A. On the frontlines of the Israel-Hizbullah War?
B. In a room full of prepubescent teenagers playing "God of War" on XBox?
C. In a dingy stadium in Ramat Gan on a Wednesday night?
OK, I may have already alienated half my audience here, but I'm trying to describe the awesomeness of watching a live "kaduregel" match between Israel and Estonia. My friend David and I had to climb this slippery dirt hill to get to the stands, where instead of billboards there were empty skeletons where ads could potentially hang. I felt like I was in Mexico or some red-dirt vast in Africa. Everyone stood the entire game trying to enthuse the other side of the stadium to engage in echoing chants varying from "Na, na, na-na-na!" to "Ole, Yisrael!" to "Yisrael malchama!"
Even though I haven't been following the Euro 2008 qualifying matches beyond the Israel-England no-score match, it was a fun and high-scoring game. Especially for lil' Ben-Sahar who so graciously forfeited the hat trick everybody wanted him to get. Too bad nobody was there for him to pass the ball to in the middle of the second half. Two is good enough for a 17-year-old Israeli boy who will prove to be quite a good player, so I'm told.
When the boy scored, the crowd turned the chants to "Oy oy, Ben-Sa-har!" They were his first international goals.
When the game was over (Israel 4, Estonia 0) everyone trampled down the dirt hill and bought bagelim for 2-and-a-half shekels.
