Indelible Adventures: Emotional rollercoaster

Welcome to Indelible Adventures! If you enjoy what you read here please subscribe to my weekly distribution list via the Indelible Adventures website or browse my latest photos and upcoming adventures and travel tips. In addition, if you'd like to follow me on all my social media - see the links below.

Facebook - Google+ - Twitter - Instagram - LinkedIn - ImageBrief - National Geographic

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

We dropped Sami off at the airport for 7:00 am on Sunday so she could fly down with the team mates, and then Zach and I drove down to Albany, New York. Neither of us had been so we thought it was a great opportunity to take our time and explore on the way to watch Sami compete in the Maccabi Games.

The drive from Toronto to Albany is just over six hours, but we stopped for breakfast and a stretch break and so arrived just after 1:00 pm on a hot and sun filled afternoon. Zach has his favorite satellite radio channels which he religiously listens to and over the years I’ve come to appreciate his eclectic taste in music, and even when he was snoozing I was I found myself enjoying his musical choices. Our conversations tend to be eclectic and range from geo-politics to history and everything in between. Most of all I like just spending time together and talking to him about life. I still find it amazing that he wants to hang with his dad…no complaints from me on that front. :-)

Stamford, Connecticut was the host city for the 2016 North American Maccabi Games. Overall there were 22 sporting events, including Sami’s U16 Girls soccer conducted over the course of a week of competition. The teams represent cities from all over North America and Great Britain with Sami representing Toronto. They won the gold medal last year in Florida, and so they put a lot of pressure on themselves to repeat.

Not surprisingly her squad was a composite of girls from across the city, with a couple of familiar faces from last year, but predominately a new squad.

The morning game on Day One saw the girls start their campaign with an impressive 7-0 win against their pool rivals Boca Raton. They played an exceptional game and literally threw down the gauntlet to all the other teams in the competition that they had come to play. However, that was short lived when they came up against Los Angeles in the afternoon game. The LA team were a bigger and more aggressive team and pushed the Toronto team to the limit, fortunately, the girls were able to squeak away with 1-0 win. All-in-all a great start to the games but a tad shaky in game 2.

Tuesday dawned another hot and humid day with dehydration being a major risk for the girls. In the first game they demolished Orange County 8-2 and were using great teamwork to overwhelm their opponents, but were having fun a the same time. Sami had been playing in defence although normally a forward the coach used her versatility to move her around to a couple of different positions. She was playing well and had adapted easily to her new position(s).

In the afternoon game they played a composite Stamford/Hartford team and ran out easy winners 8-1. Given the consistent score lines you would assume that not only they would be seeded number one going into the finals but also seemingly run away with the competition and the gold medal on offer.

Wednesday saw the quarterfinal game against Boca Raton played in torrential rain, but the girls were able to defeat them handily 5-0. Checking in with Sami after the game I felt that her and her team mates were ready for anything, although I could sense they all expected the gold medal to fall into their laps and so felt a little uneasy about the level of assuredness that they’d all seemed to have fallen into.

The semi-finals and finals were scheduled for Thursday, and the day dawned hot and humid, which I knew would challenge our girls physically, especially after the rigorous schedule they'd endured all week. That aside, I could sense that it was going to be an eventful day...

In the semi final they easily beat Boca again, by not as convincingly as they had earlier in the week when they were fresh. There was a nervous anticipation of the gold medal game that seemed to loom larger as they waited for the game to begin later in the afternoon.

As the time for the game drew near and the girls warmed up under the blazing sun and it soon became obvious that at least one of the key players on the team was suffering from heat stroke and therefore unable to take part in the gold medal game, of course one of our key goal scorers.

In the gold medal game, early in the first half a moment of indecision led to a quick goal from Orange County, and so put pressure on the girls from the outset. Now I should also mention that the Toronto team was far from the crowd favourite which rattled the girls no end, as every time they touched the ball there was a lot of crowd noise and negativity directed toward them from the partisan crowd.

Now starting from a goal behind it didn't take them long to even the score, but some unfavourable refereeing decisions saw them frustrated on more than one occasion but they continued to persevere and literally bombarded the other teams goal with shot after shot, but just not able to get one by the goal keeper.

By this time the girls were really feeling the combination of the pressure from the crowd coupled with the heat and you could see their heads beginning to drop. With ten minutes to go in the game the other team scored a goal and that was it. No amount of trying or attacking the goal could get it past their entire team who huddled in the box and around the goal. It just wasn't meant to be!

The final scoreline was 2-1... Even though we'd outscored our opponents 39-6 over the course of the tournament it wasn't enough to secure the gold medal this year.

The girls took it in their stride and were gracious losers, congratulating the other team before collected their silver medals.

After the game Sami was circumspect about the loss, not heart broken although I know she really wanted to win the gold medal it just wasn't meant to be...well for this year at least.

There is always next year!

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“Hanoi Posting” A series of fictional micro-stories by Terence Wallis

Come visit "Hanoi Posting" at its new home!

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This week's photos are from Toronto's "Taste of the Danforth" - my neighbourhoods weekend celebration of their greek heritage.

Enjoy!