Friday, June 11, 2010

A Betar Soccer Story

The World Cup/Mondial Tournament is beginning today.

So, a soccer story is appropriate.

In 1968, I was head of the Yarden Camp which was the under-the-tent section. I was then informed that I was to be in charge of the delegation traveling from Camp Betar to Canada for the Zionist Youth Movement Maccabiah.

One element was soccer and a game played was Betar vs. Shomriyah.

The shmutzniks showed up with sneakers and some even went barefoot. I presume they were the Israeli kids of the shlichim.

I looked at our side and most of the players seemed to be wearing heavy shoes, even boots. That would weigh down their running ability and it seemed strange.

I asked on of our madrichim what was doing and the answer I received was:

"we won't be kicking only the ball."

2 comments:

Leo Bressman said...

Hi to Betar campniks....I was surfing the net today and accidentally came across this website and it brought back very fond memories. I was a waiter sometime in the mid-sixties and lived in the Yarden. My tentmates were Mitch Karp and Marty Erdfarb, I think. I have so many stories, I don't know where to start....I also attended the camp competition in Canada and played soccer on a combined team of several camps. We had the sneakers and our opponents were wearing the boots....but we finessed them. Leo Bressman

YMedad said...

I'll scan some pics of that trip to Cnada. The game was against Shomriya and we lost 'cause our guys kept missing the ball and kicking the opposing shins