, but it was a very hot item of trade for everyone.)

We get to Ramat Gan Stadium and are led like sheep into a very large fenced in area. This area was big enough to hold all 9000 some odd people walking in the opening ceremonies. They had food, water, popsicles, and shade for everyone. This is the start of the trading. I mean OMG...everyone wants everything. The only problem is that we need to walk wearing our own gear...as soon as we are done its fair game to get rid of everything. People are trading shoes, shorts, pants, shirts, jackets, hats. At the end of the ceremony you can not tell who is on what team. I left with a Turkey polo, South Africa shirt, Holland hat, and my USA shorts since no one wants them. I even traded my bag to Brazil for their team bag.

But walking into the stadium (we all got pictures of it) surrounded by THOUSANDS of people was unreal. To make things cooler the prime minister and the president were both in attendance and made speeches. We just had some problem understanding Hebrew. But it was so amazing.

We were stationed on the left side of the main stage. We were given props so we could add something to the show. But again we were to excited and wrapped up in trying to trade ourI gear that we really dropped the ball on that. I think one of the coolest things about the ceremony was when Jason Lezak was one of the torch runners and he lit the torch in the stadium.


To be really honest I cant tell you what was going on, on stage. I was not paying attention. Like I said I was trading my gear. What I do know about the show is from watching my brothers mini videos of things he noticed while he was trading. I mean Aaron got a shirt from Palou. They only have 1 junior swimmer and 2 coaches. Aaron got the coaches shirt.

So to sum it up...we will have to go back at watch the opening ceremonies on Direct TV channel 366 when we get back to Cleveland. Until then I will just keep on trading my gear like everyone else.