It’s deep into the second half of an Israeli professional soccer game one Sunday afternoon in 2011 when a midfielder takes possession of the ball.
The player’s lithe build marks him out as an athlete, someone to watch; but it’s the way that the ball seems to stick to his boots that makes the spectators sit up.
As the man with the intense, dark face evades one onrushing defender and closes on another, the crowd buzzes.
With another feint, the white-shirted attacker finds himself in open space in the other team’s half, separated from an open goal only by the goalkeeper. There’s a collective holding of breath as he draws back his lethal right foot, and suddenly the crowd roars as the low shot bulges the net.
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