Egypt is in party mode - on Thursday night the Egyptian soccer time beat Italy - the World Cup Champions as Egyptians now constantly remind you - 1-0. I didn't watch the match but from my hotel room on the 7th floor I could hear the collective ooohs, aaahs, sighs of relief, screams of joy and polite clapping through out the match. When the goal was scored, one of the older guys who works at the hostel and whom I have never seen walk at more than a snails pace was running laps around the hostel shouting Allahu akbar, allahu akbar (God is great, God is great) When the match finally finished and the tension all of Egypt was feeling could finally be released, the streets were filled with noise horn tooting, screaming, singing, clapping and general merry making. (It is the only noise louder than the badly amplified call to prayer that echoes from the seemingly sixty mosques all within a stone's throw of the hotel that appear to be in competition with each other) The celebrations went on all night - Cairo is almost a completely nocturnal city, nothing opens in the morning unti 10 or 11, and nothing shuts until well after midnight, even on school nights.
As I wander the streets in Cairo more people than usual think I am an Italian (which makes me laugh as it reminds me of the time somebody called me a dirty wog when I was playing junior football) I simply don't nose why !! They seem keen for a chance to rub salt in the wound for the Italians, and when I tell them I am Australian they smile broadly, ask me if I saw the game, and proceed to tell me about the triumph regardless of my answer. Today during lunch the TV was on in the restaurant and in the space of twenty minutes I saw the goal replayed at least one hundred times from every possible angle, and then the celebrations at the end of the game, followed by some players being interviewed. I can't understand a word of what they are saying, but then it is sport so you don't really have to.
The amount of interest in football throughout my African journey continues to surprise and perplex me - and in Egypt it is three fold. In all the other African countries I have been through there is no real interest in the domestic league, and whilst every now and then the national team will have some success, the real interest lies in European football leagues. In Egypt there is this interest in European football, and in the national league (I watched the final earlier this month and the streets were full of supporters after the final) and in the national team - the Egyptians are two time African champions - and have now beaten the Italians !!!
Tomorrow night the last game is against the Americans, a victory that one suspects despite a local guy telling me about how much Egyptians love America, would be cherished even more.
A travel blog for the thinking clown who has drunk a little too much of the local tap water
Showing posts with label football. Show all posts
Showing posts with label football. Show all posts
Futbol a la Mexicana
So enough of the touch feely metrosexual stuff - on Tuesday night I headed off to Stadium Jalisco to watch the local team Atlas play against a south american team in the Copa de Libertadores.
The game didn't start until around 9.20 and it was a warm pleasant evening, the only negative beng the stadium was only half full. As we made our way to the stadium together with the throng of fellow attendees almost all dressed in the red and black of Atlas we passed various food stands - mainly tacos, each with its particularly pungent aroma of meat frying in its own fat wafting through the crowd- and it reminded me how sterile the same scene would be in Australia.
After a tense first 30 minutes, the beer man arrived - more accurately, we hollered for the beer man and he arrived. Where else in the world can you go to a stadium and have people bring around ice cold beer - (I started to thing of the business opportunities for the MCG) Further, and perhaps more importantly, after the beerman expertly poured each of our two beers in to a large plastic cup - he charged us five bucks each.
The lack of a screen meant that the fullest attention had to be paid to all the action, and whether it is the size of the pitch or the size of the stadium I did feel much closer to the action. After Atlas scored the crowd started to get revved up a little, but it still would have been outdone by a decent MCG throng. However in the second half things got a little more interesting, the visitors scored an equaliser and you could hear a pin drop in the stadium. After not too long Atlas scored again and the crowd regained its voice, every one was on their feet, horns played at full volume came out of who knows where and there. There was so much excitement that a message came over the loud speaker saying soething along the lines of
This didn't bother the fans as the song was blasting over the loud speaker, despite the 2-2 result Atlas had won (thanks to an earlier away victory) and would advance to the next round.
As real football is my only point of comparison, one of the key things I noticed was that the small amount of scoring in soccer diminishes the opportunity of the crowd to participate in the game - rather than smart arse comments and the relief and excitement a long bomb from outside 50 generates, there is more of a general signing and ooohinng and ahhing going on. (Or maybe my primitive Spanish meant I missed the cleverness of the songs)
Next time we will be heading to Stadium Azteca in Mexico City for a sellout. The stadium holds 110,000 fans, and no doubt plenty of beermen too.
Thanks to Emery, Javier and Raul for another true tapatio experience
The game didn't start until around 9.20 and it was a warm pleasant evening, the only negative beng the stadium was only half full. As we made our way to the stadium together with the throng of fellow attendees almost all dressed in the red and black of Atlas we passed various food stands - mainly tacos, each with its particularly pungent aroma of meat frying in its own fat wafting through the crowd- and it reminded me how sterile the same scene would be in Australia.
After a tense first 30 minutes, the beer man arrived - more accurately, we hollered for the beer man and he arrived. Where else in the world can you go to a stadium and have people bring around ice cold beer - (I started to thing of the business opportunities for the MCG) Further, and perhaps more importantly, after the beerman expertly poured each of our two beers in to a large plastic cup - he charged us five bucks each.
The lack of a screen meant that the fullest attention had to be paid to all the action, and whether it is the size of the pitch or the size of the stadium I did feel much closer to the action. After Atlas scored the crowd started to get revved up a little, but it still would have been outdone by a decent MCG throng. However in the second half things got a little more interesting, the visitors scored an equaliser and you could hear a pin drop in the stadium. After not too long Atlas scored again and the crowd regained its voice, every one was on their feet, horns played at full volume came out of who knows where and there. There was so much excitement that a message came over the loud speaker saying soething along the lines of
Being in the upper tier myself, and being aware of the Hecho en Mexico reputation I was a little concerned. In the last minutes the visitors scored again, after a free kick, which itself had resulted in a fair bit of fisty cuffs. The crowd fell silent again, the tension rose, and everyone was glued to the attempts by Atlas to try and score in the remaining few minutes. The game then descended in to hand to hand combat - as players from both sides seemed to be picking each other off behind play. (But as usual in soccer all contact is exaggerated so there was no real damage) So the game ended with the referee surrounded by players from both sides and the cops trying to pull everyone apart.
Patrons are reminded that for there own safety those in the upper tiers should not jump up and down
This didn't bother the fans as the song was blasting over the loud speaker, despite the 2-2 result Atlas had won (thanks to an earlier away victory) and would advance to the next round.
As real football is my only point of comparison, one of the key things I noticed was that the small amount of scoring in soccer diminishes the opportunity of the crowd to participate in the game - rather than smart arse comments and the relief and excitement a long bomb from outside 50 generates, there is more of a general signing and ooohinng and ahhing going on. (Or maybe my primitive Spanish meant I missed the cleverness of the songs)
Next time we will be heading to Stadium Azteca in Mexico City for a sellout. The stadium holds 110,000 fans, and no doubt plenty of beermen too.
Thanks to Emery, Javier and Raul for another true tapatio experience
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