LARKSPUR, Calif. -- Real Marin Soccer Club --home-based in Larkspur, and many times champions of the Mayflower and Marin Soccer Leagues—hosted a visiting Israeli Peace Team last night, in an international "friendly" game, at the Redwood High School artificial turf soccer field, Larkspur.
The Israeli Peace Team is an over-35-years-of-age all-star team comprised of former professional soccer players, some veterans whom have competed on Israel's national soccer team. Team-mates on the Peace Team are in the midst of a tour of the United States, bringing a message of peace through sport's most beautiful game: soccer. And they put their commitment to peaceful resolution of conflict on the line and on the soccer pitch: they comprise a fabric woven together from Israelis whom profess Islam, Christianity and the Druse faith, as well as Judaism.
Prominent player in the team is Israeli - Arab Rifaat "Jimmy" Turk, former professional football player, manager and a former deputy mayor of Tel Aviv. Turk was the first Arab to play for the Israel national team and to represent the country at the Olympic Games.
Hosting the Peace Team is a somewhat more "seasoned" group from Real Marin Soccer Club: players mostly in their 40s and 50s, many of whom played at Cal, USF and Stanford, some from smaller college programs, but all of whom have excelled in adult amateur soccer's highest level, even winning age-group national championships with Real Marin at the annual Veterans Cup competition, during tournaments held in North Carolina, Washington State and Massachusetts.
Real Marin --which takes its inspirational "nom de guerre" from the famous Spanish club, FC Real Madrid-- was established in 1962 in San Rafael. The club's founding fathers, some of whom still compete with the club's "masters" over-60 team, were drawn from the ranks of local soccer enthusiasts and immigrants from the U.S. Midwest and East Coast, as well as Mexico, Latin America, Germany and the U.K. At one point the club had so many Nordic players they were known among league opponents simply as, "the Germans" (rather than as Real Marin.)
The club currently sponsors six adult teams in the Marin Soccer League, playing competitive games on Saturdays and Sundays at fields throughout Marin County. Current players on Real Marin teams' rosters hail from throughout the county, as well as across the U.S. and countries around the globe, including: Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, England, Egypt, France, Germany, Greece, Holland, Hungary, Iran, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Libya, Macedonia, Mexico, Norway, Poland, Scotland, Sweden and Turkey. In addition to its Veterans Cup successes, Real Marin SC has won championships and reached the finals at tournaments in Las Vegas, Palo Alto, Puerto Vallarta, San Diego, Santa Barbara, Reno and Ventura. This past season Real Marin entries won the Marin Soccer League's 40+ and Mayflower (50+) divisions. The club's own international "friendly" expeditions have taken them on tours playing against masters teams in Austria, Czech Republic, Germany and Italy.