Masters save face against Samba boys
Team GB’s Masters 35’s brought home the senior football squad’s only medal of the 19th Maccabiah Games after winning the bronze medal match against reigning Pan-Am holders Brazil.
Under the stewardship of Dan Jacobs and Jamie Cole, the squad came through a gruelling schedule of seven matches in just 11 days.
GB came from behind to win their first match, with Paul Lenchner and Paul Linger setting up a 2-1 win over the USA.
The team then played four matches in four days, with Lenchner on target again in a 2-1 defeat against Brazil before they went down 1-0 to Israel.
Hadley Silver, Adam Kaye and Nick Astaire helped GB return to winning ways against Chile, while Linger was the hat-trick hero against Mexico.
With a medal place secured, defeat against Argentina mattered little and goals from Kaye and Lenchner, with his third of the tournament, helped GB secure bronze against Brazil.
“This really was an exceptional group of men,” commented Jacobs. “To a man they understood this was a squad game and fought for each other on the pitch in the same way they laughed together off it.
“To manage them was an honour, to lead them to a medal is an indescribable feeling.
“To match the best-ever achievement of a Masters over-35’s side at a Maccabiah - simply Jamie and I could not be prouder.”