Soccer / Keeping the faith

Izzy Sheratzky did not need long to realize what a talent he had in the youth division of his soccer club. Five years ago, he watched Hapoel Kiryat Shmona boy's team play a pre-season match. Accompanied by the head of the youth team, Doron Snapper, Sheratzky stood on the sidelines and watched Kiryat Shmona take on Bnei Yehuda. Within minutes of the game starting, he asked those around him the name of the boy standing between the goalposts. The answer: Danny Amos. "He'll be the senior team goalie one day," said Sheratzky with authority. "His potential is obvious."

The astute observation of the Kiryat Shmona boss came true. Amos, now 21, grew up in Kfar Blum, after immigrating to Israel with his parents from South Africa when he was six months old. This summer, he was handed the first-team jersey, following the departure of veteran stopper Shavit Elimelech. For Amos, whose brother plays in the Israeli national rugby team, the path to the first time was paved with ups and downs. While he was earmarked from a young age as the goalkeeper of the future for the Golan Heights team, his rebellious teenage years threatened to ruin a promising career.

Educating Amos

"I was a problematic kid," Amos recalls. "I had quite a temper."

If Kiryat Shmona bosses had decided to wash their hands of the talented but problematic 'keeper, rather than - as they put it - "trying to educate the lad," it is highly doubtful that Amos would be standing between the posts tonight as Hapoel Kiryat Shmona plays the second leg of its UEFA Cup qualifying match against Mogren of Montenegro. "It was clear to everyone that he had great potential," says youth team coach Yitzhak Kenner. "We were tough with him because we had such high expectations of him. In the end, it worked out well for everybody."

Snapper introduced a regime of military-like discipline into the youth set-up at Kiryat Shmona. Local people describe him as a tough person. The boys who played under him knew that, before proving that they had the talent and the ability, they had to show that they could live up to the rigid rules of discipline that he set: arriving on time to training; presenting a respectable face for the club; decent interpersonal relations; following orders; neatness; and cleanliness. There are precious few places in Israel - outside the IDF - where discipline is so rigid.

Beitar vs. Amos

Amos quickly showed himself to be a "rebellious kid, with a problem with authority," according to Snapper. On more than one occasion, he was warned about his frequent tardiness. "He used to say 'Come on. What do you want from me? Why are people are always picking on me?'," says Snapper. The club decided to adopt a policy of restraint with their young talent, in the hope that he would grow out of it. In Amos' first year in the youth team, when his coaches saw that he was not following the straight and narrow, they told him enough is enough.

Amos was suspended from the club for three months. "It was a lesson that we had to teach him," Snapper recollects. "He was so talented, and we didn't want to lose him, so we had to be tough with him. After his return, everyone saw a radical improvement. It wasn't the same Danny we knew before. Not only did his behavior improve, he also started to make sure that the other member of the team did the same. He took responsibility and showed great leadership and maturity. He became a true professional."

Amos' willingness to become a professional was obvious to everyone involved in the club. His new-found professionalism manifested itself in his willingness to leave the senior squad, which was playing a game in Be'er Sheva, and to travel north to join the youth team for a vital promotion class against Hapoel Hadera. He helped his team to a decisive 4-0 victory. Not only did his character take a turn for the better, so, too, did his goalkeeping ability. One game sticks in the mind of all those involved with Kiryat Shmona: a Youth State Cup quarterfinal match against Beitar Jerusalem two years ago, when, for over an hour, Amos kept a rampant Beitar team at bay and single-handedly kept the Jerusalemite attack at bay. "That was a seminal moment for Amos," recalls Snapper. "That game was Amos versus Beitar - and he won 1-0, even if he didn't actually score the goal."

Speaking yesterday to Haaretz from Macedonia, Amos said, "I hope that this season will be my breakthrough season. Being the first-choice goalie for the senior team is a dream come true. I hope that I can live up to expectations. We have a tough game against Mogren, but I believe we can beat them. We are the better side and we certainly didn't come here to lose. It won't be easy, but we can do it. My personal ambition is to do well this season with the senior squad and to see where that leads. As far as I am concerned, the sky's the limit."