They’ve tasted silver - but now Team Maccabi GB are going for gold
ANDY LANDESBERG is hoping his Team Maccabi GB football team can go one step better than they did at the last Maccabiah – and come back from Israel in the summer with gold.
Having led the team to silver last time out in 2017, he said: “My aim and goals remain as they always have done at any Maccabiah; to make it a special journey, a special experience, but at all times our ultimate goal is about winning gold. That’s what my squad on and off the field of play are there for, and is what everyone’s focused on.”
Landesberg will be assisted in Israel by Nathan Kosky, while Marcus Stewart and Darren Yarlett will be coaching.
The squad has taken part in monthly training sessions since last October, which will continue until April. Then, following a few weeks off at the end of the season, there will be three sessions a week at Rowley Lane, covering fitness, tactics, set pieces, stretching, nutrition, flexibility and even yoga. Several friendly matches are also being lined up.
Just as important for Landesberg is what the squad take from the Games.
“We all know how special going to a Maccabiah is, representing your country, your community in the UK, it’s a very special experience and feeling being out there in Israel,” he said.
“My aim along with my management, coaching and medical team, is to be one at all times. I’ve used this line before but it’s so true. If you go to Israel and participate in the Games as a Team and you return home together as a family, then you really have achieved something special. We did this at the European Games in Budapest and feel very strongly that we are again building something very unique.”
Team Maccabi GB are also sending out Masters 35+, 45+ and 55+ sides.
Managing the former is Daniel Jacobs, with Guy Morris assisting, and Steve Grenfell coaching the squad.
Refusing to be drawn on his targets for the Games, Jacobs said: “We keep our aims and goals in-house but it goes without saying that we’re not going there just to make up the numbers and have a jolly in the sun.
“The competition is extremely strong in this age bracket, as we know only too well, but we’ll be ready to offer a challenge to one and all.” Citing picking the squad and having to leave players out as “undoubtedly being the toughest part of the job”, he added: “We’re happy with the group we have, but sad that we can’t give the opportunity to everyone we’d like. There will be players at home that might well have added something, but we believe we’ve a good blend who’ll represent Team GB well both on and off the pitch.”
Explaining that it’s also his job to “deliver an outstanding experience for those selected that goes way beyond the two weeks in Israel”, Jacobs said: “For the squad on the pitch, it’s the pinnacle and the chance to play at being a genuine international footballer. But off it, it’s so very much more. Jewish Continuity through sport is so vital in this trying world we live in.
“We’ll make new friends and bonds across the globe, and will represent our country with pride.”
Paul Lenchner will co-manage the Masters 45+ team alongside Laurence Newman, with Andrew Cowell brought in to coach the team. Selecting their squad from more than 60 applicants was no easy task, but Lenchner was “pleasantly surprised” by the standard of the trialists.
“It wasn’t easy to leave people out, but we’ve selected what we believe to be a very balanced squad,” he said. “Everyone’s buying into what we are asking of them and from a personnel point of view, we couldn’t be happier.”
Having already played half a dozen games against “some very decent opposition”, a weekend trip to Lilleshall is planned next month, as well as an overseas visit to the Marbella Football Center in Malaga.
In terms of what he hopes his side can achieve in Israel in the summer, Lenchner said: “We want to be hard to beat and creative, but won’t set ourselves any goals or targets as that creates expectations and, with that, unnecessary pressure. We want to be relaxed and to be able to express ourselves. As long as we compete, work for each other and each give our all, then I believe we’ll be in a good place.”
Acknowledging what it means to represent British Jewry, he added: “I’m always telling our squad that we’re all in a privileged position. We sadly lost a good friend and a fantastic player who would have been the first name on our team sheet in Paul Linger to pancreatic cancer last year; we’ll be wearing his name on our shirt sleeves in Israel.
“To take this group of men out at the opening ceremony, to hear the Hatikvah, visit Yad Vashem and for Jews from around the world to come together in the name of sport shouting loud and proud ‘We are still here’, is the overriding message that I take from the Maccabiah.”
For the first time there will be a Masters 55’s competition, with Team Maccabi GB’s squad managed by the trio of Arthur Duke, Brian Donne and Ian Leader, and coached by Bobby Fisher.