July 23, 2005
SAN DIEGO - San Diego State University men's soccer head coach Lev Kirshner fell short of making U.S. Maccabiah history when his team lost to host nation Israel, 2-0 in the 17th Maccabiah Games gold medal match. Kirshner and his assistant became only the second and third members of the United States to have won two medals in Maccabiah competition. Kirshner and his assistant, Amos Magee, won bronze in the 1993 Maccabiah Games. This also marked only the second time the U.S. played for gold, the first was in 1981.
The U.S. squad had their work cut out for them from the start. First, under-20 National Team player, Benny Feilhaber was suspended for the final for yellow card accumulation. Feilhaber's solace was received after the tournament, when he flew to German Bundesliga team, Hamburg, and signed a three year professional contract. Hamburg has great tradition with seven league titles as well as 1977 Cup Winners Cup and 1983 European Cup championships. Additionally, Israel played less than a half of soccer in their semi-final match as the game was abandoned due to a Brazilian player allegedly shoving the referee. This came on the same night as the U.S. was forced to play 120 minutes plus penalty kicks before beating Concacaf rival Mexico.
The U.S. conceded their first goal of the evening in the 37th minute, when a back pass was not played with enough pace and an Israeli striker went in for an easy tap-in score. The U.S. nearly tied the game before halftime, but defender, Michael Erush's strike, flew by the post which kept the score at 1-0.
Early in the second half, the Israeli's struck again. The goal came off a corner kick play that ultimately had a 30-yard strike deflect off a defender and ricochet past the helpless U.S. goalkeeper, into the side net.
After bringing on Jordan "the JoJo" Katz, the U.S. attack immediately picked up and received its best chance of the match. Katz received a diagonal ball from the left side, which he cut back to oncoming Serbian Belgrade professional, Jordan Gruber. Gruber's low strike was deflected away by the foot of the Israeli goalkeeper. A few more chances would come the U.S.'s way, but to no avail.
"The better side won tonight," expressed a disappointed Kirshner, "But the boys played their best match of the tournament and will have no regrets for their effort."
The Kirshner-led squad also won the tournament's "Fair Play" Award, which is bestowed to the team that exhibited the best sportsmanship.