Dear Yellow & Blue,
Yesterday I fulfilled a dream. A dream that I believe is in each and every one of you the first time you go to see a football match.
Many years ago, when I was about 6 years old, my father wanted to speak to me and I remember the discussion that we had like it was yesterday. I was afraid and I didn’t understand why my father was so serious. What did I do? Did my teacher call him up and complain about my behavior at school? Thankfully that wasn’t the case. My father said that he thought that it was the right time for me to go to my first football match, especially Maccabi Tel Aviv. I remember how excited I was and how I screamed with delight from the top of my lungs that finally I was going to be able to go to a Maccabi match because up until then I had just seen them on TV or heard the games on the radio on the Songs & Goals Program.
And then it happened. Saturday arrived and my cousin Shay who was 20 years old at the time took me to the match. I remember that when we arrived at Ramat Gan Stadium I was smiling from ear to ear. Thousands of Yellow & Blue fans against the Greens of Maccabi Haifa were all there to root for their respective clubs. We sat in Section 3 in the center of the pitch, the perfect place as we saw the sides draw 1:1. I believe that Eli Driks scored for Maccabi via a header and since then I’ve celebrated many moments that will go down in the annals of Yellow & Blue history. But let’s get back to the present.
When the Israel Football League published the schedule and I saw that there would be a match against Ashdod on Saturday December 2nd at 16:00, I smiled. I knew that this was the perfect opportunity to take my daughter Tamar, almost 4 years old to her first match and come full circle. My biggest dream was always to be able to initiate my child with Maccabi. I told Tamar that we would be going to the Maccabi match and she sang the championship song from the 90’s along with all of the other popular tunes from the Netanya Stadium.
Tamar was excited and I was even more excited than her. Saturday finally arrived and after a sleepless night I wrapped my daughter up in a Maccabi scarf and off we went. I put Maccabi songs on the car radio and when we arrived I had goosebumps all over my body. You couldn’t wipe off the smile from Tamar’s face as I waited to buy her a shirt. We stood in line for a few minutes hand in hand, bought her a shirt and then walked to the stadium together. I saw my daughter walk up the stairs and I thought to myself, “Wow, it’s happening. I can’t believe it. Tamar and I are at a Maccabi match!”
My excitement is at its peak, we enter the stadium, sit down and wait for the opening whistle. The match begins and Maccabi gives up a goal. Tamar cheers me up and says, don’t worry daddy, don’t be upset. And a few minutes later Blackman scores the tying goal. Tamar’s first goal. A goal that drew Maccabi even, exactly like when I went to my first match at Ramat Gan Stadium. I lifted Tamar up and we both screamed, “GGGOOOAAALLLLL!!!!!”
I’d prefer to forget about the second half and the match ended 1:1. Sounds familiar? Yep, just like my first match, 1:1 in a season that we won the championship. We should all relax a bit. I’m sure you’d like to know how Tamar was after the game? The first thing she said when we got to the car was, “Daddy, when are we going again? I want to go with you to every match!” I did what I had to do and gave my daughter Maccabi. Now I’ll have to get my son into the swing of things although he’s only 1.5. I guess there’s still time…
