If you know me then you know that I follow sports exactly once every four years. Therefore each day of the world cup is especially precious. I was originally concerned that I would have a hard time catching the matches in Ghana. That was a silly assumption that gave Ghana exactly no credit for being a football nation. Ghana showed up in this and the last world cup as a serious competitor and every single person in this country is behind the team. Every restaurant, store, and outdoor bar built into a little shack had at least one tv for playing the games, so I never missed anything.
We arrived in Ghana the morning of the Ghana-USA matchup. There was no confusion of allegiances, but I have to say that I would have missed out on a great experience had the US pulled through. We missed the first few minutes of the game as we were on our way to dinner, but we knew that Ghana had scored early because the streets erupted with firecrackers, vuvuzuelas, and other inordinately loud noises. It was crushing to see Gyan score in extra time but right away Ghana had a new hero and I think we were all secretly pretty happy to be part of the excitement.
Even though it was our first night and we were all severely jetlagged we knew it would be a crime not to take part in the street celebrations following Ghana's victories. We had no idea where to go so we just followed the crowds of people. In impromptu victory party in an outdoor market area became our destination. I've never been involved in a street celebration like this one. It seemed like every single Ghanaian, no matter what age, was running and whooping down the street or dancing. A pack of rowdy little kids parading through the street actually picked me and a few other people up and started tossing us up and down and carrying us off down the street with them. Lots of people made sure to apologize to us and congratulate the US team before tossing us around or dancing with us.
The infamous Ghana-Uruguay quarterfinal was even more spectacular. We all watched on Friday night at a large outdoor bar complex called Epo's. There were hundreds and hundreds of people outside watching on six or seven large screens. I took a video of the celebration during halftime following Muntari's amazing goal in the 47th minute, which I'll try to upload.
As you probably know, a Uruguayan player denied a sure goal in the last moments of added time with a handball in the net. When Gyan missed the penalty kick that should have ended the game, the entire crowd was dead silent. By that point Ghana was the last African team in the first world cup on African soil, and everybody felt strongly that Ghana was responsible for the aspirations of the entire continent. Going into penalty kicks there was a generally bad feeling in the air. I have to hand it to the Ghanaians that after the loss everybody more or less shrugged it off and drifted home. I was originally concerned that if they took the loss as seriously as they had taken the last win, there would be rioting.
Of course, that didn't discourage the press and every citizen of Ghana to vilify the Uruguayan team and handballer Luis Suarez for weeks to come. I saved a newspaper clipping the next day showing Suarez with devil horns engulfed in fire and the caption "Suarez the dream-killer." The Dutch became the immediate favorite as they were slated to play Uruguay in the semifinals and everybody was very gratified to watch the Netherlands knock out the Uruguayans.
For my own part, I've played more soccer here than I have since I pretended to play right forward on my middle school's modified team. We all got free balls as a promotion with the cell phones we bought and we play most days in the courtyard between our buildings. It's pretty much the only exercise I get here. Lately some Ghanaian kids who live across the street have been showing up to play with us. Unsurprisingly they are a lot better than most of us despite being about 10 years old. Unfortunately the courtyard soccer matches have so far resulted in the destruction of two fluorescent lights and, as of yesterday, a breached electric fence. We have been informed by our CRA, who doesn't like us, that the next time something breaks soccer will be banned in the courtyard, but I don't think we're too worried about it.
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