Football (Soccer)

This week and next, Kigali hosts the African Youth Football tournament. They have 8 teams playing in 2 pools this week to seed the elimination bracket for next week. This past Sunday I went to Amahoro (Peace) Stadium where upwards of 30,000 fans cheered Rwanda to a 2-1 victory over Mali followed by a 1-1 tie between Ghana and Cameroon.

A note: Amahoro Stadium was the site where UNAMIR (the UN "peacekeeping" force that witnessed the genocide in Rwanda) was housed in 1994. It has been updated recently and is a great place to see an event. The area under the overhang has proper seats and a cordoned off spot for VIPs. The other 3/4 of the stadium are rows of concrete benches with marked seat numbers that apparently don't mean anything.

As I wasn't sure how to go about getting a ticket and felt it might be a little ambitious to go it alone, I made a deal with Raymond-one of the guys at the Iris hotel who I has been teaching me Kinyarwanda in exchange for my teaching English. I asked him about the details and he suggested it would be best if I didn't go by myself. I promised to buy his ticket if he would come with me. I'm glad I made that deal! As we arrived about 30 minutes before the match there were probably 500 people trying to buy tickets at the gates to the stadium, but there were only 4 people selling tickets. It was a small mob scene with a lot of pushing and shoving accompanied by some who were jumping the fence and making a dash for the stadium. Some made it, but the ones who were caught received a whip of a baton from the National Police before being thrown back outside the fence. I stood back a ways and watched the scene unfold as Raymond disappeared into the crowd. Just after the game started, Raymond came up to me from a different direction having secured tickets. I don't know how... He then had to sweet talk the security staff/ushers within the stadium to let us in to the clearly overcrowded seating area. It took 4 tries, but he was able to get us in. We found ourselves sitting opposite the VIP area. There were no concessions, but there were some entrepreneurial kids selling bottles of water in the stands. I couldn't see any other Mizunga (White people) sitting in our area, but I felt more out of place because it was a football/soccer match and I don't know much about it. Afterwards, I took Raymond out for beer and pizza at a restaurant near our hotel called the New Cactus. It was a great day. I could even become a football fan.

Rwanda played Cameroon to a draw on Wednesday and then lost 2-0 to Ghana today. I'm not sure what that means in terms of Rwanda's chance at making it to the championship, but I figure it can't be good to be 1-1-1 in a pool of 4 teams. Anyway, I am beginning to understand why most of the world are crazy for football/soccer. However, I still think American Football is a better spectator sport!