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On the Couch / Where sporting values reign supreme
By Jerrold Kessel
Tags: Israel News

The wife of a recently retired gent is getting tired of seeing him loll around all day, say, on the couch watching sport on TV. "What are you going to do today?" she asks. "Nothing."

"That's what you did yesterday!"

"I haven't finished yet," is the couch reply.
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"Finished" and "ought to retire" are two frequently heard remarks directed these days at the great South African golfer Ernie Els. A month or so ago Tiger Woods went controversially in a different direction. Referring to Els, who had slumped to 20th in the world rankings, Tiger observed that this could be attributed to the popular South African golfer not working hard enough after surgery on his left knee. "Ernie is not a big worker physically and that's one of the things you have to do with such an injury," said Tiger, who had similar surgery a couple years back.

Els, three times a Major winner, has gone more than 40 tournaments without a victory. He didn't respond verbally to Tiger or his other critics, but how wrong he proved them this past weekend!

Bankers are definitely not most people's flavor of the year. Clearly, though, Ernie and his fellow top pros don't harbor such antagonisms - they gave HSBC more than its money's worth for its extensive sponsorship of the Shanghai championship.

What a pity, then, that Ernie had to go and squander what should have been a final round 62, or even a 61, when he took a bogey six at the finishing water-hole. That let in long-time leader Phil Mickelson; he pipped Ernie at the post with a par five, both leaving a rather churlish Tiger chomping at their tails.

Even as he seemed to making the dubious transformation from champ to underdog, our identification with the class act that is Ernie Els has doubled. For all his long lean spell, never does he whimper or whine or petulantly throw his clubs, like other downed ex-champs. There's always a smile, however wry, and he's always the perfect sport with generous congrats for anyone who bests him. And, not to forget, he has the smoothest swing in the game.

This reflects a strange sporting truism. After the waning of the sporting spirit in the society in which it was born, England's contribution to sportsmanship was best kept alive in two unlikely places, two of the most dastardly societies - Apartheid South Africa and Communist Russia: Sportsmanship really reigned there. In many ways, it still does.

Another country boasting sporting mores that are more than a curiosity is Germany, a country where the underdog soccer club, and the absolute identification of fans with their club, is both intense and admirable.

Forget the Barca faithful in the Nou Camp, forget the Kop at Liverpool's Anfield, Germany's the place where fans get genuinely to count. And, to make their mark.

Back in the summer there was much deserved praise for the commitment of the "other" Berlin club, FC Union from the eastern side of the once-divided city. Under the bad old regime, the club was a bastion of anti-establishment sentiment. Now, literally with their own hands and skills and cash, they've built a new stadium because their rickety old one was deemed unfit once Union had won promotion to the Bundesliga's second tier.

What of St Pauli, from the dockside suburb of the northern port city of Hamburg, also in the German second division? With their fanatical following of free spirits and social radicals, outcasts and unemployed, dockworkers and transvestites, they have earned a reputation as Europe's premier "alternative" club.

St Pauli's grim unofficial logo may be the skull and crossbones, and its official song "Hell's Bells," but this is a club of tolerance, their fans preaching non-violence - except when they're called upon to battle the kind of out-and-out racism that mars the game elsewhere in Germany.

A genuine cult club with genuine fans, a club that is an answer to the takeover of the contemporary game by corporate business and wealthy entrepreneurs who, more often than not, couldn't care a fig for their club so long as it makes money.

In many ways, the club is refreshingly old-fashioned. They sport the most unattractive brown colors for their team colors, and only recently decided to move into the modern world by replacing their village green-like hand-operated scoreboard with an electronic one. An enormous concrete World War II bunker converted into an arts center looms behind one of the goals of their 20,000-seater stadium. It's invariably full for home games, even though they only rarely feature in the top flight.

The favorite preoccupation of the fans, apart from social bonding, is poking fun at the other Hamburg club, the glitzy and internationally successful Hamburger SV. When they aren't having fun, the goal of the St Pauli faithful is to challenge the cant, hypocrisy and discrimination that mars much of the contemporary game.

Notably, they were the first club in Germany officially to ban right-wing, nationalist activities and displays in its stadium, in an era when fascist-inspired football hooliganism threatened the game across Europe.

They also take a strong stand on sexism, priding themselves on having the largest number of female fans in all of German football. One study recently estimated that the team has some 11 million fans around Germany, and of 200 registered St Pauli fan clubs many of them are outside the country.

Many Israelis are among their most fervent advocates. Nephew T, for instance, who introduced me to the delights of lining up with St Pauli, proudly sports the club's favorite T-shirt. It refers to the 2001-2 season - the last time they made a single-season cameo in the top flight.

The season ended in relegation, but during the season St Pauli also recorded a famous 2-1 win over Bayern Munich, then the World Club Championship holders. That generated the shirt - Weltpokalsiegerbesieger ("World Club Champ Beaters").

Collectively, Hapoel Tel Aviv fans have taken St Pauli to their hearts. Their skull and crossbones flag often flies at Bloomfield in Jaffa, not merely because the Hapoel loyalists will champion any rival of their European opponents, Hamburg, but because the Israeli champions too see themselves as an alternative soccer bastion of the underprivileged and underrepresented. Hapoel fans also very much like to distinguish themselves from fair-weather supporters in Jerusalem and Haifa, whose loyalties are tested whenever Beitar and Maccabi are on a slide away from the top.

Both Union and St Pauli, by the way are challenging for promotion again. The Berlin club are currently third in the Bundesliga second division, with the docksiders one place below.

The tennis top dogs are also suddenly to be reckoned as potential underdogs. At the Paris Masters on Wednesday evening, local boy Julien Benneteau caused a huge upset when stunning Roger Federer in three sets.

The world no. 1 began in his usual imperious manner, but his game began to unravel in a cavalcade of errors and he failed to escape. Unlike the no. 2 seed earlier, when Rafael Nadal survived five match points to beat fellow Spaniard Nicolas Almagro partly because Almagro succumbed to cramp in the third set, allowing Nadal to win the decider 7-5.

Then in a match that started just before midnight and continued into the early hours of yesterday, Andy Murray was pushed all the way before coming through against James Blake 6-3, 6-7 (5-7), 7-6 (7-4). This from a man who, after winning only a couple of days previously his sixth tournament title of the year, said he wouldn't be "over-extending" himself so as to preserve his strength for the tour's season finale that starts in London on Sunday week.

Before bowing out to retirement with an opening round defeat in Paris, the ever-popular and ever-committed Marat Safin had a go at Andre Agassi for his drug and "hate tennis" revelations that have shocked his erstwhile fans. It may be a mite much for the tennis authorities to follow the Russian's advice and strip Agassi of his titles and demand the return of prize money.

But one thing can be said for sure - eat your heart out Andre, these guys love their tennis, and we love them for loving it!
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