Yesterday, I went to my first international football match. (Internationally, it is called football, not soccer- to all of you Americans out there.) It was Gambia vs Algeria. The day before the match, I had gotten to see the Algerian team arrive at their hotel. It was right across the street from the UN building and I got stopped on my way home by a police entourage protecting the Algerians until they were safely in the hotel.
I skipped out of work a couple of hours early to go to the game along with a few thousand other people. Actually, a lot of people didn't have to skip because a lot of employers gave their employees a half day in honor of the game. The place was pretty packed.
At games here, there are still people selling food in the stands, but its very gambian appropriate. Cashews, bags of frozen juice, bags of water, cans of coke, sour milk and coos... And the vendors are mostly women with the goods on their heads and babies on their backs.
Lined up before the game for the national anthems.
The teams taking the field.
This guy was wearing a Gambian flag themed outfit and was a combination of cheerleader and self-appointed usher.
Playing the game...
We had pretty good seats. A little less than $4 gets you a seat in the shade. I'm really glad we had the expensive seats- way better than frying in the sun. And we had a good view as long as most people stayed sitting down.
The game was fun. Gambia didn't play very well and broke their tradition of "never losing a home game" according to a guy at work. They were defeated 2-1. Afterwards, it was interesting to see the Gambians attitude of team loyalty. It could be summed up as a 'never root for the loser' philosophy. Walking out of the stadium, you'd think that 75% of people had come to root for Algeria. I'm still a Gambia fan, but if I ever get the opportunity to watch them play again, I hope they do a little better.
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