Holy Goalie

One of my favourite plays-on-words has been the word "Goalie" - familiar in the English lexicon as the "saver" in the football team, but also to Jews as meaning "My saviour" (go-ali) in the Hebrew liturgy. I was reminded of this when, shortly after going to a pre-season friendly at Underhill to watch the Barnet Bees, I read that the new goalie making his debut that day was Israeli. With this knowledge, I took a closer look at his name. Listed as "Kadoch", I wondered how this would be spelt in Hebrew, a language with no letter making the normal "ch" sound. The closest sound in Hebrew is "sh", a sound formed by the letter "shin" in the alephbet, the Hebrew alphabet, is "sh". Does this mean his name in the original is Kadosh, meaning holy? A quick check on Wikipedia later, and my suspicions were confirmed. Barnet FC has indeed signed a holy keeper!




So how has this impacted on the team's performance? Unfortunately, 8 straight losses in those first 8 games (including that debut in a friendly against Leeds) would suggest that divine intervention may be required to turn around the team's fortunes. And so to prayer: Every Saturday, some 3 and a half hours before kick-off, as the central Amidah prayer reaches its crescendo, Jews in synagogues around the world chant "Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh"...



http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/b/barnet/7582882.stm