Tuesday night we went to a soccer game between Maccabi Haifa and Juventus, an Italian team. From what I understand about the sports world (which is close to nothing), Juventus is an extremely good team and there wasn't a chance that Haifa would actually win. Despite this rather depressing prediction, we all went in pumped and ready to cheer on Haifa along with the rest of the green-clad crowd.
Haifa ended up losing, but it was still extremely fun. A few pieces of advice for anyone planning on attending an Israeli soccer game:
1- Make sure you have a bag of sunflower seeds with you. Learn how to open and eat the seed with one hand (it's an acquired skill that I am coming very close to mastering).
2- The second the game starts you must be seated. You will be rudely shouted at if you stand up at any point in the game other than when your team comes close to making a goal.
3- When you see the entire other side of the stadium raise their arms in unison and shout something indeciferable, be prepared for your side to respond in turn with the other half of the cheer. These Hebrew chants typically followed the pattern of one side shouting "Yarok oleh!" and the other following with a hearty "Oleh, Oleh!" The ruach is pretty effective/infectious when you see an entire stadium with thousands of people shouting in unison.
Sidenote: At least now I know where my madrichim from camp got such creative Hebrew cheers like "Go green go" for our Maccabia games.
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