Day 12 - Sunday, July 19th

Last game vs Brazil today. We have to win in order to advance to the bronze medal game. Otherwise, we are done playing. We begin with the walk out to midfield, give a wave to the fans and then shake hands with the other team. We start the game playing with confidence and are passing the ball around pretty well. I've moved into a center midfield position to try and match up with one of their two best players and to also give a little more offensive boost to the team. About 25 minutes into the game they are awarded a penalty kick. Our keeper almost saves it, but they go up 1-0. For the rest of the 2nd half the play is in their half. I don't think they had a corner kick all game and our keeper rarely touched the ball the entire 2nd half. We kept putting the ball into the box with a number of close calls. But it just wouldn't drop in for us. Our best game overall by far, but we lost 1-0. Even though things got heated towards the latter parts of the game, once it's over, it's over with both teams joining in post-game photos.

The rest of the day was spent at the pool, dinner and an evening at our hangout, the Bear Pub. We did leave our mark with our team badge forever hanging up in the rafters with other famous soccer clubs who have visited Haifa.