Football

When you see this word what do you think of?  Is it a bunch of padded gargantuan men tossing a lemon shaped brown ball back and forth?  The rest of the world thinks of a handful of people kicking a round ball up and down a field attempting to kick it into a goal.  This is what everyone is talking and thinking here in Ghana now the world cup has begun.  Everything is revolving around when Ghana is playing their next match.  It has gotten as serious as the power being out for days in order make sure there is enough energy saved to power the entire country during the matches in which Ghana is playing. 

Four years ago the World Cup was hosted in South Africa and Ghana and the United States played each other.  In this match the Ghanaians defeated the United States as they had four years in the previous world cup.  Ghanaians are very superstitious about the number three and everyone would state the same thing “if the Ghanains won for the third time then they would be able to beat the US forever, but they were more likely to lose.”  However, when the match got closer Ghanaian pride took over and everyone was predicting for the US to lose.  When asking our class for predictions of the score it was not uncommon to hear “Ghana – 4, US – 0” 

As it turns out Ghana is a very fast team but the US had great defense and were able to pull out with a win and a score of 2-1.  We were all a bit weary of backlash due to the unfavorable loss, but everyone has been very cordial.  A common phrase used is “we are all one” and that can been seen in their sportsman like behavior.

An interesting cultural side note we realized through the World Cup is of continent pride.  Nowhere else in this world does this take place.  No Europeans ever talk about being Europe but as from their specific country.  This can also be seen from Asians and from all the many countries in North and South America.  While speaking many languages and having different backgrounds there is a common link of being from Africa.  Africans support Africans not based on country or language.  We are also commonly asked, “Have you ever been to Africa before?”  They view the continent as a whole, and local advertisements flaunt there are five teams from Africa playing in the world cup and everyone should support all of them. 

It has been a once in a lifetime experience to be able to see this side of Ghana.  It is exciting and we will all be cheering for Ghana as they play their next match against Portugal later this week.  It looks like they will need a crazy chain of events to advance on but we are still proud to be here and supporting the Black Stars.